Mirage

Sometimes, the final moments in a movie suddenly brings its title to mind, making us marvel at the ingenuity of naming it that way. Jeethu Joseph’s Mirage attempts something similar, only that one is left wondering how the titular warning was not fully understood. The final act of the movie is filled with mirages, one scene after another, each of which misleads us into thinking that this is the big reveal, only for the screenwriter to throw another ‘twist’ in the tale at us. After encountering several such mirages, one huffs and puffs to reach the real climax of the film, vowing never to trust any character in a film. In the larger scheme of things, screenwriters Jeethu and Srinivasan Abrol are also seeking a mirage — that of the perfect thriller climax which no one would guess. Red herrings, convoluted stories and obscure incidents tenuously connected to the narrative are thrown at us with this sole aim. That also proves to be the film’s undoing.

It must have been some sort of a cruel in-joke to name the company Ashwin Kumar (Asif Ali) runs ‘Pure Facts’. It’s an online media company based out of Coimbatore, and we listen to Ashwin talk repeatedly about how he doesn’t believe in sensationalism or emotions, believing in a brand of objective journalism that provides pure facts to its viewers. You assume that he’s the stereotypical idealist but there’s always a dissonance between what he says and how he behaves. A few scenes later, after he’s tried to convince us of his ethical ways, he nonchalantly reveals how his modest operation makes money. Without making it sound like blackmail, he says he investigates the inner workings of big corporates and agrees to not reveal them on his platform for a “fee”.