Movie Review: Drishyam..thrilling vision but loose presentation

Storywise, Drishyam is certainly an illusion worth witnessing. In fact, the plotline of Drishyam and sense of hypnotism with which it has the potential to sweep its audience held tremendous promise. Tightly packaged and with slick direction it could’ve been a real cracker. However, its loose presentation means it lacks sheen and a gripping tale on paper becomes a slow and frustrating ordeal at its long runtime of 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Drishyam leaves you with a rather despondent feeling of having not witnessed the brilliance it could’ve had with such a solid plot in place. I haven’t seen the Mohanlal original that this one is a remake of and it is amiss of me to presume that the original had the same wearied presentation and runtime. However, the over-the-top drama and over-emphasis on background score rather than quality of writing makes me suspect that to be the case – and those are precisely the issues with Drishyam. That, and the handful of disturbing scenes that could’ve been much more tastefully presented or outright removed, especially when the script didn’t actually demand them.

There are a handful of scenes that will take your breath away as well and you never get the feeling that the story itself is weak. Yet, there is more than one scene where you shake your head in disbelief at the fine mess the director has made of what could’ve been a good thing.

Initially one feels that the slow build up is necessary to connect better with the characters as the plot gathers momentum – and that is even true in many cases. However, the over extended scenes of interrogation and unnecessary drama end up leaving more of a bad taste in the mouth than any appreciation of the predicament of the story’s characters

It is quite clear that for Drishyam the story is king and that shows in the way its characters are handled as well. While Ajay Devgn does complete justice to his role, despite being the protagonist of the story, his character lacks dimensions even though its plain that there ought to be many layers to it. Tabu being the accomplished actress she is, is again practically wasted in a character that doesn’t really need her range of performance as is Rajat Kapoor – am still wondering why his character was needed in the first place.

In the hands of a more able director like Sujoy Ghosh, Drishyam had the plot to be another ‘Kahaani’. However, as it stands, it is only an illusion to believe that the movie does justice. Drishyam could’ve been so much more