Paappan review: Not just for Suresh Gopi fans, but for everyone who likes murder mysteries

Neetha Pillai as ACP Vincy Abraham in 'Paappan', streaming on Zee5. (Screen grab)

ACP Vincy Abraham arrives at the murder scene where media is swarming already. The forensics team is there, and the cops have detained the four lads who discovered the bloody body in a sack hanging from a tree.

Has the superstar Ravi been killed? Where is his driver? Has the driver murdered the star and run away? Media speculates so much, the cops haven't even begun to investigate. When the fire brigade brings the body down, the cops allow a woman and a man through the yellow crime scene tape. Before the ACP can say take the body to the hospital (where they usually identify bodies), the woman (now teary) and the man say, 'This is not the superstar, it's his driver!'

I reach out for some coffee. This is highly unusual. The forensics guy has figured out that one of the three sets of fingerprints they picked up off the scene belong to a woman. Years of watching Law & Order has made us all experts, and this was less believable than a heart flying through the air and fitting into the patient we have seen in the movies... Thankfully, we have a raising of tension when we realise that Suresh Gopi is Abraham Mathew Mathan or Paappan, dad to ACP Vincy Abraham, and he's a disgraced cop. Vincy Abraham does not like her dad and does not like her boss asking her dad to be consultant on the case.

Neetha Pillai plays the ACP rather well and I liked how she's shown to be stern when she overhears a woman being described in not-so-nice terms and reprimands the cop to not forget that he's an officer. She's married to an actor and a stage performer and what we see between the two makes you believe that cops can be human too and have a cool personal life. Thankfully there are no song and dance numbers interfering with the narrative. Speaking of music, the minimal use of background music is such a relief from what we see on OTT as well as the big screen.

Director Joshiy and writer RJ Shaan know how this genre works. You just have to bite your lip when completely illogical events occur in the movie. And there are rather odd occurrences in the narrative. But you're mostly involved and that's a good thing. The serial killer Chacko uses a really lethal looking double knife (which looks like a trident without the third pointy part. But he's just come out of prison, so what is the connection between the brutal murders.

As the body count grows, we realise that both ACP Vincy Abraham and her father are working differently. We begin to get inside the killer's head. The trouble with this film though is how long it takes to come to its senses and tell us who and why carried out a string of murders.

Thankfully father and daughter begin to work with one another, and we think that this story is going to turn out to be interesting. But we are nagged by a question that Vincy asks: Did you kill your wife? But the father is stubborn, he will not explain past actions. And as the film moves ahead, you wish they had spoken with one another which would have helped them solve the case faster.

A very interesting father and son relationship shows up: Michael and Paappan. At first when shopkeepers remark how like his father Michael looks, Michael scoffs. But Paappan is clever, and we see how he has wrapped his son around his little finger as he makes Michael do things for him.

Vincy, on the other hand, is trying to solve the case with the help of evidence and things seem to go from bad to worse. Among the worst cinematic moments shows up when a young couple decide to take a selfie. You will ask: why are they taking a selfie with a garbage dump as background?

These moments bring the movie down, but the story proceeds rapidly, and you don't have time to mull over these glitchy parts. The story moves quite smoothly from the past to the present and back to the past because there are similar murders. The twists in the plot begin to wear you down because at one point you don't know what Michael is doing and why.

(Vikram Rona has also released on Zee5.)

I liked this movie because even the far-fetched strings are tied up quite neatly. All I can say is that the last fight between Suresh Gopi and the real villain is really heart-in-mouth. And his final comment about choosing duty or family sums up the story really well. Happy watching!