‘Sookshmadarshini’ Ending Explained: Decoding the Twisty Finale and the Villain’s Diabolical Plan in Nazriya Nazim and Basil Joseph’s Mystery-Thriller (SPOILER ALERT)

MC Jithin (or simply MC, as he prefers to call himself in the opening credits) has delivered an entertaining and clever mystery thriller with Sookshmadarshini. The film has garnered positive reviews and is performing well at the box office. Starring Nazriya Nazim and Basil Joseph in lead roles, Sookshmadarshini also features Manohari Joy, Deepak Parambol, Akhila Bhargavan, Merin Philip, Pooja Mohanraj, Sidharth Bharathan, and Kottayam Ramesh in key supporting roles. Sookshmadarshini was scripted by Athul Ramachandran and Libin TB. ‘Sookshmadarshini’ Movie Review: A Highly Engaging Mystery Thriller With Superb Performances From Nazriya Nazim and Basil Joseph.

In Sookshmadarshini, Nazriya Nazim plays Priyadarshini, also known as Priya, a homemaker with good observational skills who is searching for a job. Priya becomes suspicious of her new neighbour, Manuel (played by Basil Joseph), who has recently moved into their old house with his mother (Manohari Joy). Priya begins to suspect that Manuel may be plotting something sinister against his mother, whom he claims is suffering from Alzheimer's. When the old woman mysteriously disappears, Priya becomes convinced that Manuel is behind it. Despite her husband’s scepticism, she enlists the help of two friends to uncover the truth about Manuel’s actions. However, the reality she uncovers is far more shocking than she anticipated.

In this SPOILER-filled analysis, we explore the film’s climax, Manuel’s true motives, and the unexpected revelations that tie everything together, with some help from keen theorists on Reddit platforms.

The Real Victim of Manuel’s Diabolical Plan—and His Motives

Priya was right in her suspicions: Manuel is a cruel, diabolical villain, but with a shocking twist. While he claims to love his mother—and this is indeed true—he harbours deep resentment towards his sister, Diana. It turns out the real victim of Manuel’s scheme is Diana , not his mother, and she falls prey to a tragic and sinister honour killing.

The plot is orchestrated by Manuel, his cousin Dr John, and their uncle, with Manuel’s mother serving as the mastermind behind it all. Diana’s "crime"? She was a lesbian who fell in love with another women in New Zealand. After making their relationship public on Instagram and even planning to adopt a child, Diana inadvertently became a target of her family’s wrath. Viewing her actions as a disgrace to their family, Manuel’s mother instigates her son and relatives into conspiring to kill Diana. In fact, the mother being the bigger villain of the plan was even teased in the title design of Sookshmadarshini where 'mother' (in Malayalam) is sneakingly highlighted with a circle.

How They Lured Diana to Her Doom

Manuel had already convinced the neighbours and police that his mother suffered from memory lapses, even staging a minor "missing person" act (during Priya's wedding anniversary party) to bolster the narrative. When the mother disappeared again - this time for a longer period (also when one of the neighbouring families weren't at their house) - Manuel used the situation to manipulate Diana to come back. He arranged a wake for their mother, luring Diana back to India under false pretences.

As Diana was preparing to return to New Zealand for the adoption process, the family tricked her into returning from the airport by sending a video of her mother, claiming she had come back and wanted to see her. When Diana returned to the house that night, they killed her. This moment also ties to Priya’s fleeting glimpse of the old woman near the window—a sight dismissed by others as a hallucination.

Manuel’s Manipulative Tricks to Deceive Priya: Voice Notes and the Neem Tree

One of Manuel’s tricks involved replying to Priya’s texts from Diana’s phone, making Priya believe she was communicating with Diana, who had supposedly returned to New Zealand. The use of voice note was ingenious which if you observe was a very generic "I’ll call back," likely pre-recorded on Diana’s phone. Manuel used these to maintain the illusion of Diana’s presence and, more importantly, to confirm whether Priya had seen anything the night she climbed onto his property.

Another key detail is Manuel cutting down the neem tree in the courtyard at his mother’s insistence. Earlier, it was established that Priya often collected neem leaves from this tree, something the mother must have observed. Cutting the tree served to prevent Priya from entering their courtyard while the mother was escaping. Manuel's killing of the monitor lizard also maybe to clear the path for his mother, since the animal could scare off her. Or maybe it is to show how cruel he is in nature, also established earlier when he was throwing a stone on a cat (that made Priya instantly be wary of him).

