Synopsis of this review - While the overall movie is visually stunning and seems promising in the beginning with a lot of scientific jargon thrown in good measure, you have a feeling at the end of the movie that many of the scenes are forced and the script writers are found lacking in terms of the premises they chose (the movie would have still made sense without the OCD part), the way they force scenes onto you just to make their job easier and a lack of logic throughout.
Some of the questions I was left pondering over at the end of the movie:
1) Why OCD?
Having watched films like 'North 24 Kaatham' and 'Hey Jude' just to mention a couple of them in Malayalam, this movie really doesn't require that premise to carry the story forward. It was probably used to confuse the viewers, but at the end of the day an air marshal would find it difficult to operate if he had OCD. It is very likely that the rigorous screening to get into such a job would filter out such people, whether you like it or not. You don't need to have OCD to be a good sketch artist or an air marshal. On the contrary, you would expect people with OCD have a tough time concentrating, among many other shortcomings, for doing such a job. Being a perfectionist is different from having OCD. If this was done to get the viewers to sympathise with Haran, I would say he didn't need.
2) Writers resort to a form of 'deus ex machina' or a form of 'plot convenience'?
A) The antagonist randomly gets to live in the same building as the antagonist and the protagonist then gets assigned for no obvious reason to sketch in a police investigation in front of the antagonist. Would have made a lot more sense if this was all planned by either one of them.
B) How was it that all the witnesses were on the same flight without neither the police nor the army knowing?
C) How could the antagonist be sure that the plane would crash for sure, and even if it did, that all the witnesses would die especially on the ground? Blackmailing one of the pilots would have made more sense.
D) Mentioning during one of the most important scenes that the projected super villain is not the real one in just one dialogue.
E) This is a sensitive topic, and even the supervillain had doubts with this. Would the threat of posting explicit videos of a family member drive people to commit to such extreme obedience? This seems like it is from the 80s 90s era. It can still happen now, but you can't be sure.
F) Alisha being hit by a truck randomly?
G) Hard drive corrupted because Allen was in the XRay room? Too convenient?
3) Logical failures?
A) Why did Alisha think that Haran was trying to kill her? She clearly saw the molester blackmailing the ATCO before Haran burnt down the warehouse.
B) Why did Haran draw his own portrait the first time? Allen was smoking in a corner and not looking at the sketch. Haran could have easily modified the sketch to look like someone else. I understand that it was a revelation to himself that Alisha was a witness, but still could have managed to pull this off being as smart as he is.
C) After Haran manages to run Allen off the road into a cliff during the car chase, he seems to be not looking at the road and then when he looks back holds his arm covering his head as if to suggest an impending collision. But later it is shown that he walks out of his car to check on Allen and he gets shot right in his chest which looks lethal with blood splattering. A couple of scenes/days later Haran is shown perfectly alright.
D) If it was that easy for Allen to adopt a new identity and vanish into thin air, why go to all this trouble?
E) Haran being such a great sketch artist should have got Alisha to describe the face of the ATCO and sketched it himself and let someone else match it with the passengers rather than letting her figure it out knowing that she has problems with just that.
4) Random musings/Loose threads?
A) What was Haran planning to do by picking the lock of the apartment Alisha was living in? Does not show any clear motive.
B) I'm not entirely sure about this and I'll give the benefit of doubt to the writers. But if Allen spoke to Alisha when he came to pick her up assuming she would think he is Haran because he was disguised as Haran, I'm sure Alisha should have been able to differentiate them with their voice. If this scene is not in the movie it could have been used to elevate the movie by portraying that she is in doubt.
C) What was the chain that Allen handed over to Mandira Bedi and what was their relationship?
D) Why the fascination with r*pe videos used as tools to control people?
E) Why cut short the narrative of Alisha having mistaken Allen for Haran (which would have made the film's title 'Identity' a lot more sensible) so easily in a few scenes? Starting the movie with mistaken identities and then finally setting them right would have made the movie superlative.
