POPCORN REVIEWSS

Written by Jeethu Joseph, the events of Drishyam 3 take place exactly four and a half years after the events of Drishyam 2, wherein the protagonist Georgekutty (Mohanlal) had outwitted the cops and destroyed Varun’s body, while in the process saving his family and his daughter from imprisonment. And in the same breath, we are now privy to Georgekutty’s financial state that are only progressed from the first film – starting from a video library to a movie theatre and finally turning producer here to a movie IP (based on his life) worth 100 crores. In the same breath, you are also introduced to Geetha (Asha Sarath) who has slipped in depression following the endless pursue of her son, even as her husband Prabhakar (Siddiqui) remains a silent spectator. And immediately your loyalties are tested in the drama with regards to the plight of both families in question – one being cautiously jovial while the other on the brink of destruction.

In many ways, the writing here remains a character-driven plot, focusing on the characterization of the protagonist who has significantly evolved from the first film. While in Drishyam 2, you saw Georgekutty being extremely vigilant and sharp, the Georgekutty here is increasingly vulnerable while relatively lowering his guard. In a significant scene, you see him conveying his deepest insecurities to a character by exclaiming on how he fears that his children would perceive him like a calculative sociopath. This feeling of his probably stems from the fact that he is regretful of the event that changed his and his family’s life, while continuing to assure himself that he was only protecting his family. In the same breath, you also see him lowering his guard – not quite marking the moves of every character around him, while also volunteering to answer all the questions of his daughters Anju (Anjiba Hassan) and Anu (Esther Anil).

The writing here essentially follows the template that is synonymous with the Drishyam world – allowing the viewers time to immerse themselves in the narrative while getting reacquainted with the characters before delivering the hammering blow at the end. And yet, I wasn’t always approaching this narrative from the finale twist – significantly being invested in the protagonist’s journey of finding a potential groom for his daughter Anju, only to continue to receive rejections following the chatter on social media. In hindsight, this plot point felt slightly half-baked given that the chatter is only inferenced and never really shown on screen.

Other than the two nosey journalists doing the rounds, namely Yamini (Veena Nandakumar who mysteriously is forgotten after a point) and her colleague (Shiva Hariharan) – the atmosphere built around the chatter that was synonymous with the first two films is missing here. Be it the neighbours or the tea shop near the police station – the key contributors to the chatter aren’t a part of the narrative here, and neither is there an attempt at digressing into the social media space.

The Drishyam franchise can often be regarded as a mood piece known to lure the viewers in, before tactfully shifting gears. Keeping that in mind, I was blown away by the twist at the halfway mark, bringing back a character from the dead – this time with a vengeful purpose of completely destroying the life of the protagonist, something that raised the bar for me going into the second half. But once there, the writing continued to spiral down in the usual trappings of the genre.

One minor flaw remained on how the reintroduction of the character doubled up as the face of the antagonist here – as opposed to characters like Geetha or even IG Thomas Bastin (Murali Gopy) who were considered on the right side of the law. My point here is on how your loyalties were split between what is right versus what is ‘actual’ justice – simply based on the personality of the characters. But bringing in a character that didn’t sway loyalties even previously in the franchise, made this a one-sided road – even as the cat and mouse game was in full mode. Some other characters like a psychiatrist, or a morgue attendent, or even a grave-digger ought to have added a little more weightage to the drama than they actually did – a drawback that is felt towards the end wherein their contributions don’t really circle back to the ‘twist’.

One major disconnect for me was a U-turn of a character that was always calm and collected, despite being an important stakeholder in the crime that was being committed. My issue wasn’t as much with the situation at home that prompted him to ‘switch’, but more in lines with how the ‘switch’ was only used as a device to take the story ahead, while never fully being in sync with his personality. And from thereon, the slide was a reality, sadly!

The idea of stacking every twist along the way in the final 20 minutes is a risky proposition – given how the film would only work if the twist in itself is outrageously brilliant. In hindsight, the twist in Drishyam 2 was convoluted but it very much felt believable, while leaving you in awe of the protagonist. But the twist here doesn’t have the same impact even while being convoluted. At one point, the events felt like a youtube video in 2X speed – with a central event unfolding through alternate perspectives. The issue though for me was with the desperation to impress along with a bout of indecisiveness – that lead to a convoluted conclusion.

It also didn’t help that the protagonist is shown to crack the trap by a mere chance, as opposed to orchestrating the events of the conclusion. The idea of reverse engineering the twists has been a recent feature of Jeethu Joseph’s filmography, and that would always come under a scanner if they don’t organically add up. So even a relatively emotional ending here isn’t enough to save a film that sadly ended up being a sequel bait. Like the great The Godfather franchise featuring two legendary classics, I would assume that the third film doesn’t exist. In the same breath, why was there a tease for a fourth film? Just let Varun’s soul RIP now, please?