Drishyam Movie Review

After 6 disastrous months, Bollywood has been going through some of its best times two back to back blockbusters in the form of Baahubali and Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The promos of Drishyam have generated a silent intrigue amongst the audiences as it promises a family thriller after a long time. Ajay Devgn’s return to playing intense characters and Tabu’s presence in the film lends it a lot of gravitas. Does Drishyam work as well in Hindi as it has in all the 4 South Indian languages? Let’s find out.

Story: Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay) is a 4th standard fail common man who owns a cable business and lives with his wife and two children in a serene Goan village called Pandolim. Their life gets turned on its head one day when the elder daughter is sexually blackmailed by a boy. When the mother, Nandini (Shriya Saran), intervenes the boys asks for sexual favours from her instead. In rage the daughter hits the boy on the head and he falls dead. When Vijay returns home, they tell him everything. He then hatches a plan to conceal the unintentional murder. However, the boy in question turns out to be the son of the IG of Police Meera Deshmukh (Tabu). Thus ensues a cat and mouse game between the police and the Salgaonkars where the concealment of the crime by the family stays the focal point of the story. To know the resolution, watch the film!

Drishyam Review: Nishikant Kamat is a talented director who knows to keep things simple for films made on tight budgets. Here too the original Malayalam classic (also Drishyam) is adapted by Kamat by making it palatable to the Hindi milieu. Drishyam does take some time to speed up as the first half is mostly concentrated on developing the happy family life of the Salgaonkars. But things quickly start moving after the murder occurs, and reaches a thrilling climax. If you’ve seen the original then the Hindi version may not have a lot of impact left for you but if you’re watching this story for the first time then you will be left spellbound by the second half. Kamat maintains a tight grip of the proceedings and ties all the threads together very competently.

The technical aspects of Drishyam suit the nature of the film but one thing which caught our eyes was the cinematography by Avinash Adun who manages to catch the other non-beach side of Goa beautifully in his frames. The editing is decent but the film could have been trimmed by 10 minutes especially the first half. The music of Drishyam is not spectacular as they maintain a low key presence in this thriller.

Acting: Drishyam marks the return to form for Ajay Devgn. The actor has earned a lot of acclaim in serious roles in films like Zakhm, Company, Omkara etc. In Drishyam, he completely underplays his role and his behaviour, mannerisms and even his posture mirrors that of a common man. Tabu shines as the IG Meera Deshmukh. She portrays emotions of a mother who has lost her son, as well as the seriousness of being a strict police officer, with tremendous ease. Shriya Saran looks very pretty as the wife and emotes well. Unfortunately, she looks a little too young to play the mother of a teenage girl.

Conclusion: Drishyam is one of the most unusual thrillers to have come out of Bollywood in recent times. It takes a lot of time to set up the film and the thrill. But just when you’re about to lose patience, it takes us on a tour de force and keeps upping the gears until the last few moments. Drishyam deserves to be seen for two very good performances by the lead actors and also for the director’s tight grip over the subject material. Drishyam is as Indian a thriller as there possibly could be. If you’re in the mood for some drama and a good 3 hours in the theater, then Drishyam should be a must watch for you this week.

The best version of Drishyam is the Malayalam version. Ajay is flawless, but Mohanlal’s performance was in a different league altogether. The film has been made in 5 different languages including the original and Hindi version. Drishyam (2013 – Malayalam), Drishya (2014 – Kannada), Drushyam (2014 – Telugu), Papanasam (2015 – Tamil). If you have already watched one of those films, you can as well skip this.

Rating:

Reasons to watch Drishyam

• Ajay Devgn and Tabu. Flawless performance by both.
• Fantastic thriller
• Good second half
• Cinematography

Reasons to skip Drishyam

• Has been made in 5 different languages.
• First half slow, runtime on the longer side