Director: Abhishek Pathak
Writers: Aamil Keeyan Khan, Abhishek Pathak, Jeethu Joseph
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Akshaye Khanna, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta, Rajat Kapoor
It’s not difficult to discern why the Drishyam franchise – across languages – is so commercially successful. It’s not the storytelling; it’s the story. Beneath its cheap narrative thrills lies the quiet endorsement of middle-class morality. All the bases are covered. A father and husband protects his family at all costs. A half-educated man outwits a system designed to prey on people like him. Privilege is the villain: A parent of a good girl defeats the parent of an entitled boy. Performance is the hero: The family must pretend to be normal when they’re not. Most of all, a middle-aged Indian weaponises his love for the movies. Cinema is his superpower. Escapism defines his escape. The flexibility of film – represented by the family man’s audacity and planning – is at war with the rigidity of life, represented by the law enforcement process struggling to nail him. By rooting for him, we are reclaiming the relationship between cinephilia and human character. There’s a difference, after all, between visual and image – one is determined by sight, the other by societal gaze.
A Hindi remake of Jeethu Joseph’s hit Malayalam sequel, Drishyam 2 extends the meta commentary on this relationship. The smart thing about Joseph’s original screenplay is that the sequel, for most part, looks like a replay of the first film. On the face of it, history is repeating itself. Everyone is older but no wiser. Seven years later, the Salgaonkar family – led by protagonist Vijay (Ajay Devgn) – is again under scrutiny. They again exchange furtive glances with each other. The cat-and-mouse game in Goa resumes; the hunt for evidence in Pondolem continues. The IG (Akshaye Khanna) might be new, but the team is not. Mother of the murdered boy, Meera (Tabu), is back from London, as is bad cop Gaitonde (Kamlesh Sawant) from a long suspension. Vijay is again on the back foot for a majority of the investigation. The family is tortured again. The only difference is that we, the audience, start from the space of knowing where Vijay has hidden the body. So it’s not about outwitting the system anymore. It’s about outsmarting karma.
