“My family is my strength and my weakness.”- Aishwarya Rai Bachhan
There have been intensely gripping stories with individuals and their families in the vortex of action, comedy and even drama; yet Director Nishikant Kamat’s Drishyam at 163 minutes falls a bit short of quite a few of the high points which could have made it the success, its Malayalam original, starring National Award winner Mohanlal was.
Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn) is a class four fail uneducated simpleton whose bank of knowledge (believe it or not) is the ‘idiot box’ and the hundreds of films he watches every night at his office, instead of going home to be with his wife and two girls. Incidentally he runs a cable network business.
Perhaps the ‘urge’ to go home for the night arises when he has been watching Sunny Leonie’s film which his wife Nandini (Shriya Saran) most lovingly knows and welcomes him with open arms. After all it’s a beautiful and wonderful life!
Vijay is loved, well-respected and looked upon in his community with the exception of Inspector Gaitonde (Kamlesh Sawant) who does not see eye-to-eye with him. The corrupt cop is hated by the people due to his ‘extracting’ habits and Vijay is the only one who stands up.
Post-interval we are introduced to some more of Vijay goodness when we are told that his elder daughter Anju (Ishita Dutta) had actually been adopted by him when he was 21. An orphan himself, Vijay had discovered this little girl abandoned in a garbage dump and took her under his wings before marriage.
On an inter-school nature trip teenager Anju is continuously stalked by a young brat Sameer/Sam Deshmukh (Rishab Chadda) who soon lands up at her town one day to show her a video, which he had recorded while she was bathing.
His demand is simple- it will not go viral if she sleeps with him and she is to meet him at 11 that night behind her house.
The boy is confronted by Nandini who is told by the hyper-sexed lad that mummy dear has an option- she could take her daughter’s place in bed!
It is then that tragedy strikes and a blow by Anju by a rod on the boy’s head, results in his instant death.
What follows is a thriller of little sequences that keep the audience on the edge of their seats, especially when it is revealed that Sameer/Sam is the only son of IG Goa Police, Meera (Tabu).
What is most exciting is the plot- moving from scene to scene with a boundary at every shot- alas which could have been a sixer- but for the looseness it has in some places!
From a simple, settled life to a voltage of high drama, Vijay and his family now becomes the centre of an investigation. The entire townsfolk and a string of witnesses swear that the family was out of town when the boy had disappeared.
What is real and what is unreal? That which the eyes see and the ears hear, or that which is there but cannot be seen with the naked eye?
Is perception reality? Or is virtual perception reality?
Devgan packs in a powerful performance along with Saran and even the corrupt cop Sawant. Tabu is wasted. Unfortunately after a power-packed act in Haider, she falls real flat here. It could have been any ordinary IG and the role would have been justified.
Drishyam rises with the thriller-yeast but for a tighter plot it could have been the talk of the town!
Rating: 3/5