“The question is not what’s in front of your eyes, but what you are seeing”.
“Drishyam 2” is actually in all sense a true sequel- a rendition of the older film. The film begins 7 years after what happened on 2nd October, 2014. The case now reopens, and the Salgaonkar family is living a regular life as everyone. Vijay has prospered in his Business and runs a Cinema Hall. Everything looks regular but only from the outside. Like a tree that takes much time to first strengthen its roots, Meera (Tabu) takes this huge leap and comes back to Goa. Accompanied by the new IG Tarun Ahlawat (Akshay Khanna). All the premise is the same, the case reopens and the chase begins. We knew this would happen, but how? All in all the first half of the film feels like it is laying a dense plot for the latter half. This is not a bad thing but the pretentiousness and linear direction of it felt a bit blatant.
It is a common man’s story but with the usual mainstream heroic touch. A man as headstrong as a mountain, who never breaks. Saves his family at all costs but never goes wild like an animal. He is fierce but grounded and sticks to his morals. He is brave but not reckless. A common man packed with attributes of a hero. The women around him are weaker now as they have not completely dealt with the trauma; Anju is sick and Nandini, the mother, is worried. For a longer time in the film we see some mundane stuff about Vijay and his family, what they do and who they are friends with. Yet the film at no point bores you or questions you why we are looking at these insights. But there’s also the often unnecessarily manipulative BGM that tries too hard to make scenes more interesting.
Vijay’s plans are plotted to be very practical and calculated, but the film takes a lot of cinematic liberty and makes us wonder. By the end, we get the answers of every Drishya/“scene” we see and how they were really important. Suddenly we realize that the audience is nothing but the part of a Police and whatever falls under their vision. As we unfold the mystery with the police and only at discern of Vijay. The plot twists are interesting and gripping. The Narrative the Story becomes the Hero. We all knew that Vijay must have plotted something amazing but we kept seated to know how and the director accurately did that.
And who doesn’t like to see their heroes win? You stick to the chair not for what you are looking at the screen but in the greed of what’s next. You don’t really talk about Ajay Devgan but Vijay as you are more in awe of Vijay’s mind than Ajay’s acting here and this applies to every actor present on the screen. Was this a loophole or a deliberate choice of the director? The story overpowers almost everything. “Drishyam 2” thus, feels like an elongated but well awaited sequel. It grabs the audience’s attention on the promising grounds of part one, but delivers a little. Yet it still satisfies, if that’s what you’re looking for.
