In the blistering heat of Malayalam cinema, thrillers come and go, but Jeethu Joseph's new film Mirage comes with some fairly high hopes, given his track record of spinning a story that'll hook you from start to finish. His films tend to be like cat and mouse games that'll keep you guessing. Think of the way he kept us on the edge in Drishyam or the way it slowly dawned on us what was really going on in Memories - Joseph does know how to weave a complex tale. Now his new one has Asif Ali and Aparna Balamurali in the lead, and to be honest, we're just not sure what it's all about - a story about deception and finding things out, that sort of thing. Released last September 19th 2025 & now streaming on SonyLIV, it describes itself as "fades as you get closer", a nod to mirages that just aren't what they seem at all - a nice touch. The problem is, like the mirages of the desert - that kind of illusion only lasts for so long & in the end Mirage just doesn't deliver.
The plot centres around Abhirami (Aparna Balamurali) a young woman who is reeling from the sudden loss of her fiancé in a weird incident - & the more she digs, the more she teams up with investigative journalist Aswin (Asif Ali) - and it quickly turns into a tangled web of deceit, ulterior motives and crumbling alliances What starts out as a fairly simple search for closure gets turned on its head, as a whole bunch of new revelations come flooding in, each one just peeling back another layer to reveal more smoke & mirrors Co-written by Joseph and Srinivasan Abrol from an idea by Aparna R Tarakad, the screenplay is trying to capture the essence of its title - the elusive truths that just seem to shift whenever you think you've got a handle on them Produced by Naad Studios and E4 Experiments the film is reasonably short but unfortunately its pace flags under the weight of its own over complicatedness
From the very start, Mirage grabs you with its dreamy setup. The way Jomon T. John captures the stark landscapes of Kerala is telling; it's as if he's taking a honest gaze at everyday places, but somehow they still feel really isolated. You get a sense of tension creeping in through Vishnu Shyaml's background score - it's got this perfect balance of ominous beats and beautiful melodies that kind of hint at what's lurking beneath the surface. It all adds up to a pretty compelling start, making it easy to root for Abhirami in her grief and Aswin as he doggedly pursues the truth. Balamurali really shines here, bringing this calm intensity to Abhirami that's incredibly effective. Her eyes just do so much with a single glance - you can see the doubt and determination just swirling around in there, and it makes even the most predictable scenes feel like they're saying something more. Asif Ali does a great job playing Aswin as this reluctant hero who seems to have given up on any hope, but then cracks under the pressure. Hannah Reji Koshy, Hakim Shahjahan & Deepak Parambol add a lot to the story with their supporting turns, but sometimes they just feel like rehashing old familiar ground, which is a shame because it sometimes gives the whole thing a bit of a soap-opera feel.
As the interval twist hits - a pivot that suddenly turns the whole film on its head - the movie's promise starts to get fuzzy. Joseph's real claim to fame is his knack for crafting a clever twist, but in Mirage he doesn't do it one at a time - he fires off a whole barrage of 'em in quick succession, leaving the screen feeling cluttered with false clues. What starts out as a sneaky trick to keep you guessing quickly turns into a slog, with the audience ending up having to keep track of all the plot twists instead of actually being surprised. The obsession with shocking turns of events takes over from telling a coherent story, leaving gaping holes in the plot - loose ends from earlier in the film suddenly crop up again in awkward ways, and characters motivations change as quickly as the wind shifts. Even a key scene, a confrontation at a police station, pokes fun at how ridiculous it all is, with a cringe-worthy line that likens the whole story to a 'cliched movie plot' - it's a bit of self-awareness that's actually kind of impressive, but ultimately can't make up for how fake the whole thing feels.
The over reliance on shock value ends up sucking the emotion out of the story. Abhirami's character arc, which is rich with themes of loss & resilience, gets lost under all the repetitive flashes of her backstory. Meanwhile, Aswin's investigative plot gets to the point where it's just comical in the way it escalates - all that builds up to that pretty silly standoff with a gun, more reminiscent of slapstick comedy than real suspense. The final act just gets more and more confusing as mirage after mirage are piled on top of each other, each 'big reveal' getting undercut by the next one, leaving the true climax to kinda just fizzle out instead of properly erupting. For a director who once revolutionized the art of building a sense of urgency, it's hard to see this as anything but a misstep, as if they just decided to stretch the story to fit in every single idea they had - rather than sticking to a nice tight 90 minute narrative.
But Mirage isn’t without its laughs. In bits, the absurdity is funny—Sampath Raj’s over the top expressions in a key role are almost parody like, hinting at a dark comedy hidden beneath the thriller. Fans of Joseph’s work will get some of his sharper writing and the leads have some nice moments of chemistry amidst the boredom. At an IMDb rating of 6.1 it’s a middling film – watchable once, but won’t stay with you.
Ultimately, Mirage tests the limits of how many illusions a story can sustain before they all break. Jeethu Joseph, the master of some of Malayalam’s best mysteries, delivers a film that’s all smoke and no fire – a mirage in the desert of the genre. For die hard fans of Asif Ali and Aparna Balamurali, it’s a decent detour; for everyone else, it’s a forgettable film that reminds you not all horizons are water.