Drishyam 2 Review

Drishyam is a film that changed the schematics of Malayalam cinema for the good on its release seven years ago. The scarcely marketed film managed to bring about a resurgence of sorts to the days of good old crafty storytelling. The announcement of the sequel naturally was met with a sense of skepticism as many ( myself included ) believed that the story had reached its full course the first time around and no one honestly saw the need to put Georgekutty and his family through another grueling ordeal like in the first part. 

However, unlike the cash grabber studio funded sequels that we are so used to in our films, a filmmaker has pulled off a genuinely inspired and downright organic follow up film picking up from he left off his characters in the predecessor.

Drishyam 2 The Resumption continues six years after the events of the first movie and we see that Georgekutty and his family has managed to partially come out of the haunting events that transpired in the first part and is trying to live their lives like a normal family. Things look good for Georgekutty as his lifelong dream of owning a film theatre has finally been achieved and the family seems to have upgraded their financial status by a few notched with Georgekutty’s newfound passion to bankroll a film on his own. The tide seems to have reversed against the family as the locals of the village seem to be doubtful of the family’s involvement in the murder that took place six years ago. The film was heavily publicised by its makers as a continuation of the story focusing on the ever-lasting psychological impact that has scarred the family for life and Jeethu Joseph manages to ease us into the “Drishyam” world with the first act where literally nothing happens except for some cute callbacks to the family portions of the first film with only momentary references to the horror show they had witnessed some years back and the emotional scars inflicted by the events that followed.

The writing is deliberately following the beats of the first movie in the former half and Jeethu Joseph sets up the newly introduced characters and drops hints at the unravelling in store for the subsequent half. The screenplay sets up new characters in the form of a troubled couple who has moved in next door to the family, a convict who has returned after serving the sentence only to be pushed away by his family and the new Inspector General of Police who is secretly keeping an eye on Georgekutty and the family waiting for them to reveal their involvement in the murder and the boyfriend of the younger daughter and bunch of other players. The thought process behind these new additions work as the movie begins to slowly incorporate bits and pieces of the puzzle in to their relevance in the larger scheme of things except for the boyfriend character who for me stuck out like a sore thumb and felt more like a idea that seemed much better on paper than on screen for some strange reason. The character is set up well in the beginning but there is no particular significance to his inclusion as he fails to contribute much to the proceedings and serve just as a mere device used to hold off the central conflict to be readdressed only towards the intermission.

There is no denying the fact that Jeethu Joseph is a strong voice in contemporary Malayalam cinema for his ingenious writing chops rather than for a precise aesthetics voice as an visual filmmaker. Visually the film looks a tad less convincing as the sequel of a cult blockbuster and the restrictions caused by the pandemic lends it’s a dried out, flat visual treatment devoid of the life of the first film. Drishyam 2 is genuinely written, well-constructed and morally relevant sequel that matched the very high standards set by the first film. The film addresses the price that Georgekutty and his family has to pay for the crime that they committed unknowingly and Jeethu Joseph  provides the much needed closure to the moral dilemma that was posed by many naysayers and critics of the first film for the protagonists.