‘Sookshmadarshini’ Review: Nazriya Nazim, Basil Joseph Light Up This Hitchcockian Comedy

Director: MC Jithin
Cast: Basil Joseph, Nazriya Nazim, Sidharth Bharathan, Akhila Bhargavan, Pooja Mohanraj, Merin Philip
Writers: Athul Ramachandran, Libin TB
Language: Malayalam

The first 20 minutes of Sookshmadarshini may be used as a textbook to learn the art of writing a setup. Writers Athul Ramachandran and Libin TB are preparing their viewer for a film that falls into an unusual genre but instead of rushing towards the plot, they take their time to focus on establishing their protagonist: Priyadarshini (Nazriya), a 20-something mother who admits to feeling bored of domesticity. She lives in a regular middle-class neighbourhood, filled with regulars who know everything about each other.

You’d be surprised at how much we learn about her life without a word of plain exposition. In an early scene, a conversation is staged while we see her employ a bit of genius to retrieve her earring that’s stuck inside the kitchen sink (it reminded me of the intro scene in Sethurama Iyer CBI). A little later, an important detail about her new neighbour is laid out when she hops over to their compound to pluck curry leaves for the fish she’s cooking. It’s the eco-system you’d expect in a Sathyan Anthikad comedy, but the film’s genre is being dictated by Priya because she views the world through a microscope, suspiciously. She’s too “regular” to be called Sherlock Holmes… but Homely Sherlock? That sounds about right to describe Priya.

Not that there’s anything regular about her new neighbour. On the surface, there’s almost nothing to be suspicious about a guy like Manuel (Basil Joseph), a pleasant baker whose life revolves around caring for his ageing mother. If Manuel had moved next to anyone but Priya, chances are that we’d have watched a very different film. But because we meet Manuel through Priya, you notice that there’s a lot beneath his half-smiles.

MC Jithin's 'Sookshmadarshini'.

Director MC shows you how much control he has over the material when the film enters into its voyeuristic zone. A simple idea, like the presence of a stained-glass window in Priya’s house, adds a visual quality that contributes as much to the eerie mood as it does to create a series of good-looking shots. You sense this control even in the way he stitches together characters and spaces that extend the entire neighbourhood to create real tension, even in the midst of comedy. In certain shots, like when Manuel talks to Priya about her peeping habit, the camera places him right at the centre, as though he’s talking straight to us. It is a worthy tribute to Rear Window, which was also about how well you know your neighbour.

Yet, even when the film shuffles between comedy and mystery, you do not feel the pinch of a genre shift. Situations keep getting wilder but the writers have ensured a layer of silliness that makes even the most gruesome scenes fall within the realm of a dark comedy. This is in part to how both Nazriya and Basil remain utterly likeable even when their characters cross moral lines that would feel unacceptable if they were being played differently. This is also due to Chrtiso Xavier’s whimsical background score that reminds one of the works of someone like John Williams.

Ironically, though, for a film that pays tribute to Hitchcock, it’s not necessarily rich when it comes to suspense. Towards the end, you feel the film stretching to explain itself in order to underline its cleverness. Loose ends are tied up quickly and conveniently even though we’ve arrived at the conclusion long before the film has.

But aside from this stretch and a few questions you’re left with, Sookshmadarshini remains a compelling mix of genres featuring strong leads and stronger direction. Whoever thought that a modern-day iteration of a Hitchcockian thriller had room in its heart for a little bit of feminism?