When Jeethu Joseph’s Drishyam first hit theatres in 2013, there was an endearing quality to Georgekutty’s (Mohanlal) attempts at protecting his family. But over a decade later, the third instalment of the franchise sadly remains untouched by changing times. Drishyam 3 clings to dated ideas, visuals, and morality, occasionally saved by Mohanlal’s moving performance.
As the film opens, it is evident that Georgekutty and his family are drained by the weight of their crime. Their lives may have moved forward, but not moved on. Georgekutty, however, is cocky enough to produce a film based on their sordid past, something that makes you wonder whether his cleverness has gotten to his head. Meanwhile, Geetha Prabhakar (Asha Sharath) is clearly disturbed, and several loose ends from the past come to haunt Georgekutty, who is struggling to find a good alliance for his traumatised elder daughter Anju (Ansiba Hassan).
Jeethu goes high on melodrama, coughing up characters with deliberate motives thrust upon them to unsettle Georgekutty’s cover-up. The first half slowly unpacks the fear of impending doom on the family and how they struggle to find closure. As in Drishyam and Drishyam 2, in this part too, it is the life and future of Anju that anchors all the drama. This is precisely where the problem of the franchise lies, too.
Rani (Meena), Anju, and Anu (Esther Anil) all depend on Georgekutty to conduct their lives. He is not just their saviour, but also the keeper of their conscience and the prime mover in their universe. Despite the looming threat of being apprehended, it is quite strange that Georgekutty does not want to relocate or consider sending his children abroad for a better future. When things eventually rock their threadbare balance, he swoops in to save them, once again, in an engaging final act.
Jeethu Joseph reaches for the lowest hanging fruit to sell the plot – melodrama and twists. This is not necessarily a bad route to take, but the franchise rarely engages with the characters or the dilemmas they endure beyond the surface.
For example, Georgekutty is deeply aware of the loss he has caused to Geetha and her husband, Prabhakar (Sidhique). However, that guilty conscience does not extend to the many crimes he has subsequently committed, or the many lives he has toppled to serve his purpose.
He tries to compensate for selfishness with charity, but never stops to ask himself how long he can keep going.
What is more worrying to me is how there is no conversation about Anju beyond her trauma or marriage. In a span of 13 years, from the release of the first film in the series, Anju remains defined by what happened to her. Though one cannot wish the baggage of extreme trauma away, it is disappointing to see how Jeethu keeps Georgekutty and his daughters embedded in an archaic, moral timeloop, where marriage is the only acceptable way of moving ahead.
Drishyam 3 also has no mention of Varun Prabhakar’s (Rohan Basheer) predatory behaviour. While a murder is a crime, the fact also remains that all of this was set in motion because Anju was blackmailed with a clip of her taking a bath that Varun secretly shot. If only someone had told Geetha that such blinding love for her son is unacceptable, instead of treating her grief as some sort of righteous mourning for a martyr. And watching Sidhique step in is uncomfortable.
Mohanlal single-handedly holds several scenes up, not letting Georgekutty slip. Esther gets to be a slightly rebellious adolescent, which is a relief. Meena has nothing significant to do, while Ansiba shines in her role.
Jeethu Joseph may think that subjecting a character like Anju – a woman who resisted violation – to repeated trauma is thrilling. But reinforcing archaic values and reaffirming the role of the male patriarch in a family is hardly inventive storytelling.
By the time the film gets to its final act, Georgekutty is slightly exhausted, but determined to ‘save’ his daughter. What he does to achieve that is (for the lack of a better word, devoid of spoilers) harrowing to watch.
Here is hoping that both Georgekutty and Jeethu realise that having daughters is not really the problem at hand. And, that they finally see how the real crime would be stretching this franchise any further.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.
