Cold Case is a 2021 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller horror film directed by Tanu Balak and written by Sreenath V. Nath, that stars Prithviraj Sukumaran and Aditi Balan in the lead roles and also features Pooja Mohanraj, Anil Nedumangad, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, Anand, and Rajesh Hebbar in supporting roles.

The dental implants on the skull, indicate that the victim was a female named Eva Maria, who was from a wealthy family and that her father had left her a fortune before his death.

In September 2020 Prithviraj Sukumaran was reported to play the lead in an investigative thriller film produced by Anto Joseph, and cinematographer Tanu Balak was assigned to helm the project, making his directorial debut.

[12] Stills from the film featuring Prithviraj in a khaki uniform was positively received by fans and the character name was further revealed as ACP M.

[17] But the film was postponed indefinitely, and producers reinstated the decision to release on over-the-top media service as the functioning of theatres were affected due to the second wave of COVID-19.

[18] Anto Joseph officially announced the plans of digital release, with the streaming rights of Cold Case and the Fahadh Faasil-starrer Malik, were sold to Amazon Prime Video.

[26] The Times of India-based critic Anna Mathews gave a rating of 3 out of 5 saying "the film has an innovative story track, with the investigative thriller running on two very different propositions, but in a parallel narrative".

[27] Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute wrote that the screenplay in the first half is "intriguing", but criticised the writing as it had "failed to live up to the ambition of the script" with "the plot becomes less convincing as the film progresses".

"[29] Haricharan Pudipeddi of Hindustan Times called that the film "did take the road less taken with the identity of the murderer", but "the experiment needed a bit more work for the role was poorly written".

[30] Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express gave 1-star rating out of 5 and pointed that the film has "a very conventional premise of a dead person seeking justice from beyond the grave or, in this case, out of a rickety fridge".

[32] Critic Ramya Palisetty of India Today gave 3 out of 5 saying "the film has the right ingredients to keep you on the edge of the seat, but the lazily-written second half tests your patience".

[33] Roktim Rajpal of Deccan Herald rated 1.5 out of 5 and called "the film fails to make an impact due to the lousy execution".

[34] Gauthaman Bhaskaran of News18 called the film as an "extremely amateurish attempt" with a "shoddily-written script that completely wastes Prithviraj's potential, which transformed him into a robotic-run-of the mill man".

[35] Meera Jacob, for the news magazine The Week, gave 3 out of 5 rating and called "the movie does hold the attention of the viewer, particularly during the first half.

"[36] Sajin Srijith of Cinema Express gave 2 out of 5 rating, and said "The film's eagerness to get to the final twist comes at the cost of not-so engaging storytelling".

[39] Arjun Menon of Pinkvilla gave 3 stars out of 5 calling the film as "an old fashioned crime thriller that is designed to evoke the feel of a horror flick and murder mystery simultaneously which does offer a fairly neat premise with little fuzz and great precision in storytelling".

[42] A critic from 123Telugu rated 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated "the film is a poorly articulated whodunnit mystery that fails to hold the attention of the viewers all the way through, despite its interesting set-up".