“Everything is planned…” When Ajnabee had Bobby Deol exposing Akshay Kumar in a corny yet wildly entertaining climax, we watched with amusement while tapping our feet to an infectious Anu Malik tune. It was never meant to feel intelligent. The same planning by a sharp-minded person made the Malayalam film Drishyam a national sensation. Georgekutty (Mohanlal) put Malayalam cinema on the national movie map, perhaps for the first time in history. Shockingly enough, Drishyam 3, the sequel to Drishyam 2, finds its tension in spontaneity and unpredictability, not foolproof planning. The question is: are we ready for this version of Georgekutty?
Early in Jeethu Joseph’s film, we see him in an unusually absent-minded state. Immersed in the success of his debut movie production, Georgekutty’s interactions with superstar Harikumar (Biju Menon) offer a mini meta moment from the first edition, where Rani (Meena) points at the (real) actor’s family as an ideal one. Today, Georgekutty, Rani, and their children Anju (Ansiba) and Anu (Esther Anil) enjoy a similar life of comfort: a bigger house, multiple cars, a flourishing business, and now a 100-crore blockbuster.
In Drishyam 3, the family’s biggest concern is Anju’s impending marriage. Perhaps as a result of the trauma that once consumed her life, she lacks agency over decisions concerning her future and remains content being “married off” by her parents. Meanwhile, Anu has grown into a confident young woman with ambitions of studying in Singapore. Rani herself is positive about her daughters going abroad, whether after marriage or for studies, which is merely a derivative of wanting to enrol them in St. Joseph’s School when they were children. There is also an interesting conversation around dowry, with the progressive Anu firmly opposing it, though Drishyam 3 awkwardly reframes the practice as the girl’s “share.” Convenient semantics aside, the exchange does reflect the evolving generational divide within the family and society.
It won’t take us long to realise Georgekutty’s family is still conservative, and they carry the scars of an unspeakable past, making the daughter’s marriage an emotional milestone. Jeethu Joseph knows that a Drishyam film cannot survive on domestic drama alone. Soon, familiar faces return: Prabhakar, IG Thomas Bastin, Pathros, Renuka, Jose, Mary, and, most importantly, Sahadevan. If Jose appears remorseful about his past actions, the Prabhakar couple switches temperaments, as if possessed by each other’s ghosts. Pathros remains bedridden while Renuka continues to be salon-fresh. Everything moves along steadily until Drishyam 3 arrives at its biggest reveal around the interval point.
If Georgekutty is no longer obsessively planning every move, others certainly are. To nobody’s surprise, their mediocre tactics collapse like a house of cards. It’s comical because the villains who have strange individual agendas give our protagonist a free hand to survive through instinct and lightning-fast decision-making. Georgekutty’s devotion to protecting his family has reached a point where he no longer recognizes the humanity of those he has wronged. There is a particularly gutting moment where an aide who betrayed him states his reason for doing so. Likewise, the lengths he is willing to go to for his daughter become shockingly apparent in the final moments of Drishyam 3.
The antagonists are all familiar faces but are rarely convincing. Ironically, the most logical and sensible person in Drishyam 3 is IG Thomas Bastin (Murali Gopy). He constantly appears trapped inside a plan that makes little sense. As for fans of the franchise, Drishyam 3 offers enough emotional potency to remain attached to Georgekutty, Rani, and their children as their good-naturedness makes us ignore an unintelligent last act.
Topping the elements I enjoyed in Drishyam 3 is Anil Johnson’s music, which gives a lovely soundscape to the proceedings. The recurring background riffs from the earlier films evoke nostalgia while also sustaining tension during key moments. Satheesh Kurup’s cinematography knows it must be tender during intimate family scenes and urgent whenever the narrative demands urgency. That said, at 153 minutes, Joseph’s film is unnecessarily stretched, with several sequences screaming for a tighter cut.
Once again, Mohanlal is the soul of this universe. He plays Georgekutty with effortless command, even if the character himself no longer appears as invincible as before. Perhaps that vulnerability is precisely the point in Drishyam 3. This time around, it is in his scenes with his family that the actor is at his expressive best. A case in point is a lunch table discussion where he gets distracted and loses his cool instead of mediating between his wife and children as usual. Meena is excellent as Rani, and it is lovely to see how the writing allows the woman to evolve without losing her warmth and fragility. With the story largely revolving around her marriage, Ansiba Hassan delivers an affecting performance. Esther Anil shows the most visible growth, bringing humour and energy to the opinionated Anu.
The supporting ensemble, however, suffers because the screenplay often reduces them to clichés. Siddique struggles to convince as Prabhakar 2.0, a version we didn’t quite need. I was only interested in his and his wife’s income sources, having left Kerala to live in the USA in 2013. Kalabhavan Shajohn’s Sahadevan, once among the franchise’s most memorable characters, is disappointingly underused. Asha Sharath barely gets any substantial material this time, and Veena Nandakumar is wasted in a role that exists only for convenience.
So, does Drishyam 3 deliver thrills? Absolutely. Does it make the franchise proud? Not entirely, though it satisfies many of the expectations surrounding a film of this scale. Would I want to revisit this family? Perhaps not. Instead, I would want Georgekutty’s and Prabhakar’s families to move beyond their trauma and find the peace they have been denied for far too long. The Drishyam universe must learn the art of forgiveness, or it must stop playing with familiar tropes. Otherwise, it risks entering a stage where we no longer care for its fundamentally good-hearted people. And that is a day I certainly do not wish to see.
VERDICT: ★★★
Read more reviews of Drishyam 3 by the Film Critics Guild HERE.
