Sookshmadarshini

Stained glass window. movie antenna generally perks up with attention if and when I hear a positive “word of mouth” talk about any movie. They are mostly accurate and on point. I had Sookshmadarshini in my Disney Hot Star watch list for more than a month. I was on a week long vacation to Maharashtra and was busy afterwards. Now that I watched it, read the review ASAP.

Movie : Sookshmadarshini

Starring : Nazariya Nadeem, Basil Joseph and others.

Directed by : M. C. Jithin

Released on: 22nd November 2024

Watched on: Hot Star, 16th January 2025

Review:

What can I say? I love crime thrillers the Malayalam film industry keeps churning every year. I grew up watching such movies starring Mallu super stars like Suresh Gopi and Mammootty. Incidentally, there is no such Star in this movie except for fairly well known actors like Nazariya Nadeem and Basil Joseph. ( I admire Basil Joseph’s effortless acting.)

Anyway, Sookshmadarshini (which means a microscope) starts at a small peaceful town in Kerala, where the neighbourhood ladies gossip through their WhatsApp group!

Priyadarshini a.k.a Priya (Nazariya Nadeem) is a mother and a homemaker, looking for a job and attending interviews. She is as curious as a cat. As they say curiosity killed the cat, she gets too close to the killer but luckily nothing happens to her.

The various characters are introduced and once Manuel (Biju Joseph) enters the town with his widowed mother as a neighbour to Priya, the story gets interesting, to Priya and to us too, the audience. Manuel runs a popular and lucrative bakery, called Grace Bakers which is in the name of his mother, Grace.

The slow pace of the movie lays a foundation to show us the true nature of the characters. Like how Priya, pulls out her tiny nose ring out the kitchen sink drain with a simple jugaad. It shows she never leaves things mid way. Then there is Manuel, who finds a monitor lizard, (udumu in Telugu) kills it off. Suddenly that evening he hosts a barbecue party for his new neighbours with ‘beef’, even cooks it himself, but refuses to eat it! It is one such rare scene in a movie which makes us ikky 🤢.

I also loved how the director uses the stained glass window to portray the Sookshmadarshini!

Grace, is a silent and troubled looking septuagenarian (probably). She hardly interacts with anyone and never leaves the house. We also see Manuel making meticulous plans like befriending a neighbour, who is a single mother and we know he is upto no good!

During a party at Priya’s place where the whole neighbourhood has gathered, there is a fire in Manuel ‘s house and Grace is missing. Luckily they find her after a couple of hours at the railway station. It is later announced that Grace is an Alzheimer’s patient.

The second disappearance of Grace happens again but Priya is sure she has seen Grace through the window. Priya is also convinced that Grace is not a patient of Alzheimer’s. She is caught by Manuel, trespassing his premises.

Then there are other supporting characters which help Priya in their own way. There is also Diana, Manuel’s elder sister staying in New Zealand who flies to Kerala after her mother’s second disappearance. Priya befriends Diana and that is how she is able to solve the case.

The rest of the movie needs to be watched for the anticipation it builds. We know clearly a crime has been committed, we also know who the culprit is, but still, the movie manages to take us by surprise. It is one of those movies, where the premises is intelligent and if the execution of the movie had failed, it would have fallen flat on its face, but it doesn’t!

Kudos to the director and his writer for this one. The movie manages to bring a certain dread and thrill without being violent or gory in the least, like how we see blood which has seeped into a wall and making it bloody and damp! (I even had a dream about the same, as I wrote half the post yesterday before retiring for the night!)

If you are into crime thrillers and mysteries, do yourself a favour and watch the movie and remember to thank me later for suggesting it! 😜

P.S :

1. The movie, the location, the murder somehow reminded me of the Netflix crime documentary I had watched more than a year ago, Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case. That is one of the few documentaries which can’t be forgotten easily. (The other unforgettable documentary is the Oscar winning The Elephant Whisperers.)

2. Basil Joseph is quite an actor, with his unassuming stature and all. The other movies I have watched him in were, Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey and Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil, also starring Prithviraj Sukumaran. While the former gives him better scope for acting, the latter is a timepass movie!

