Drishyam 2 review: Ajay Devgn’s character, Vijay Salgaonkar, has evolved from a middle-class, fourth-fail cable operator who is crazy about Bollywood movies to a theatre owner who wants to produce a movie and already has the plot written. The passion he has for movies, for telling stories, and for dark stories hasn’t altered over the past seven years.
So, you can expect this mystery to only get more intriguing, entertaining, and thrilling when his case file in a murder case reopens in the Goa police station. Drishyam 2, a remake of the 2021 Malayalam film of the same name, is a follow-up to the 2015 crime thriller that left everyone wondering what transpired on October 2 and 3, a story that we all now recall by heart after spending a hundred times during the investigation listening to the Salgaonkar family members.
The Abhishek Pathak-directed movie is based on the prequel’s narrative, which created a lot of attention. There are numerous allusions throughout the sequel that serve to remind viewers how excellent the original movie was. His wife Nandini (Shriya Saran), daughters Anju (Ishita Dutta), and Annu, Vijay Salgaonkar (Mrinal Jadhav) live in Goa.
After Nandini and Anju accidentally kill Sam, a small kid who is the son of Goa IG Meera Deshmukh (Tabu), Vijay comes up with various strategies every day to protect his family and ultimately resorts to telling 100 falsehoods to conceal oneThe sequel introduces us to Tarun Ahlawat (Akshaye Khanna), a new IG in town who reopens this file and seeks to locate Sam’s body as well as any other loose ends that could aid in his efforts to put Vijay in jail.
The Malayalam original, written and directed by Jeetu Joseph, deserves full credit for the brilliant plot. Despite having all the makings of a commercial potboiler including dialogues, punchlines, expressions, and even subtly placed humor, Drishyam 2 does not disappoint. Each song goes beyond your comprehension and opens up new cans of worms.
Drishyam 2 has an advantage and stays on the course thanks to an equally engrossing screenplay by Aamil Kenyan Khan and Pathak that justifies the narrative. The tension is increased by the slow motion and up-close shots of the characters, and the pace never flags. While there are some slow spots in the first half, the second half picks up the pace, and the final 30 minutes will have you cheering, clapping, and even blowing a few whistles. You don’t object when Drishyam’s 2 girls fully film dialogues after one another because they never seem out of place.
I appreciated how realistic the film’s creators preserved Ajay’s character, who is in top shape. He appears to have gained weight over the past seven years, which makes sense given that he isn’t portraying a cop but rather a typical middle-class man. He also looks effortlessly convincing in all of those gloomy scenes That one glance is sufficient. The younger daughter of Salgaonkar is now an adult woman who, unlike in the original film, has little to do in the follow-up. I hardly recall any of the lines she was given.
The traumatic events have led to Anju, Ishita’s daughter, developing epilepsy. She gives a passable performance. Despite having a wooden expression in most sequences, Akshaye Khanna makes a stunning return to the big screen following Section 375 (2019). I regrettably thought Tabu was limited to just a cameo in the sequel and wished her part had greater significance. Once again, Laxmikant Gaitonde (Kamlesh Sawant) will make you hate him. The new addition, Saurabh Shukla, first appears at the beginning before disappearing and reappearing at the conclusion with the major revelation.
While the tale in Drishyam 2 advances and the people age, it appears that some things haven’t changed at all. For instance, after all these years, I had expected Martin’s canteen to at least get a makeover and become a modestly upscale cafeteria.
The fact that the largest departments, including forensics, still lack CCTVs is something else that disturbs me. Imagine that Vijay now has access to various CCTV recordings from both the street outside the police station and his theatre office. Did the Salgaonkar family ever consider telling the police the truth—that Sam was extorting them and that the incident was an accident—about this? Maybe a trial would have resulted in justice for them.
However, Drishyam 2 checks off most of the Bollywood audiences’ requirements and is a pleasure to watch. This is the standard masala movie that you would love to watch on the big screen, but only if you don’t have too many questions.
2 Drishyam
Abhishek Pathak is the director.
Cast: Rajat Kapoor, Tabu, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta, Ajay Devgn, and Akshaye Khanna
