Nishikant Kamat is much missed in Drishyam 2

It is heartening to note that Ajay Devgn remembers Nishikant Kamat whom we lost in 2020 all of a sudden. Drishyam 2 also  acknowledges Nishikant in the credit titles. I remember my endless conversations with Nishikant on remakes.

Strangely, almost all of Nishikant’s directorials were remakes. But he was okay with that.

Nishikant gently averred. “My first feature film Dombivali Fast in Marathi was an original. I remade that film into Tamil two years later with Madhavan in the lead. My second Marathi film Laal Bhari was also original, and so was my first Hindi film Mumbai Meri Jaan. Yes, Force , Drishyam and Rocky Handsome are remakes. Next, I want to an original film.”

Alas, that was not to be.

Incidentally, Nishikant directed Ajay Devgn in Drishyam and John Abraham in Rocky Handsome simultaneously. And when Devgn needed to finish Drishyam within a time-limit, John very generously relinquished his dates to Devgn.

Nishikant counted both John and Ajay as his friends in the film industry. “We are on the same wave length. Both are action heroes. But in Drishyam, Ajay doesn’t throw even one punch at  anyone. I’ve retained a lot of the original. The biggest re-tweaking we did was in the playing time. While the original film was three hours long, I’ve cut down Drishyam to just over 2 ½ hours. The seaside location of the original is in Drishyam, though I’ve relocated the drama to Goa.”

There were embellishments in the Hindi version of Drishyam  .

Said Nishikant, “I added things to the plot that were not there in the original. There is that whole sequence of Ajay Devgn in the ATM booth where he makes sure the CCTV captures him. Tabu’s interval point entry was not there in the original. I made her do a grand heroic entry, slo-mo and all.”

Nishikant was all praise for his actors. “Ajay was willing to completely surrender to play the middleclass family man. Not once did he demand a fight or stunt just to appease his fans. As for Tabu, I didn’t fully realize what she was doing until I was editing the film.”

Interestingly, there was a Chinese remake of Drishyam entitled Sheep Without A  Shepherd, which was released all over China on December 13, 2019 and become an instant hit.

In Drishyam in Hindi, released in 2015, Ajay Devgn, played the protective father plotting a devious alibi to protect his family from the law. Tabu played the cop on the prowl. The cop’s role was played by the legendary Chinese actress Joan Chen in Sheep Without A Shepherd.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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