My 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 HotStar 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: HotStar, 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. Later, 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!
P.P.S:
I have come across a recent murder in Meerpet, Hyderabad, where the killer, the husband killed his wife brutally and it reminds me of Sookshmadarshini! It is sad that people are getting inspired from movies when it comes to the bad stuff, but ignore the good stuff. May the soul of the victim rest inpeace. I had goosebumps reading about it.
