DRISHYAM reviews - Page 8

Several parts of Drishyam work but the film is more tackiness than craft, says Raja Sen.

Some movies appear on our viewing doorstep carrying far too much baggage.

Drishyam, for instance, is a Hindi remake of a Malayalam film of the same name made into several languages with leading men of exceptional pedigree, and which has also, I believe, stolen its set-up from a Japanese mystery thriller, The Devotion Of Suspect X.

That's an awful lot of suitcases all right.

As with too-eager houseguests, there are ways for filmgoers (and critics) to deal with such visitors, and in this particular case I decided against homework, invited the film in and asked it to leave its luggage out by the door.

I'm glad I did, because while I haven't watched any of the other Drishyams or read Suspect X, this Hindi version is an utterly unremarkable thriller, one that could have been potentially cool and wily, but one that falls well short of being memorable.

It's a depressingly ordinary film, and the allegedly stolen plot -- about a crime being covered-up -- is something we've seen many, many times before.

Heck, if you want to see a genuinely great thriller about a movie-inspired protagonist buying tickets and meeting people to construct a watertight alibi, go watch Sriram Raghavan's fantastic Johnny Gaddar instead of reading the rest of this review.

Ordinariness aside, Nishikant Kamat's Drishyam is watchable and even builds tension effectively from time to time.

But it ends up an overlong, overbaked drudge, largely because of Ajay Devgn in the lead, trying to look cerebral and calm while assuming solid-coloured shirts will absolve him of the artlessness he has flaunted in recent movies.

It would be unfair to compare most leading men to masters Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan, but Devgn -- who used to be a striking brooder, a man who appeared to know how to simmer on the inside -- is now just talking softly while essentially swaggering along regardless.

Vulnerability? Perish the thought.

The idea of subtle internalisation has led this man to sheer cardboard.

The way the film sees him doesn't help.

Even while playing an everyman who loves his family, a song montage in Drishyam has Devgn standing away from his wife and daughters, wearing sunglasses and striking a hero pose till the family comes and coos over him.

(Later in the same sequence his wife tries on heels and slips; Devgn sits back and laughs, making no effort to help her.)

Devgn's Vijay is a cable-operator who lives in a giant villa with a fawning family, and one day things go quite bizarrely awry.

Something must be done to save his world, and Vijay -- a film-lovin' orphan who prefers spending most nights with a tiny TV in his office instead of his moronically indulgent wife -- takes inspiration from the movies.

Except, and here is one fundamental problem with this meta film-within-film setup, he doesn't really do or learn anything of actual brilliance, with films having apparently taught him the mere value of being stubborn.

There are times he gets a lump in his throat watching Bachchan ham it up hard or one in his trousers watching Sunny Leone do the same, but it all appears too forced.

Save for a couple of scenes, the cinema-beats-life trope doesn't really pay off.

Secrets and lies

Drishyam

Rating:

July 31, 2015

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Tabu, Shriya Saran, Rajat Kapoor, Kamlesh Sawant, Ishita Dutta

Director: Nishikant Kamat

One of the big downsides to being an avid movie watcher in this age of information overload is that it's hard to go into a film knowing virtually nothing about it. Trailers tend to give away too much. And between the innumerable promotional interviews, and all those "experts" weighing in on social media, the joy of discovery sitting there in a dark cinema hall is often lost.

Which is why I will advise you this: go in to watch Drishyam knowing as little as you can about the film. In fact, you might want to stop reading this review right about now. I will try, nevertheless, to reveal as little of the plot as I can.

As you may already know, this Ajay Devgan starrer is a remake of the 2013 Malayalam film of the same name starring Mohanlal, which was recently remade in Tamil as Papanasam starring Kamal Haasan. Nishikant Kamat, director of the terrific Marathi film Dombivli Fast and the mediocre Bollywood film Force, helms this Hindi version and seldom deviates from the original blueprint, which is a good thing for the most part.

Devgan stars as Vijay Salgaocar, a middle-class family man, living with his wife (Shriya Saran) and two young daughters in a small town in a non-touristy part of Goa. Theirs is a happy unit, even if Daddy would rather spend his time watching movies in the small office he owns than take them to the city for shopping outings.

Early on we get a sense of Vijay's ordinary life: the modest restaurant he eats at, the regular folks that are his friends, the local cable TV business he runs, a corrupt cop he often locks horns with, the practical knowledge he's acquired from his obsessive love of films, and repeated reminders that he couldn't even clear Class Four in school.

Like in the Malayalam original, this exposition takes up a chunk of the film's first half. But to give credit where it's due, Kamat gets to the real plot comparatively sooner. An unfortunate incident pits Vijay and his family against another family...that of Meera Deshmukh (Tabu), a powerful and ruthless Inspector General of Police, and her husband (Rajat Kapoor). Both Vijay and Meera will go to great lengths for the safety and protection of their respective children, and therein arises the film's conflict.

Jeethu Joseph's terrific original script isn't fashioned as a whodunit - because we know who did it - but in fact as a battle of wits, a cat-and-mouse chase. There's a real thrill in watching one side concoct an elaborate web of lies, and the other side work systematically towards finding the chinks in their story. Because the script so brilliantly subverts the right/wrong template, there are moments where you'll find your loyalty towards the good guy' wavering.

The film's second half moves briskly, save for the unnecessary songs that act as speed bumps in the narrative. The suggestion that Vijay's entire strategy is plotted around ideas that came to him from watching movies is never adequately illustrated by Kamat. And in sticking too faithfully to the original, he repeats some of the indulgences and mistakes of that film.

But so strong is the plot of Drishyam that very little of this ultimately matters. You're riveted as the drama unfolds, even if you may have guessed one or both of the delicious twists in the final act.

It helps that Kamat has a trio of dependable actors in key roles. Kamlesh Sawant is appropriately despicable as Inspector Gaitonde, the vengeful cop who revels in the violence he is encouraged to inflict on Vijay's family. Ajay Devgan, in a part that offers no scope for showy histrionics, is nicely understated as the desperate parent who must constantly think on his feet. But the film belongs unquestionably to Tabu. Never reducing the role to a stereotype, she brings multiple layers to a complex character, evoking both contempt and ultimately sympathy through a carefully nuanced performance.

When was the last time you enjoyed a film for its gripping plot, its compelling story? Drishyam, with its refreshingly original screenplay and its many moments of tension, is just that. Kamat's Hindi version pales in comparison to both the original Malayalam film and the Tamil remake, but the plot nevertheless keeps you hooked till the end.

I'm going with three-and-a-half out of five. Now forget everything you just read and go watch the film.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)