Sookshamadarshini Review | A Well-Written Thriller That Deceives the Audience With Its Smart Presentation

The latest MC Jithin film, Sookshamdarshini, starring Nazriya Nazim along with Basil Joseph, is a well-written investigative thriller that uses the idea of distraction pretty effectively to narrate a story that had all the possibility of becoming a generic murder mystery with a usual motive. By not ignoring the limitations of a microbiology graduate’s micro observations, MC and his writers Libin TB and Athul Ramachandran give the premise a sense of realness. Clubbed with the possible chaos due to the inexperience of characters, a good chunk of the movie is fun, and the rest is designed in a gripping manner.

Priyadarshini, aka Priya, lives in this small neighborhood with her family, and she has a lot of friends in that community. The owners of the house next to Priya, Manuel and his mother Gracy, return to their property after many years. While Manuel was seemingly very friendly to everyone in the neighborhood, Priya started to sense something odd about that character, especially after an incident where Mrs. Gracy went missing but was found later. Priya’s self-initiated investigation along with her neighborhood friends and what all happens in that investigation is what we see in MC Jithin’s Sookshmadarshini.

Like any other good movie, it is the writing that manages to make this thriller gripping till the end. It is not like we are shown the film entirely from the perspective of Priya. By showing us what is happening at Manuel’s end, the screenplay makes it look like we are observing how Priya will crack what we already know. The writing does manage to make us predict why the characters are doing all this fishy stuff, and to a good extent, the audience and Priyadarshini are on the same page. The script’s success is in how it pulled off that successful deception.

The exposition that happens in this movie is very subtle and smart. Just like Priyadarshini, who is somewhat similar to Aparna from Kishkindha Kaandam, when you look at how she is getting information, the audience is also joining the pieces of the puzzle after a certain point. At around the two-hour mark of the movie, the entry of a certain character is demolishing the narrative we set in our heads. But from that point, how this movie peels off each layer of the suspense and unveils the architecture of the bigger plan is where the film wins you over. Some of the stuff that bothers you while watching the movie, like that one glass of juice, are all explained in a very convincing manner at the end of the film.

Nazriya Nazim, as Priya, portrayed the quirks of the curious character very convincingly on screen. While the character is in her own space of investigation, the behavior is not at all animated. But the loudness in some of the bits, like the one where she talks to Manuel’s sister about New Zealand and stuff, was slightly odd. The golden streak of Basil Joseph continues with this one as well, and as Manuel, he gives us his own version of Shammy. Basil makes sure that the womanizer traits and the rough edges of this character look real and less like Rajesh from Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hai.

Merin Phillip gets a memorable character with some significant screen time in the first half. Premalu fame Akhila Bhargawan and Pooja Mohanraj played the aids of Priya in her investigation, and the two of them handled the humor very convincingly. Deepak Parambol played the part of Priya’s husband, while Manohari Joy was impressive as Manuel’s mother. Sidharth Bharathan, as Manuel’s cousin, was good, and the unusualness of that casting choice made it even better.

If you look at the screenplay in the second half, the women CIDs are doing their discussions from different houses. It almost feels like editor Chaman Chakko inserted those over-the-top shots of the residential area just to give the audience an idea about the space. The edits are pretty smooth in the final bits, where Priya gets the whole picture, and the intercuts elevate the tension and excitement around that sequence very impressively. The background score also works really well in those portions.

Sookshmadarshini from MC Jithin is a thriller that manages to create an engrossing final act, thanks to an effective buildup in the initial acts that managed to keep the audience interested and distracted at the same time. The kind of loose ends and cinematic liberties I felt in the writing while watching the film were addressed in the final moments of the movie, and it is a movie where all the seemingly distracting moments make sense when you backtrack the whole thing from the climax.