Drishyam 2 Movie Review: Twisted Intrigue bordering on convoluted

Drishyam 2. Pic/Youtube

Drishyam 2
Cast: Mohanlal, Meena, Esther Anil, Siddique, Murali Gopy, Saikumar
Director: Jeethu Joseph
Rating:

A sequel that follows similar pathways as compared to its super-successful multiple language prequel, Director/writer Jeethu Joseph and lead star Mohanlal's attempt to cash-in on that heyday is fairly gripping and twisty enough to please the casual thrill-seeking audience. But a logical or convincing justification for what transpires on screen is not very forthcoming here.

Our Georgekutty's (Mohanlal) family is once again threatened by an investigation. But this time around, Georgekutty has graduated from cable TV operator/video cassette shop owner to owning a theatre and dabbling in production. He also has a script in the making, so his vocational bandwidth has developed much bigger with an ideas bank much larger than those influenced by the serial watching of successful films. Drishyam was all about family and how each member goes the distance to protect their loved one. The narrative picks-up six years after the first film ended. Georgekutty (Mohanlal), Rani (Meena) and their two daughters continue to live in fear. Varun, son of Inspector Geetha Prabhakar (Asha Sharath) is still missing. The cops are still not convinced of Georgekutty's innocence and secretly keep a watch on his actions. And then a major breakthrough happens - with all clues leading up Georgekutty's alley. The family comes under the cops' scanner once again.

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The new narrative stays with the family element allowing for some feel-good family sequences while seeking to ratchet up the tempo for further intrigue towards the last 40 or so minutes. Social envy and family trauma are the key elements that drive this engagement forward. Those who once were sympathetic to Georgeutty's incidental infamy (as shown in the first part) are now convinced of his culpability. They may well be jealous of his success … and that, only the ongoing investigation will prove or disprove. While the build-up towards the final resolution is enviably smart and heightens the tension to a palpable level, the end game comes as a disappointment. It feels thoroughly manipulated given the convoluted nature of the narrative and isn't as potent or surprising as the one in the first. The many characters and sub-threads added for the purpose of adding twists and turns seem fairly obvious and there are enough loopholes to cast aspersions on the endgame. If this sequel journey has to be left open-ended it's a given that Georgekutty will once again trump the police. Like a character says, Georgekutty has been waiting for six years to test this new escape route and he may have mastered it enough to convince the cops in the film but the audience reception to it may well be another story altogether!