The writer-director duo of Akhil Paul-Anas Khan’s second feature, ‘Identity” (2025), is an untidy convoluted mess. The Tovino Thomas and Trisha Krishnan starrer thriller squanders the initial intrigue of its premise and tries to jumble many genres, eventually dropping the metaphorical ball on every single one of them. At one point, “Identity” would make you feel like you are watching three movies simultaneously. It starts with a genuinely interesting plot of a cat-and-mouse thriller involving a serial killer, a hero vigilante, and a girl with an intriguing medical disorder.
Then, about two-thirds of the film’s runtime, the story turns sharply toward becoming a ticking-clock thriller with a tinge of political espionage. Then it finishes with a fantastically choreographed action sequence of twenty-something minutes, making you wonder why the film did not concentrate on that more. The film’s penchant for subplots and twists could make some people scratch their heads. Let’s examine the series of events in the film and try to analyze them.
Identity (2025) Movie Synopsis and Plot Summary:
“Identity” starts with the introduction of local serial rapist, Amar Felix. Amar kidnaps unsuspecting girls and then proceeds to rape them. His list of criminal activities also has blackmailing in them. Amar films his acts and then blackmails the girls and their families. The film’s opening establishing scene concludes with Amar being killed by an unknown assailant. With Amar’s reputation, we can only assume the assailant to be a noble vigilante or a vengeance-seeking hero.
Enters Haran Sankar (Tovino Thomas). Haran’s backstory makes it abundantly clear that he is our hero assailant. Haran lives with his two sisters, Devika and Neerja. Haran and Devika’s mother used to be a police sketch artist and a great one, at that. Haran’s father, on the other hand, was a cruel disciplinarian. Neerja is Haran’s half-sister as their father remarried later. Since the death of all of their parents, the kids were brought up by Haran and Devika’s maternal uncle.
Amar’s death, on the other hand, has brought investigative officer, Allen Jacob (Vinay Rai), to Kerala. Allen has come with the key witness of the murder, Alisha (Trisha Krishnan). Allen’s superior, DYSP Dineshan, provides them with his flat for shelter. And as fate would have it, Dineshan’s flat is right beside Haran’s one. It becomes only a matter of time before Haran joins Allen’s investigation as the main sketch artist. To Haran’s surprise, Alisha’s description of the killer makes him draw his own face. Haran realizes Alisha is describing Amar’s murderer. However, Alisha has not identified Haran as the culprit.
A little bit of the ‘cat-and-mouse game’ is played where Haran convinces Allen that Alisha’s brain is tampering with her memory as she is describing the sketch artist’s face, instead of the killer. Haran mentions this is a common phenomenon among people when describing someone’s face to a sketch artist. However, Haran is still surprised that Alisha is not recognizing him despite describing his face.
Identity (2025) Ending Explained:
What Was Alisha’s Medical Condition?
This is where “Identity” throws its most ingenious twist. Back when Amar was killed by Haran, Haran lit a fire on Amar’s lair. While scarpering away from the location, Alisha was hit by a bus. That was purely accidental. However, the impact changed Alisha profoundly. She developed an undiagnosed cognitive disorder known as “Prosopagnosia.” Colloquially known as “Face Blindness.” This disorder impacts the patient’s ability to recognize familiar faces. It becomes tough for them to separate one face from another. However, the patient does not often realize that they are facing difficulty or doing it wrong. This is the reason why Alisha could not recognize Haran as the killer.
Why Did Haran Kill Amar?
After knowing Alisha’s condition and the fact that Alisha, as a journalist, was after Amar to expose him to justice, Haran decides to tell her the truth. A few months before his death, Amar kidnapped Haran’s sister, Neerja, and one of Neerja’s friends, Sakina. Staying true to his evil character, Amar raped both the girls and taped the act. Both girls had to go through intensive trauma treatment. At Devika’s insistence, Haran decided not to interfere and allowed the authorities to do their job. However, later, from Sakina’s brother, Haran learned about Amar’s nature of videotaping all his crimes. This is when Haran decided to take the matter into his own hands. That is why he killed Amar and burned his lair.
How Did Allen and Amar Work Together?
While Haran is narrating his story to Alisha, we learn that Allen Jacob is not who he seems. He was a police officer, but he was suspended. Allen worked in the Witness Protection program. As part of his job, he was in charge of providing new identities to witnesses of high-profile cases. Only Allen is part of a criminal gang, and he sells the identities of these protected witnesses to the highest bidder. He also works to eliminate certain witnesses, if the right amount is provided. A glorified indirect hitman, you see.
Allen’s weapon for these murders was Amar. Amar’s instructions were to provide Allen with all the blackmailing videos. Using those videos, Allen used to force a certain family member of the victim to carry out specific tasks that would help Allen eliminate a certain witness. For instance, a woman named Chithrammal is the key witness to bring down villainous mafia lord, Chinnappa. Now, to kill Chithrammal, Allen enlists the help of an Air Traffic Control officer. Of course, by coercing the poor officer with the video of his daughter. The officer is now forcibly tasked to bring down the flight that Chithrammal will board.
What Was Haran’s Actual Identity?
When Haran learns about Allen’s true intention, he and Alisha try to foil Allen’s plan. A high-octane car chase follows a fight between Haran and Allen. Eventually, Allen manages to kill DYSP Dineshan. With that, he escapes and seems to be on track with his plan of executing Chithrammal. Meanwhile, Haran starts his preparation as we learn the truth behind Haran’s job. Haran is a Sky Marshal, a job where a trained military officer is tasked to eliminate any challenges one might face in a flight, like assassinations or hijacking. With Haran’s expertise and Alisha’s timely input, the coerced Air Traffic Control officer is caught. Chithrammal is safe.
Did Haran Kill Allen?
Meanwhile, Allen uses his usual trick to force none other than Devika, Haran’s elder sister. Using Neerja’s video as the bargaining chip, Allen intimidates Devika into helping him masquerade as a patient at her hospital. Using the patient’s identity, he escapes the police cordon. Later, we see him in a new look as he boards a private jet to leave the country. However, Haran, as expected, appears out of nowhere on the flight. A fight ensues. Haran takes down two of Allen’s henchpersons with some effort. After the well-choreographed fight, Haran gets his hands on Allen. He manages to overpower, and eventually kill him. Thus, eliminating the threat once and for all.
