Faces - Confused faces

Faces 

is a Malayalam psychological thriller... or maybe a psychological confusion thriller would be a better description. The film stars Hanna Reji Koshy in the lead role. I am not sure about the hero's name, but I vaguely remember seeing him in elder brother, younger brother, or NRI groom type roles before. I have been following Hanna ever since I saw her in a Jeethu Joseph movie. I like her performances. For some reason I cannot explain, whenever a brown skinned heroine appears on screen, I tend to like them instantly. That list is quite long for me. But this movie, marketed as a psychological thriller, ends up shooting in all directions and landing somewhere else entirely. So let’s see how the experience was.

According to the story, Nithya gets injured in a small house fire. She suffers a head injury. Now, how exactly a fire accident manages to hit only the head is another question, but let’s move on. Nithya remains in a coma for four days and then regains consciousness. At first everything seems normal. But when she sees a man visiting her room, she grabs his hand affectionately and says, Michael... Michael... you finally came. The doctors and nurses are shocked. They tell her, Nithya, that is not Michael. That is Alex, the compounder. They immediately separate her from him. Apparently, she had been waiting desperately for Michael. The problem is that the man is clearly Alex, not Michael. Nobody, including Nithya herself, understands why she keeps calling him Michael. Then two ward boys enter the room. They also look exactly like Alex. Once again, Nithya points at both of them and calls them Michael.

That is when both the doctor and the audience begin to understand what is happening. Because of the head injury, every man Nithya sees appears to her as Michael. Not just to her, but to us as well. The movie uses CGI to show Michael’s face and body in place of every male character. So it becomes clear that the entire film is being shown from Nithya’s perspective. Nobody knows where the real Michael is, including Nithya. In fact, she does not just forget Michael’s whereabouts. She has completely lost her memory of the accident and the days leading up to it. That section of her mental hard drive has basically become corrupted.

From that point onward, everything we see about Nithya and Michael comes through recovered memories. Certain places, objects, and situations trigger flashbacks. Through those memories we learn that Michael is a painter. Painting was something Nithya loved as a child, but her father's strictness crushed that passion before it could grow. Through Michael, that forgotten interest begins to bloom again. What starts as friendship gradually develops into love, as both the art and the artist become connected in her mind. These flashback sequences are actually presented quite well. They are the good memories of her life.

But then the obvious question appears. If they were so happy together, where did Michael go? Was the accident really an accident, or was it planned? Does Michael even exist? Even if we assume that Nithya somehow killed him, where is the body? Did she dispose of it so perfectly that nobody could find a trace? What is she, Georgekutty?

As viewers, we end up joining Nithya in a permanent state of confusion. Not the state of Kerala, the state of being confused. That is exactly how both Nithya and the audience are treated until the very end. Every male character in the movie, even Nithya’s own father, appears as Michael from her perspective. Naturally, this creates endless confusion. It also explains why Nithya struggles to function normally in social situations. Watching it feels strange for us too.

Still, because the film keeps our attention focused on Nithya, I managed to sit through the entire thing. Some storytelling devices may technically be necessary for a plot, but that does not always mean audiences will accept them easily. Even if it is a film by Christopher Nolan, relying on lookalikes and identity confusion as the foundation for twists can feel a little shaky. The classic with a moustache he is Indhran, without a moustache he is Chandran trick has been around for decades. Here, the movie takes that idea to an extreme because literally every man looks like Michael to Nithya. From a director’s perspective, that is incredibly convenient. From an audience perspective, it can become incredibly confusing.

So if that sort of narrative trick does not bother you at all, then you can certainly watch Faces. Personally, I was not blown away. I mainly finished it because I had already started it and because Hanna Reji Koshy was in it. That is pretty much the whole story of my viewing experience.

The movie is not completely worthless, but I would not call it essential viewing either. If you decide to watch it, do it mainly for Hanna Reji Koshy's performance rather than for the thriller itself.

See you in the next review. 

See ya!