'Secret Stories: Roslin' Series Review: A Clever Refresh On The Unwanted Visitor Trope

Upon completing Secret Stories: Roslin, it doesn’t require a genius to realise that this is a six-part series that was written backwards. The climax of the series is not only shocking; it’s the sort of twist that feels so inventive that everything about it, including characters, detours, and plot points, feels like it was in service of this ending. What’s not so shocking about this writing approach is that this is something you have come to expect from a piece of content that has the backing of a mind like Jeethu Joseph (he is the showrunner). For his fans, the twist at the end is arguably more important than anything that precedes it. At least, it has been this way ever since he wrote Drishyam (2013).

Roslin requires real patience before it begins to come together, and until then, we see the director (Sumesh Nandakumar) trying to manufacture mood for what he believes is a mystery. The plot follows a 17-year-old girl named Roslin (Sanjana Dipu) who is back home for summer. She lives in an idyllic farm in the middle of nowhere, along with her parents and their newborn son. The series hints at a conflict arising from her jealousy for her much younger sibling, without it leading to anything. It also hints at another conflict that arises from Roslin having to deal with PTSD, after witnessing the death of her brother.

The second thread gets the attention and the time it deserves as we see Roslin navigate her trauma, through what appears to be a series of nightmares. These sequences have been treated like set pieces in a horror movie with a mix of jump scares, sneaky camera movement, and a stellar background score. The recurring images of a slasher movie villain too, add to the tension. Even when the series takes its time to establish the handful of characters, these nightmare sequences bring the show alive. Stuck in a space between dream and reality, we too begin to wonder like Roslin, imagining if what we’re witnessing is another trick played on us by her mind.

As we piece together different aspects of her life, including glimpses of the past, the series begins to take the form of another Jeethu Joseph product…his Tamil film Thambi. But the similarity isn’t exactly about plot; it has more to do with the tension that arises from a family having to share their home with an unwanted visitor. Scene after scene, we get similar setups that have been decidedly included only to further this suspicion. Just when you see this stranger act in a particularly peculiar fashion, the show feels it's necessary to add entire episodes to convince us of something we’ve already agreed to take on face value.

This repetition begins to get to you as you wait for the show to move on. When the series breaks at cliffhangers, with each one of them stating what appears to be the obvious, we begin to be suspicious of the show and its intent. It’s almost like the show is making it obvious that there’s a big twist that’s incoming, asking us to disengage with what’s happening on screen, only so we can return later to see what’s really happening. Not only does this make the wait a tad tiring, but it also feels like the show isn’t exploring its characters enough. The angle involving Roslin’s younger brother disappears for a few episodes in the middle, as does an important best friend character who never gets a mention later. We get a feeling that this series was intended to follow the structure of a feature film, which was later retrofitted into the mould of a six-parter.

But you still allow yourself to stay invested because Sanjana gets you to care for her. The young actor from Moothon appears to be so fully involved in this world that she’s able to make you feel as alienated as Roslin is here. The other casting decisions are just as clever; it has a way of getting you to see familiar actors in a way we’ve never seen before, and it uses every trick in the book to rattle us when it's time for the big reveal. And no matter how prepared one feels, the ending is still too unsettling to feel cheated. Purely as a mystery that slowly creeps up, Roslin has a way of pulling the carpet from right beneath you, just when you feel you’re safe at home with people you call your family.