Nishikant Kamat’s 2015 crime thriller ‘Drishyam’ starring Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta, Mrunal Jadhav and Rajat Kapoor is a thriller that kept us guessing till the very end. A remake of Mohanlal’s 2013 Malayalam film of the same name, the Hindi film follows the Salgaonkars of Goa, who got away with murder.
Set seven years after the first movie, the sequel, ‘Drishyam 2’, puts the Salgaonkars under the scanner when the Sagar Deshmukh murder case is reopened by Goa’s new Inspector General (IG) of Police, Tarun Ahlawat (Akshaye Khanna). The sequel, helmed by Abhishek Pathak, is a remake of the 2021 Malayalam film ‘Drishyam 2’.
Spoilers ahead!
High on twists and turns
When we last met him in 2015, Vijay Salgaonkar (an expectedly top-notch Devgn) was a fourth grade dropout who ran a cable TV business service in Goa. Oh, and he’d cannily helped his family get away with murder. Seven years later, Vijay leads a more prosperous lifestyle. He owns a movie theatre and wants to produce a film. What hasn’t changed is his love for films and family. There is nothing Vijay won’t do for his family comprising his wife Nandini (Shriya Saran) and daughters Anju (Ishita Dutta) and Anu (Mrunal Jadhav), as we find out over the course of two-odd hours. Ahlawat is aided in his investigation into the murder of Sagar Deshmukh by Sagar’s vengeful mother, Goa’s ex-IG Meera Deshmukh (Tabu), suspended sub-Inspector Gaitonde (Kamlesh Sawant) and a pair of undercover cops posing as the Salgaonkars’ neighbours (Neha Joshi, Nishant Singh). Vijay’s arsenal consists of his love for his family, knowledge gleaned from films and the Scout motto: be prepared. As the cat and mouse game between Team Goa Police and Vijay intensifies, you wonder, provided you haven’t watched the Malayalam film, if Vijay will manage to walk away triumphant at the end of this one as well.
The film’s first half is a tad leisurely as it takes its own sweet time to set the chess pieces in place. Once things get going, there are very few moments when the director relaxes the taut pace to let you breathe. The final 20 minutes of the film are an absolute revelation as satisfying twists upon twists are unleashed on the audience. While Tabu’s Meera Deshmukh was menacing in the OG film, her character in this film is snipped to that of a vindictive mother with very little screen time. Even though Khanna puts in the effort, he’s overshadowed by Devgn’s Salgaonkar.
WATCH OR NOT
For the love of a good thriller, and Ajay Devgn, definitely.
Director: Abhishek Pathak
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Akshaye Khanna, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta, Mrunal Jadhav, Rajat Kapoor
