Based on the 2013 Malayalam-language version, Drishyam is an Indian Hindi-language thriller directed by Nishikant Kamat and starring Ajay Devgn. Devgn portrays Vijay, a school drop-out who spends his day at work, watching movies. However, his daughter Anju (Ishita Dutta) has been targeted by a blackmailer and, when he comes to their home to get what he wants, Anju accidentally kills him.
Vijay - a lovable dad who has the right amount of cheek - uses the skills and tips he has learnt from watching movies to hide the body and trick the police, but as it turns out, the blackmailer is the only son of Meera (Tabu), the Inspector General of Police. Meera is intent on finding her son, is not afraid of breaking the rules and is convinced Vijay knows what has happened.
This isn’t really the cat-and-mouse thriller it should've been; instead, the film unfolds with a wholly unnecessary amount of flashbacks of flashbacks and the police remaining in one room, trying to find the holes in Vijay’s story. The bloated runtime - 163 minutes - makes sense as every scene ends up having some sort of meaning for the story this film is trying to tell, yet everything becomes so over-complex, you can’t help but wish it was stripped back slightly.
In regards to the tone, it’s often confusing. The first act which introduces all the players in the story has some very Bollywood-esque comedy, including slapstick and the dopey clown character. But then the film goes real dark. In one scene, we see two men hung in chains, being tortured. In another, a young girl is slapped to the ground by a police officer. The violence comes out of nowhere and because of this, can be quite shocking.
A very Indian thriller that thinks it’s much cleverer than it is, but the protagonist is someone you can’t help but root for.
Score: 60/100