Identity movie review: Tovino Thomas-Trisha Krishnan’s investigative thriller gets lost in a convoluted plot

If someone tells this story IdentificationDirected by Akhil Paul and Anas Khan, chances are that one will get lost in the maze of complex side stories halfway through. It didn’t have to be, because at its core, there’s a fairly interesting and mostly straightforward story that keeps the film going until the interval point.

After that, one can see the pressure on the screenwriter to keep the audience guessing. Because, by the halfway point, we have an idea of ​​almost all the major players and there’s very little left to uncover. This is where the hard work of the writer begins, crafting an elaborate plot to reveal the villain’s true intentions and the hero’s true identity (which is reminiscent of such surprise reveals in many other films). Many of these plots are complex. Solving all the objectives of the many villains in the story will require extreme patience.

The main plot revolves around Alisha (Trisha Krishnan), a key witness to a crime, who is brought to Kerala by Karnataka police officer Alan Jacob (Vinay Rai) as part of the witness protection programme. In the same apartment lives Haran Shankar (Tovino Thomas), a man with unique abilities as a sketch artist, who attempts to help Alisha uncover the killer. But, a condition involving his memory makes it complicated.

Akhil Paul and Anas Khan, who previously made forensicsHave definitely improved their game and raised their ambitions. The larger budget they had was reflected in significantly better production design and impressively staged action set pieces. But beyond the shine on the surface, some of the problems from his previous outings persist here, particularly in relation to this constant need to create surprises. The film takes several convenient turns without explanation, ranging from a major character getting shot and then appearing unharmed in the next scene, to another scene where a chartered plane is headed for a crash and miraculously makes a safe landing. Is.

While less importance was given to heroic elements forensicssome parts appear to be written Identification Just to highlight the hero’s abilities. Tovino adopts harsh body language as one of the character’s hallmarks and presents what is necessary. At the same time, Trisha gets an underwritten character who has no dimension other than the one related to her memory. Mandira Bedi gets a mostly meaningless role, while Vinay Rai gets an extended meaty role.

how’s it going Identification As the ending turns out, the film would have looked better if it had ended on a high note halfway through, instead of working its way through all the tangled subplots. A tight story would have made it a great action film.

Pehchan is currently running in theaters