Corona Papers
Rating: ** ½ (Disney+Hotstar)
The perennially prolific Priyadarshan is back with a story that is not short of breadth.The problem is, this story has already been told three times over. The Japanese genius Akira Kurosawa first told this story of a cop whose service revolver goes missing, in 1949 . More recently Senapathi in Telugu an 8 Thottahal in Tamil went over the same territory.
Now it’s Priyadarshan, and boy, does he have fun with the gun!The missing gun is almost like a pivotal character in Priyan’s film. Which it was not in Kurosawa’s film. The Telugu film took itself too seriously (I haven’t seen the Tamil adaptation).
Having taken the same plot through two other remakes it is commendable to see Priyan tweak the plot to make it more wink-wink. Shane Nigam playing the surly cop who loses his gun is intentionally or unintentionally amusing in his chronically dark mood. He plays the sulking cop Rahul Namibiar as an establishment guy who can see through the hypocrisy and corruption all around, but is too tired to laugh about it.
Another fine actor Shine Tom Chacko is a riot as the anti-social Kaaka Paapi. He is no stranger to goon parts . This time he mixes mirth with menace without going overboard.
The chase for the missing gun is tied to another pivotal character Shankararaman (veteran Siddiqui) a former cop who has gone rogue. Shankararaman’s attempts to wreak revenge on an administration that doesn’t respect his idealism , is at once sad and scary.
It is a pleasure to see Priyan tie these characters together. And what a joy to see Shane Nigam’s Rahul taking order from a female cop Gracy(Sandhya Shetty) who won’t let the angry cop off the hook even when she suspects him to be innocent of any crime.
The chase for the missing gun is constantly engaging. The idea is to simulate a sense of urgency without getting too self-important. In this, Priyan succeeds beyond expectation. Although he has directed more than a hundred films, there is still a fire in the director to tell stories which have a graph and a grip.
Priyadarshan desists from taking shortcuts.While cannibalizing into the original Kurosawa material he creates space for innovations. Although eventually you may feel it was pointless do Stray Dog one more time, you are nonetheless destined to be hooked to the adventures of the man with the missing gun even if you know the outcome.
The travails of an incorruptible government officer when caught on the wrong foot, can never get jaded.
PS. But what’s the film got to do with Corona?
