Out of the 6 episodes of the latest JioHotstar original Roslin, we are seeing the story from the perspective of the title character in the first five episodes. Even though the sixth episode has a twist in the tale, the fact that you have to sit through five episodes that have this familiar and slightly stretched feel reduces whatever cinematic high that was left in the idea of this series. With dialogues that feel too stiff and staging of moments feeling very obvious, Roslin struggles to be engaging, and the twist in the tale also feels like a reiteration of a familiar idea.
Roslin, our main character, is a 17-year-old girl who is about to turn 18 in a matter of days. She lost her elder brother a few years ago when he tried to save her from drowning. Now, with her mother giving birth to another child, the whole family is trying to move on from that tragedy. But Roslin is having these recurring dreams about a green-eyed man trying to kill her. Who is that green-eyed guy, and what’s his connection with Roslin, is what we see in this series.
Directed by Sumesh Nandakumar, Jeethu Joseph serves as the showrunner of the series. One of the first things you notice is the way the dialogues have this very dramatic tone, something I have observed in movies written by Jeethu Joseph as well. There are occasions in the series where some characters say the same thing in Malayalam and English, a trend I thought ended almost 20 years ago. I don’t know whether it is something enforced by the platform to take into account the second screen viewing, but the lack of realness in the way the characters speak is actually discouraging the audience from being invested in the story. You can predict the jump scare and placement of certain elements that would have a callback at a later stage.
Written by prominent lyricist Vinayak Sasikumar, the series uses the POV of Roslin to create a good distraction. However, the problem is that Roslin’s overreactions and dreams are not making us empathize with her. And when you backtrack the whole thing after knowing the full plot, you won’t get a satisfying answer to why the character Jerry behaved in a certain way. When you finally get the full picture, there isn’t enough in the idea that justifies why the story went after Roslin’s inner conflicts and confusions. Moments of misunderstanding are created in the same old fashion, where the characters could easily clarify things, but Sumesh and Vinayak choose to make them freeze on that occasion. Vishnu Shyam’s music manages to create that element of hauntedness and mystery. Unfortunately, the writing isn’t able to live upto that in creating the same feel.
Sanjana Dipu, who made a memorable debut in Moothon, plays the title character in this series. In portions where we see the lonely struggles of the character, where there are no dialogues, her performance is pretty nice. But whenever the dialogue portions come, you can feel the obvious acting part of it. Jeethu Joseph had famously remarked about how the makeup worn by Meena in Drishyam was something he never wanted, but the actress never agreed. The same problem can be seen in this series, as well. If you look at other characters in the series, their makeup levels vary according to the scene. But for Meena, it is the same for all scenes, and that pretty much made her performance look similar to those mother-in-law characters we see in daily soaps. Vineeth played his role as the supportive father neatly on screen, and I thought he was the only performer who could make the dialogue sound sensible through modulation. Hakkim Shahjahan, as Jerry, has that mysterious element in the way he carries that role. However, the making forces him to overdo certain stuff that makes it too obvious, and an audience that has seen enough content would be able to decode such distractions.
There isn’t much in the story that makes it unique in any way. The only thing that would have made it engaging is the treatment. However, Sumesh Nandakumar is not able to present the story refreshingly. There is a point in the series where we might feel these dreams of Roslin as some sort of supernatural interference. However, what you get ultimately here is a thriller with elements that aren’t greatly surprising. The way the series abruptly disconnects from the title character after investing too much into her overthought tandrums somewhere makes Roslin an underwhelming experience.
