Mirage
Introduction
At the end of the Malayalam film Mirage, there is this finale twist that works well in isolation. But in hindsight, it is clear that Jeethu Joseph has written this twist first and reverse engineered the whole screenplay around it. It is almost like writing all the answers in an exam and later setting the question paper around it. This is because the setup itself is so weak and less threatening that you can’t help but be lost in this maze, or even worse, disconnect yourself from the drama. This is something where a film like Kishkindha Kaandam works beautiful because the setup is ambiguous – you aren’t quite sure on where the writers are taking you with the drama, before a banger of a twist culminates the tail. You don’t even have to look too far away for similar kinds of inspiration – Jeethu Joseph’s own films namely the Drishyam franchise or even Memories, boast of a similar setup wherein there is considerable effort in character-building, so much so that even the twist in integrated in its subtext right in front of your eyes, only to be revealed at the end. But here is the catch with Mirage – if the twists are incorporated for the heck of it, then it leads to complete dissociation from the drama.
Story & Screenplay
Written by Jeethu Joseph, Srinivas Abrol and Aparna Tarakad, the premise of Mirage holds promise, and much of it has to do with its characters. Ashwin Kumar (Asif Ali) likes to project himself as the fearless face of independent journalism, mainly wanting to ask questions to the concerned parties and deliver ‘Pure Facts’ along the way. His investigation around a train accident leads him to Abhirami (Aparna Balamurali), a financial firm employee who has lost her fiance Kiran (Hakkim Shajahan) in the train accident. What seems like a regular accident, eventually is termed as a murder, even as there are talks of a hard drive in play that would potential expose the State of their deeds – in what seems like a major data breach. This is a classic Chekhof’s gun technique in play – but the issue is that the writing is more interested in narrating twists that come out of nowhere, as opposed to twists that may feel organic to the plot.
The title of the film Mirage holds relevance with respect to its characters – given how what they say is mostly only half the truth. So Abhirami is known to conceal a truth, something that is only sporadically revealed. Her friend Hrithika (Hannah Reji Koshy) also has ulterior motives in play, even as the local MLA Rajkumar’s men begin to hunt for the hard drive, along with the SP Arumaghan (Sampath Raj). But herein lies the issue as well. Given this particular pattern of trusting no one, it is hard to invest on any revelations of the characters simply because you begin preempting a twist instead of staying in the moment. The idea of the twist is always to catch you by surprise and not throw you off your game. This, even as the twists seem more forced and increasingly predictable with respect to the plot. And this is where you appreciate a film like The Usual Suspects even more, given how the convoluted nature of the writing did not derail the film in anyway, even as the makers were always in control.
I couldn’t help but think on how convenient the writing gets after a point, wherein crucial pieces of revelation are directly fed to the viewers, as opposed to them stumbling upon the information. In a scene when a character claims that Abhirami’s story seems like a cliched plot of a movie, it resonated with the sentiments that I had with the film. You can see the effort to incorporates traces of Drishyam, with details pertaining to dates that hold significance – but in hindsight, the impact is hollow given how the writers choose to shift the goalpost with the inclusion of multiple twists.
Even as the picture begins to get clearer, the tone of the drama begins to slip – often transitioning from a thriller to a random shootout sequence, while shifting focuses to the fate of the characters. It is kind of silly on how certain plot-points begin to unfold in the drama even as a character tries to impersonate someone while woefully failing in the process. What that also tells you is the reverse engineering in play wherein the goal remained on going from point A to point B in the most obstacle-filled route ever. And with the complete overhaul of the plot at the end, the drama completely fell through outside that one twist which in hindsight seemed from another film. This, while also ending on an abrupt note. It wouldn’t be wrong to call this twisty film – a hot mess, a term that you wouldn’t frequently associate with a Malayalam film.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues lack the punch here wherein even crucial moments of revelation don’t quite hold your attention. The BGM works but only in spurts and jerks while failing to engage with the viewers, for most part of the runtime. Alternately, it would be safe to say that the background score drowned in the overtly twisty nature of the drama while further flattening out the proceedings. The cinematography is decent but also overhauled by the writing to the point that you feel nothing for the characters or their emotions. Ideally, the ultimate revenge angle ought to have brought out raw emotions – but I sat there unmoved and fridgety, which is kind of an irony right there.
The editing pattern is a little choppy given how the drama frequently shifts timelines, but that remained least of the problems of the film. Director Jeethu Joseph returning to his familiar grounds of a thriller misses the mark here. His direction almost gave me an impression that he either wasn’t sure on how much is enough with respect to the twists in the narrative or he wanted to continuously shock the audience with the twists. As a result, the promising characterization took a back seat and all you had was a twist every ten minutes, after which the predictability of the drama kicked in. The direction after that never rings in the chords while completely getting lost in the mirage of the twists.
Performances
The performances are good by most members of the ensemble cast. A couple of performances that are less impressive come from Deepak Parambol as Prakash and Saravanan as Rajkumar, simply because their character sketches reduced them to being caricatures. Arjun Gopan as Ananthu is decent here. Hannah Reji Koshy as Hrithika is pretty solid and instantly makes a mark. Sampath Raj as SP Arumugham is well within himself and his performance comes across as competent. Hakkim Shajahan as Kiran also marginally suffers from an inconsistent character, something that reflects in his performance too. But the duo of Asif Ali and Aparna Balamurali manage to score well as Ashwin and Abhirami. Asif Ali brings his restraint as a performer superbly while mouthing some of the monotonous lines with a sense of ease, and Aparna Balamurali is impressive with her screen presence, even while holding onto the layers of her character really well.
Conclusion
Despite decent performances, Mirage is a twisty mess of a film that gets progressively tiring. The idea of inserting a random twist every ten minutes is what derails the drama while making this one of the most insipid Malayalam films of the year. Available on SonyLiv.