Identity Review: Tovino Thomas-Trisha-Vinay Rai’s Game Of Faces Is Promising

Tovino Thomas, Trisha, Vinay Rai, Aju Varghese, Archana Kavi, and Shammi Thilakan starrer Malayalam film Identity deals with human identities in the context of face recognition and mistaking characters, and also about the dark world of hidden camera crimes. Identity is made with good intentions and cinematic purpose and is successful in delivering a meaningful thriller.

But the movie has its structural problems. Apart from the protagonist and the antagonist, none of the other characters are introduced properly. For that matter, in Identity, in which identity is a major theme, the protagonist (Tovino Thomas as Haran Shankar) and his character are also kept as secret till the climax. This must be serving the movie to deliver more twist punches, but the viewer is unnecessarily taken for a ride for the cinematic experience.

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Identity’s story has taken newer routes and gone to areas where Malayalam films never tried their hands. This experiment comes out as positive and negative for the movie while you watch in a theatre. The positive element is the way the story—an intelligent and clever young man being thrown into scenarios he was never meant to be in and then later becoming a vigilante cum saviour for many while fighting criminals—is treated differently with a lot of information about how humans recognise each other from their facial features.

The negative element is that, in search of a newer approach and presentation, the characters look like machines or robots rather than live humans. What has made this issue a bit more problematic is the ‘cinematic’ approach the director duo decided to adopt, where the characters speak with high bass and not like mere mortals. Another issue is that the viewer might feel the disconnect with the story as the deployment of a non-linear approach happens frequently without much conclusion of an ongoing scene.

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In Identity, it looks like the popular South Indian actress Trisha is wasted on a second Malayalam project. Though her character begins as a promising one, as the movie progresses, Tovino and Vinay’s characters overshadow Alisha, a journalist based out of Bengaluru. On the other hand, Vinay Rai is on his usual terrain and makes a good mark in the progression of the movie.

Timeline verdict: Identity is a well-intentioned thriller but has issues with its execution. After ARM, Tovino helms the show with much ease.

Identity Crew

Direction, Writing: Akhil Paul, Anas Khan
Cinematography: Akhil George
Editor: Chaman Chakko
Music: Jakes Bejoy
Cast: Tovino Thomas, Trisha, Vinay Rai, Aju Varghese, Archana Kavi, and Reba Monica John.