‘Drishyam’
is a critically acclaimed as well as a commercially successful movie in all its
versions. It’s a commendable achievement considering the original version was
shot in a regional language. While I watched this movie, I couldn’t resist
comparing it with another movie of the same genre i.e ‘Kahani’. Both are
suspense thrillers and keep you captivated till the last second of the movie.
In
‘Drishyam’, Vijay Salgaonkar is a family man in a small village in Goa who runs
a cable business and works nights. He has a loving wife, one teenage daughter
and a younger one. The family is aspiring like any other middle class family in
India and cherishes the conservative values. Their simple and peaceful life is
disturbed due to an accidental killing of a blackmailer by the elder daughter,
in presence of his wife. The victim happens to be a son of powerful and
apparently ruthless woman police officer. What follows is game of wits and
battle for saving family by Vijay against the all powerful cop. Anticipating
that circumstantial evidence and personal animosity against corrupt local cop
will bring the cops at his door steps, he plans a daring cleanup operation and
saves his family. Ultimately, he comes out clean with a clear conscience and
tells his wife that in some circumstances the judgment of wrong or right is
beyond human ability and anyone would have acted similarly.
Why is ‘Drishyam’
a good movie? There is very small answer to the question: good story. It keeps
you riveted till the end. You long for answers like the desperate cop and
admire the efforts of a commoner pitted against the powerful. There is obvious
sympathy towards the family considering the conditions in which the unfortunate
and unintended murder takes place. This helps the viewers to identify the
protagonists clearly. While the investigation is certainly conclusive about the
ignorance of the family in the eyes of the husband of the cop, who acts as a
‘Dr Watson’ of the cop, the cop reveals the greater design and concludes that
Vijay is the one behind the disappearance of her son. This revelation comes out
as a big twist and along with Mr Cop, the viewer too understand Vijay’s design
to fabricate the counter evidence. How Vijay’s gutsy pre planning helps him
survive remains to be seen on the screen.
The seasoned
actors have done their jobs with ease. Ajay Devgan, Tabu, Shriya Saran and
Rajat Kapoor have done good jobs. Special mention must be made of Kamlesh
Sawant who plays corrupt local cop and the girls playing the daughters of Vijay.
Casting is perfect.
‘Drishyam’
does play a limited mind game with the viewers but they might love to see more of
how the impeccable family bonding fails to crumble in the adversity. However, I
felt that ‘Drishyam’ does not give a cinematic experience as good as ‘Kahani’
gave, where the camera speaks a lot instead of characters. Possibly original ‘Drishyam’
was made with limited resources but with no such constraints applicable in
Hindi this could have looked better. It looks an average budget Hindi movie. But
for these smaller handicaps, which do not hamper the viewers good experience
anyway, this movie is a worth watch.
The movie
is made against the background of Goa, my current place of residence and it was
quite amusing to see the references to places, practices and language of the
place. There were shots in the movie where the family goes to the movie hall
and it was shot in the same hall where I was watching the movie. Interesting.
My rating:
7 out of 10
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