Film Review & Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
The film, which is the first production venture of director Priyadarshan's 'Four Frames'. The story was written by Shri Ganesh
Starring Shane Nigam and Shine Tom Chacko, the film promises to take the audience on a thrilling journey against the backdrop of a pandemic-stricken city.
The plot centers around the theft of the service pistol of a young SI, who later goes on to commit a series of murders and robberies in the city.
Actor Siddique, who plays a retired police officer who had to face a lot of legal backlash after his superiors filed an encounter case against him, does a stellar job with his impeccable acting skills.
A service revolver, which goes missing, is the beginning of everything in Priyadarshan's Corona Papers. Initially, it would appear to be a minor hiccup for rookie cop Rahul (Shane Nigam) in his early days of service. But, we soon learn that this revolver is the centerpiece of the script, which ties in to almost every other significant event, including a bank robbery and a few murders.
Shane, Shine and Lal give some breathless moments to the audience with some interesting stunt sequences. Yet, the film fails to engage as the characters lack depth.
On a sunny afternoon, newly inducted SI Rahul of Kerala Police misses his official gun in a crowded bus. Instead of reporting it to the authorities, his superiors and he himself decide to nab the culprit. Little did he know that the discovery of the gun would invite him to commit a series of crimes fueled by vengeance, greed and betrayal.
After the epic failure of Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Singham, Priyadarshan has chosen to do a straight thriller, without any of the usual frills that would be associated with his films. Like many of his works in Hindi and Malayalam in recent years, the idea of Corona Papers is also based on another film -
Inspired by Akira Kurasawa's gritty suspense thriller Stray Dog made in 1949, filmmaker Priyadarshan is here with a police drama set in the times of COVID-19.
Borrowed from the 2017 Tamil film 8 Thottakkal, written and directed by Sri Ganesh, who is given a writing credit in this film. The basic premise of the revolver missing in that film was in turn borrowed from Akira Kurasova's stray dog.
If the former is set against the backdrop of the desperate social conditions of post-pandemic Japan, the latter tries to trace the socio-economic conditions in the post-pandemic era. The film appears to take place during 'normal times' apart from a few things like masks, PPE kits and sanitization spray.