Sookshmadarshini

The story revolves around the nosy Priyadarshini, played to perfection by Nazriya. She is sure that there is more to her neighbour Manuel (Basil Joseph excelling in the role of a despicable villain with his usual ease), and his mother who purportedly has Alzheimer's. Priya is sure she has nothing of the sort and there is foul play afoot; and we have "Rear Window" with all the neighborhood women joining in the action.

An enjoyable movie if you don't think about its plausibility!

Two people are travelling in a train. One person puts up a large package on the luggage rack. The other guy asks: "What's in the package?" The first guy replies:"That's a MacGuffin - a device used to catch lions in the Scottish highlands." The second person says: "But there are no lions in the Scottish highlands!" The first person replies: "Well, then there's no MacGuffin!"

This story is one of Alfred Hitchcock's favourites. He uses it to highlight the plot devices in his movies, which have no relevance to the tale other than to push the action forward: once the tale is up and running, the MacGuffin is forgotten. Hitchcock is a self-confessed fan of the device, and he has used it in many of his celebrated movies - 'The 39 Steps', 'Notorious', 'The Foreign Correspondent', etc. Such is his mastery of the medium that the audience don't care.

That the director of the Malayalam suspense movie "Sookshmadarshini" (Microscope) is a Hitchcock fan, I have no doubt. He has created a movie of nail-biting suspense - a literal edge-of-the-seat thriller - with a MacGuffin to end all MacGuffins. Once the movie is on track, the audience will scarce notice what the original premise was. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, though its concept was so patently silly.