Drishyam is a Hindi remake of a Tamil monster blockbuster. I have not seen the latter so I can't make the comparison (but I have just found out that the Tamil movie with English subtitles is on YouTube ... Yeah!).
Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn) runs a cable TV network in a remote and hilly village of Goa. He lives a happy life with his wife Nandini and two daughters. A 4th grade dropout & an orphan, Vijay has worked his way towards success with his sheer hard-work & street smartness in order to provide for his family who mean the world to him. A man of few means & needs; Vijay believes life is to be lived simplistically - his wife, while she loves him devoutly, wants Vijay's thrifty & miserly behavior to end and wants the world for her family. If there's one thing that Vijay cannot live without, it is his passion for watching films. Such is his 'filmy' obsession that he doesn't mind staying up all night at his office binging on TV movies! In a bizarre turn of events; a teenage boy goes missing; he is the son of a headstrong & no-nonsense cop; IG Meera Deshmukh (Tabu) and the Salgaonkar family is the prime suspect! Will a humble & middle class man, be able to protect his family from oppression of the powerful? How the family weathers the storm that ensues during the violent investigation forms the rest of the story leading to an unexpected & shocking climax.
Drishyam is a riveting entertainer. The first half lays the foundation for a rip-roaring second half and it didn't disappoint. The cast is great with Ajay Devgn leading the ultimate "how to get away with murder" plot line. We are treated to his ultimate foe in Tabu who has the killer look to match her crime brain. Elsewhere, I really enjoy watching Rajat Kapoor who plays Tabu's husband. His character moves in brilliant counterpoint to Tabu's relentless pursuit for the answer. Love the superb cat and mouse games and how the tables keep turning till we were tearing our hair off, but everything hits the groove and reaches a satisfying climax.
Drishyam could have been a classic but several creative choices baffled me. The humour in the first half feels laboured and forced. How it paints the family of four is too obvious to me. But thankfully I love watching Vijay who is a character after my heart. He loves watching action movies, law and crime dramas, and the accumulated wealth of knowledge help lay the path of deceit and red herrings for the police. He is a character that is very easy to root for. Tabu also puts in a superb shift and it is easy to believe in her smarts, but it is her cold cruelty that puts a shiver in my heart. Overall, I find the writing couldn't match up with the characters and story, and it felt very "by the numbers" rudimentary to me. In more capable hands the shades of the characters would have been more layered and the theme of wrong versus wronged shining forth. Fans of the Japanese film Suspect X will find this quite familiar but thankfully with a good mixing up of elements and locale. As it is, it comes off just as a solid piece of entertainment than superb character studies.
Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn) runs a cable TV network in a remote and hilly village of Goa. He lives a happy life with his wife Nandini and two daughters. A 4th grade dropout & an orphan, Vijay has worked his way towards success with his sheer hard-work & street smartness in order to provide for his family who mean the world to him. A man of few means & needs; Vijay believes life is to be lived simplistically - his wife, while she loves him devoutly, wants Vijay's thrifty & miserly behavior to end and wants the world for her family. If there's one thing that Vijay cannot live without, it is his passion for watching films. Such is his 'filmy' obsession that he doesn't mind staying up all night at his office binging on TV movies! In a bizarre turn of events; a teenage boy goes missing; he is the son of a headstrong & no-nonsense cop; IG Meera Deshmukh (Tabu) and the Salgaonkar family is the prime suspect! Will a humble & middle class man, be able to protect his family from oppression of the powerful? How the family weathers the storm that ensues during the violent investigation forms the rest of the story leading to an unexpected & shocking climax.
Drishyam is a riveting entertainer. The first half lays the foundation for a rip-roaring second half and it didn't disappoint. The cast is great with Ajay Devgn leading the ultimate "how to get away with murder" plot line. We are treated to his ultimate foe in Tabu who has the killer look to match her crime brain. Elsewhere, I really enjoy watching Rajat Kapoor who plays Tabu's husband. His character moves in brilliant counterpoint to Tabu's relentless pursuit for the answer. Love the superb cat and mouse games and how the tables keep turning till we were tearing our hair off, but everything hits the groove and reaches a satisfying climax.
Drishyam could have been a classic but several creative choices baffled me. The humour in the first half feels laboured and forced. How it paints the family of four is too obvious to me. But thankfully I love watching Vijay who is a character after my heart. He loves watching action movies, law and crime dramas, and the accumulated wealth of knowledge help lay the path of deceit and red herrings for the police. He is a character that is very easy to root for. Tabu also puts in a superb shift and it is easy to believe in her smarts, but it is her cold cruelty that puts a shiver in my heart. Overall, I find the writing couldn't match up with the characters and story, and it felt very "by the numbers" rudimentary to me. In more capable hands the shades of the characters would have been more layered and the theme of wrong versus wronged shining forth. Fans of the Japanese film Suspect X will find this quite familiar but thankfully with a good mixing up of elements and locale. As it is, it comes off just as a solid piece of entertainment than superb character studies.