Drishyam Movie Review – Bollywood Bubble

Directed by: Nishikant Kamat
Produced by: Kumar Mangat Pathak
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Rajat Kapoor, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta
Duration: 2 hours 43 minutes
Bollywood Bubble Rating: 4/5

‘Drishyam’: Visuals can be Deceptive, a Nishikant Kamat’s thriller inspired by Japanese crime-writer Keigo Higashino’s novel ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’. The movie has already been made in Malayalam with the same name and in Tamil as Papanasam with Kamal Haasan in the lead. Now we have Bollywood’s Singham Ajay Devgn, depicting the role of a common man out to save his family.

Fourth standard dropout Vijay Salgaonkar(Ajay Devgn) lives in Goa with his wife Nandini(Shriya Saran) and their two daughters. Vijay runs a cable-video business. Life is going well for the small family, till Vijay’s teenage daughter gets embroiled in a controversy. Vijay’s teenage daughter Anu(Ishita) goes for a inter-school nature camp. Where Sameer Deshmukh(Risabh Chaddha)the son of IG, Meera Deshmukh(Tabu) shoots a video-clip of her in the shower.

Sameer asks her to meet him to garner favors in return of the video, she takes her mother along to convince him to handover the video clip. In the ensuing pushing and pulling, Anju grabs a rod and tries to knock the video-containing mobile phone out of Sameer’s raised hand. But she ends up killing him. Mother and daughter bury the body in the backyard. When Vijay returns the next morning, they tell him all. To protect his family Vijay comes up with an elaborate plan to cover their tracks. Enters Inspector General of Police Meera Deshmukh(Tabu) to investigate her son’s disappearance. She guesses with her police instincts that the Salgaonkar’s are somehow involved in the matter. The film gathers momentum as an interesting chase ensues between the Inspector General of Police and Vijay.

Will Meera Deshmukh be able to nail the culprits ? Or will the Salgaonkars escape from the hands of law? all this and many more such mysteries will unravel as the plot moves forward.

Tabu is perfectly cast as the brutal cop. Tabu’s impassive face convey the systemic rigidness that Meera Deshmukh represents, and she is solidly backed up by sub-inspector Gaitonde(Kamlesh Sawant), the only character who can prove Vijay’s guilt.

Ajay Devgn as the protective father, is truly awesome. Though he does not do much of bashing like his other films he still manages to convey his feelings through his intense eyes.

Shriya Saran as the wife and Ishita Dutta and Mrinal Jadhav as the older and younger daughter respectively do not leave much of an impact in the film. Rajat Kapoor, in the role of Meera’s businesssman husband has handled it with elan.

Director Nishikant Kamat and writer Upendra Sidhaye have managed to throw in a few surprises. Director of photography Avinash Arun harnesses the visual potential of the locales to great effect.

Watch the film for Tabu and Ajay Devgn’s cat and mouse game.