Despite arriving on a wave of immense anticipation, director Jeethu Joseph’s Mirage, featuring Asif Ali and Aparna Balamurali in the lead roles, failed to meet expectations and ended up receiving only mixed to negative responses. The most criticised aspect was the crime thriller’s writing, marred by too many ineffectual plot twists, a sentiment many viewers shared. The audience’s disappointment was amplified by the fact that it came from Jeethu Joseph, known for crafting impressive edge-of-the-seat thrillers such as Drishyam, Memories, Drishyam 2, and Detective.
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Now, the writer-director himself has reacted to Mirage’s underwhelming response, sharing his thoughts on what might have gone wrong with the film. Revealing that producer Manoj Khatri was the one who brought the subject to him, Jeethu shares during an exclusive interview with SCREEN, “He had been following me with it for five years. We were supposed to do it in Bollywood. But when that didn’t happen, he got very disappointed. So I brought it and did it here in Malayalam, as at some point in the journey, I gave him my word that I would do it. I was under a lot of pressure since I had to accommodate multiple projects, including Mirage, simultaneously. And maybe… maybe it’s a wrong decision, I don’t know.” Based on a story by Aparna R Tarakad, Mirage’s screenplay and dialogues were jointly penned by Srinivas Abrol and Jeethu.
When asked if something went wrong with Mirage, he shares, “Maybe. There are many reasons for that. Maybe the main reason is myself. When my film comes out, there’s a certain level of expectation among people. Some said the movie, particularly some suspense elements, was predictable. The film, however, opened to mixed opinions. Some reviews were positive, and some were negative. The latter lot mentioned predictability as the reason.”
He continues, “Whenever my films release, many have told me they eagerly wait to figure out the twists themselves. So I advise them, ‘Why don’t you just watch the film as a film first?’ When it comes to Mirage, there are only four or five main characters. So, as soon as they see them, some will start speculating: ‘Oh, this character is going to change and turn out to be different from how they’re depicted now.’ If you take these few characters and start making deductions, one of your predictions might eventually turn out to be right. If you watch it that way, it will seem that way.”
Watch SCREEN’s exclusive interview with Jeethu Joseph here:
Revealing that, for him, the biggest draw to the subject was the mirage effect, Jeethu adds, “The characterisations and happenings justified that title 100 per cent. I was concentrating on that area. That’s why every character underwent a change, and all those became ‘twists.’ Some said there were too many twists. But the film concentrated on that particular area, you see? That mirage effect. Take the character of SP Aarumugam (Sampath Raj), for instance. Everyone initially thought he was a negative person, but he turned out to be a good man. Throughout the movie, it had that mirage theme at its core — people being two-faced or having a second personality.”
Jeethu also shares that he had warned the producers beforehand that there was a risk factor in Mirage, while expressing happiness that the movie has received at least “a mixed opinion.” He adds, “Some people liked it, and some didn’t. So we are happy, actually.” Besides Asif, Aparna and Sampath, Mirage also features Hakim Shahjahan, Hannah Reji Koshy and Deepak Parambol in key roles.
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