Drishyam 3 is currently playing in theatres. Unlike the first two parts, the third one is not a remade Telugu film but a dubbed one from Malayalam.
Plot:
George Kutty (a cable TV operator turned successful theatre owner) is now a producer. His maiden venture is a blockbuster, drawing the attention of an inquisitive female TV journalist. Ahead of the wedding of George's daughter Anju (Ansiba Hassan), the family remains haunted by the central crime from the first film: the accidental killing of Varun Prabhakar (son of IG Geetha Prabhakar, played by Asha Sharath) and the elaborate cover-up that followed. George must now ensure that his daughter's wedding doesn't get disrupted.
Performances & Technical Departments:
Mohanlal is restrained and approaches the film like it is a fresh one. And yet, he looks averse to delivering heroic highs. While George is now a producer, his sensibilities are middle class. He is anxious and nervous but doesn't show his family members what he is going through. Mohanlal does justice to this dimension of his character, though.
Meena and Ansiba don't get much to speak or emote. Siddique as Prabhakar, Varun's father, gets a late entry. Murali Gopy as IG Thomas Bastin IPS is good. The rest of the cast, including the actor who played Sahadev, are measured.
The technical output is preposterous. No scene, no stretch of background score, no camera angle and no entry shot was designed for the big screen. The story had decent potential, but the dull theatrics dilute the intended impact.
Post-Mortem:
Six years after the devastating incident involving his wife and their daughter, George is running out of luck. Or, so it would seem to his rivals. The mood of the film doesn't attain a concrete form anywhere. Every character says about every single detail. The dialogue draft of the movie should be as voluminous as an Encyclopedia.
The characters are morose and gloomy for the most part, especially in the second half. They talk and talk and talk. Many scenes are stuffed with mundane/everyday convos in the first hour. And many others throw possible hints at what might go wrong. Yet, the tension is hard to be felt. Just when a character heaves a sigh of relief, a sentence or two by another plants a seed of suspicion in the mind of the audience. After a point, it becomes tedious.
About 40 minutes into the film, there is no song, no mass moment, no insight into what the enemy might be planning or plotting against George. About 80 minutes into the drama, we could say the same. By the time we sense that George's enemy is moving the needle, we are already bored.
The story centers on how George handles the new crisis staring his daughter in the face. He suspects someone is making it worse for him, but can't figure out who it is and how they are trying to be one step ahead of him. He is suffering from guilt pangs, and is worried about a blast from the past he might have to encounter. These stretches had so much potency.
The core of the story takes forever to come to the point. While there is nothing inherently wrong about it, there is nothing to raise the stakes until the pre-climax. The treatment should have been stylized in the second half, where momentous decisions are made and a rogue goes on a rampage. Even references to George are flattened by a very TV serial treatment.
Closing Remarks:
A tedious, television-serial-like execution that completely squanders its high-stakes potential. The film is severely dragged down by endless, mundane chatter and an unforgivably dull technical output.