Conclusion - I only went to the trouble of writing this long review because I saw potential. I would like to end by quoting Ranga Annan - 'Shradhikkanam Ambane!'.
Some of the questions I was left pondering over at the end of the movie:
1) Why OCD?
Having watched films like 'North 24 Kaatham' and 'Hey Jude' just to mention a couple of them in Malayalam, this movie really doesn't require that premise to carry the story forward. It was probably used to confuse the viewers, but at the end of the day an air marshal would find it difficult to operate if he had OCD. It is very likely that the rigorous screening to get into such a job would filter out such people, whether you like it or not. You don't need to have OCD to be a good sketch artist or an air marshal. On the contrary, you would expect people with OCD have a tough time concentrating, among many other shortcomings, for doing such a job. Being a perfectionist is different from having OCD. If this was done to get the viewers to sympathise with Haran, I would say he didn't need.
2) Writers resort to a form of 'deus ex machina' or a form of 'plot convenience'?
A) The antagonist randomly gets to live in the same building as the antagonist and the protagonist then gets assigned for no obvious reason to sketch in a police investigation in front of the antagonist. Would have made a lot more sense if this was all planned by either one of them.
B) How was it that all the witnesses were on the same flight without neither the police nor the army knowing?
C) How could the antagonist be sure that the plane would crash for sure, and even if it did, that all the witnesses would die especially on the ground? Blackmailing one of the pilots would have made more sense.
D) Mentioning during one of the most important scenes that the projected super villain is not the real one in just one dialogue.
E) This is a sensitive topic, and even the supervillain had doubts with this. Would the threat of posting explicit videos of a family member drive people to commit to such extreme obedience? This seems like it is from the 80s 90s era. It can still happen now, but you can't be sure.
F) Alisha being hit by a truck randomly?
G) Hard drive corrupted because Allen was in the XRay room? Too convenient?
3) Logical failures?
A) Why did Alisha think that Haran was trying to kill her? She clearly saw the molester blackmailing the ATCO before Haran burnt down the warehouse.
B) Why did Haran draw his own portrait the first time? Allen was smoking in a corner and not looking at the sketch. Haran could have easily modified the sketch to look like someone else. I understand that it was a revelation to himself that Alisha was a witness, but still could have managed to pull this off being as smart as he is.
C) After Haran manages to run Allen off the road into a cliff during the car chase, he seems to be not looking at the road and then when he looks back holds his arm covering his head as if to suggest an impending collision. But later it is shown that he walks out of his car to check on Allen and he gets shot right in his chest which looks lethal with blood splattering. A couple of scenes/days later Haran is shown perfectly alright.
D) If it was that easy for Allen to adopt a new identity and vanish into thin air, why go to all this trouble?
E) Haran being such a great sketch artist should have got Alisha to describe the face of the ATCO and sketched it himself and let someone else match it with the passengers rather than letting her figure it out knowing that she has problems with just that.
4) Random musings/Loose threads?
A) What was Haran planning to do by picking the lock of the apartment Alisha was living in? Does not show any clear motive.
B) I'm not entirely sure about this and I'll give the benefit of doubt to the writers. But if Allen spoke to Alisha when he came to pick her up assuming she would think he is Haran because he was disguised as Haran, I'm sure Alisha should have been able to differentiate them with their voice. If this scene is not in the movie it could have been used to elevate the movie by portraying that she is in doubt.
C) What was the chain that Allen handed over to Mandira Bedi and what was their relationship?
D) Why the fascination with r*pe videos used as tools to control people?
E) Why cut short the narrative of Alisha having mistaken Allen for Haran (which would have made the film's title 'Identity' a lot more sensible) so easily in a few scenes? Starting the movie with mistaken identities and then finally setting them right would have made the movie superlative.
Conclusion - I only went to the trouble of writing this long review because I saw potential. I would like to end by quoting Ranga Annan - 'Shradhikkanam Ambane!'.