Drishyam review: Tabu is good, Ajay Devgn forgettable and the movie is average

Drishyam, directed by Nishikanth Kamat, is in a perpetual loop of rise and fall. Seldom has an Indian film trundled along its runtime with such a cycle of offering promising elements, tripping over those very elements, getting up unscathed and falling again, only to rise yet again, and so on. If you’re a fan of the original Malayalam film by Jeethu Joseph and couldn’t stop thinking about Mohanlal’s nuanced performance, this remake is going to disappoint you. On the flip side, those who haven’t seen the original will probably leave the theatre pleasantly surprised. Ajay Devgn plays Vijay Salgaonkar, a cable TV honcho in a little Goan village. Everyone loves Vijay because he’s the quintessential family man, deeply in love with his wife Nandini (Shriya Saran) and the father of the year to his two daughters. Even his assistant and the local tea stall owner adore him for his sheer niceness. [caption id=“attachment_2373600” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ajay Devgn in Drishyam. Image from Facebook.[/caption] The only person who has a bone to pick with him is the corrupt cop Gaitonde (Kamlesh Sawant), because Vijay has a tendency to belittle Gaitonde for his corrupt ways. So when a freak murder takes place and Vijay seems to be involved, Gaitonde takes it upon himself to put Vijay behind bars. The central premise is borrowed from The Devotion of Suspect X, in terms of the actual murder and a lot of the reasoning behind Vijay’s actions. The Malayalam version of Drishyam spent more than half an hour developing the camaraderie between the central character and his family. Consequently, when the family is plunged into turmoil, you care about them and the resulting melodrama seems relevant. In Kamat’s Hindi version, less than ten minutes are spent on establishing that family feeling. Then there’s Mohanlal’s un-glamourous performance. Despite being one of the biggest stars in the country, he was a convincing everyman, desperate in desperate times. Devgn is still the same movie star from the Singham films, all buff poise and toughness. According to Devgn, a dour countenance is being ordinary and that is precisely what he exhibits for the entire film. When things are rosy, he’s Ajay Devgn the movie star. When the chips go down he’s neither desperate nor scared – just dour. This is a problem because it was the charm of Mohanlal’s performance (and Kamal Haasan’s in the Tamil remake) that distracted us from the contrivances in the script. No such luck for Kamat. This carries over to the leading lady as well. Saran is absolutely unconvincing as a mother of two kids. One particular scene in which she’s sexually threatened comes across as an unintentionally funny tribute to ’80s’ Bollywood instead of being disturbing or unsettling. There are also some tonal issues with the film. Tabu is introduced as the police chief spitting fire at some prisoners, verbally beating the crap out of them, then walking towards the camera in slow mo, like in some fun B-movie. From then on, she is perpetually the damsel in distress, clinging to her husband’s (Rajat Kapoor) shoulder for emotional support. For most of her screen time in Drishyam, Tabu ping pongs between being bada** and an emotional wreck, both of which she does well, but the two extremes jar when put together. Kapoor, meanwhile, is wasted in a role that mostly requires him to stand around doing nothing. A lot is salvaged in the crackerjack reveal during the finale and it becomes easy to be swept away by the climax’s sheer populist wave. If a better, more convincing central actor had brought some authenticity to the table, Drishyam could have been a must-watch. Right now, it just gets a mild thumbs-up.