Drishyam Review - Ordinary tale of extraordinary things

Drishyam is a Hindi remake of Jeethu Joseph's Malayalam film, which is an "original story" by Joseph that is in turn loosely based on Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X. Staying true to the original Malayalam version, Drishyam is the tale of a man who in an attempt to save his family, convinces the police that he’s committed a crime that he hasn’t actually committed. He takes on the blame for a different crime on him, leaving the police and the audience in a maze of alibis, proof and loads of unanswered questions.

Ajay Devgan plays Vijay Salgaonkar, a simple cable operator in a small nonedescript village where he lives with his lovely wife and two daughters. One of the daguther's friend tapes her showering and blackmails her. The guy gets killed by the wife accidentally while she is trying to save the kid. The man now weaves an elaborate web of alibis to deflect the blame and escape the murder. The film takes all about loving the family to another level.

Having seen the other four remakes in south of the same film, one can safely say that Ajay is no match to a Mohan Lal or the recent Kamal. Yet, what heartens the mind is the fact that this is the Ajay of yore, before the singhams and golmals happened- well almost. He has the mandatory swagger walk and stares. Yet he does also give us glimpses of a once national award winning actor we all so miss.

The other big draw of the film is the maverick Tabu. Her part in each of the southern versions have been played by actors who easily were over shadowed by the lead protagonist. Sometimes even by the wife (Gowthami in particular and Meena in the Malayalam one). Shriya Saran, as the wife in this version, is just no match to Tabu. The latter takes a smallish role turning it into a tour de force. She elevates the slagging screenplay and pacing of the film giving us a build up to an epic face off between her and Ajay. Sadly, the promise she holds out, is belied by the film itself.

Drishyam suffers from pacing, from emotional consistency in tonality. Then there are all the potholes of Joseph's "original" screenplay that find their way into the Hindi version as is. The police come out as stupid, choosing to torture an admission out of Ajay in the IG's house even. Many a times in the film, one just does not get why the characters would not do the obvious logical thing of seeking a help outside of the premise and go about round and round the illogical lane. The first half is a tad too long, especially since none of the romance between Shreya and Ajay rings true.

Despite these flaws, for someone who hasnt seen the southern versions and has no clue about suspect X, Drushyam might just work as a decent entertainer. Mostly the credit for this goes to Tabu. Watch this film for her.

Rating: 2.5/5