Why Stephy Was Drugged And Not Priya

The film initially leads viewers to believe that Manuel planned to drug both his mother and Stephy in order to abduct his mother while blaming Stephy for sleeping instead of taking care of her.

However, the only intended victim of the drugging was Stephy. Manuel gave the drug to his mother, who slyly added it to Stephy’s glass while she was talking to Priya. This is why Priya, who also drank the juice, was unaffected - the drug wasn’t in her glass.

How Did the Villains Dispose of Diana's Body?

This was depicted quite clearly in the film, as it formed a critical part of Dr John's plan. In the first season of Breaking Bad, there’s an episode where Walter White and Jesse Pinkman try to dispose of a body by dissolving it in a tub of acid. It seems the UK-returned Dr John may have taken inspiration from that when devising his own method. There’s also a scene where he is studying about Aqua Regia, a mixture containing concentrated hydrochloric acid, used to dissolve metals, on his phone. He likely incorporated this into the acid mixture used to dissolve Diana's chopped-up body, which was placed inside a plastic tank filled with the solution. The process of dissolving the body takes time, which is why he was staying at the house when the mother went 'missing'. ‘All We Imagine As Light’ Ending Explained: Demystifying the Surreal Finale of Payal Kapadia’s Grand-Prix Winning Film.

Dr John later flushes the blood-soaked acid down the toilet. However, what he didn’t anticipate was the acid corroding the pipes and leaking out, staining the walls. Their plans are further complicated when Diana's partner, Aditi, arrives from New Zealand to look for her (after Manuel, pretending to be Diana, messages Aditi saying she wanted to be with her mother). In a bid to cover their tracks, they use the house-shifting process to dump the equipment and acid containers used to dissolve the body.

Why Did Manuel Plan to Kill Aditi?

Aditi's arrival in Kerala posed a serious threat to their plan. Her presence could reveal that Diana never returned to New Zealand and that her family had been lying. To prevent this, they decided to kill her as well.

Perhaps to avoid being seen on CCTV cameras near the airport, Manuel asks Aditi to take a cab and meet him at a designated spot where he waits for her in his car. The plan was to kill her at Manuel’s unopened bakery store. Unfortunately for them, Priya had already become aware of their scheme.

How Did Priya Find Out the Truth?

Priya’s suspicions were aroused by Diana’s Instagram pictures, where she discovered that Diana was in a live-in relationship with Aditi. Through Aditi’s Instagram profile, Priya manages to send her a message while Aditi is in the car with Manuel. Luckily for Priya, the message doesn’t end up in Aditi’s spam folder, and Aditi reads it. A curious Aditi then shares her phone number and sends Priya a video of Diana’s mother asking Diana to return home. This video confirms Priya’s suspicion that Diana never made it to New Zealand, her mother was faking her disease and Diana was instead killed by her family. ‘Kishkindha Kaandam’ Ending Explained: Exploring the Heartbreaking Climax of Asif Ali, Vijayaraghavan and Aparna Balamurali’s Malayalam Movie.

Unfortunately, before Priya could properly warn her, Aditi was drugged. Priya, however, doesn’t realise that Aditi has been kidnapped. Thankfully, Aditi manages to inform Priya about her location (the bakery) where Manuel is taking her before losing consciousness. What she doesn’t anticipate is that Manuel took her to an unopened branch of the bakery, where it is easier for them to dispose of her body.

How Did Priya Save Aditi?

Priya goes to the unopened brack just in time to spy on Manuel and Dr John as they prepare to kill an unconscious Aditi. She distracts Manuel, luring him out of the shop, before ambushing them by driving her car into the shop, leaving both men injured. She then rescues Aditi, who had been hidden in the cold storage after Dr John panicked upon hearing Priya’s arrival.

Priya’s actions were also driven by earlier findings. Her suspicions about Manuel murdering someone were confirmed when she scraped residue from the painted-over wall where the acid had leaked and sent it to a friend working in a forensics lab. The analysis revealed the presence of blood and bone particles. Her friend advised her to report the matter to the police, which she did. Thanks to Priya’s efforts, all the culprits were caught in the end.

(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of LatestLY.)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 25, 2024 09:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).