3. I am beginning to watch more and more Malayalam movies for the interesting scripts they come up with.

Till the next post, bubyeee readers!

As my loyal readers know of our brief life in the US of A, Mr.Bee would go to his office at 11 a.m. and I would pack my canvas tote with my black vertical striped apron and my wallet, booking an Uber to go to the Monroe Road studio of Clayworks, where the potter’s wheel was all I could see, as far as my passion was concerned.

Some days, when I felt low, even the pots and cups I made would turn out bad and I would leave the studio early (artists would understand!) On such afternoons, I would make a snack for myself and sit in the Ashley’s chocolate brown couch in our living room, with a parrot green woollen throw blanket and watch movies.

By chance, I had come across The Namesake, by Mira Nair, starring Irrfan Khan and the talented Tabu and decided it was worth a watch. It was a revelation. I liked Irrfan Khan too (It was the first time I watched his movie). It was a memorable movie, but this post is about The Namesake, the Pulitzer prize winning novel.

This is the first time I watched a movie first and read the novel on which the movie is based on, later. I have been to the recent book exhibition, the yearly ritual of my maternal family. I got myself a copy of The Namesake and interestingly, the lone thing I remember is Irrfan Khan and Tabu, in the awkward photo from the movie. It’s been more than 9 years since I watched the movie and it tells a great deal about the actors’ and their performances. (I couldn’t find the photo online). No wonder the lead pair is known for their talent.

The Gangulis

The Names

It is about a Bengali couple Ashoke Ganguli and Ashima, in an arranged marriage, whose life as immigrants is at once relatable. It starts with the marriage of Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli and progresses at steady pace to the births of their children Gogol and Sonia. The focus shifts to Gogol and that’s where the novel gets it’s name.

Gogol goes from a phase where his name is just a nickname to, where he loves to be called Gogol , to a phase where he hates it so much , he changes it to Nikhil, gets to know the real reason behind his name and finally regretting the change of his name.

Gogol doesn’t like that all his parents’ friends are desi families. He doesn’t like Indian food and the time it takes to cook. He struggles, as they say, ABCD – American Born Confused/Conflicted Desi. He sees the contrast between his parents and the lives of his American girlfriend and her parents. Gogol hates being told what to do by his parents,(most Asian parents do that) but ironically, ends up always submitting to his girlfriends and his wife. He performs fairly well in studies but since he takes decisions based on his rebellion against his parents, he falls flat. Like choosing a college to stay away from his family and not because it is better! He gives up studying at MIT, it is exasperating!

Ashoke Ganguli, in his own way had adjusted to the life in America. Interestingly, Ashoke ‘s friends had predicted accurately, that Sonia is a true American, right after she was born. But Ashima never feels at home, neither in Calcutta where she lived before marriage nor America, where she stayed for more than three decades. Neither here nor there.

The Ganguli family dynamics changes with the sudden death of Ashoke. Sonia, the daughter who had stayed away for studies reaches out to her mother during her mourning and shows us subtle glimpses of her character. (She hardly get 2 pages worth of space in the whole book)

After two failed relationships and 1 death in the family, Gogol a.k.a Nikhil meets Moushimee Majumder. Both have emotional baggage of their own and that leads to a disaster in waiting, which is their marriage. I didn’t like her at all. Nor did I like Gogol. He was a good man but he had his weaknesses and drawbacks.

The book ends with the hint of Sonia’s upcoming marriage to Ben, Ashima’s plan of moving back to India and well, Gogol, still coming to terms about the journey of life!

Overall, the Namesake is a slow paced story and at the end I did feel sad for Gogol and Ashima (both the troubled souls). It is worth a read, if you are not an avid reader, I suggest you to watch the movie for first class acting,

P.S:

1. Coming to the author Jhumpa Lahiri, her writing is easy to read and understand but at places it gets overly descriptive and lengthy. I found myself skipping paragraphs! I need to read more of her works to comment better.

2. Although we know little about Sonia, I liked her!

3. I went on to watch Irrfan Khan in Piku, Talwar , Jurassic World and Life Of Pi.

4. I will be back with a Sookshmadarshini review soon. Ciao!

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Sookshmadarshini

The Namesake

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