Movie Review: "Drishyam"

Drisham (2015) - “Sight” or “Visual”

Hindi version

Unrated

3.5 Stars out of 5

Director                                Nishikant Kamat
Writer                                   Jeethu Joseph (story), Upendra Sidhaye (screenplay)
Cinematography                Avinash Arun
Music                                    Sameer Phaterpekar

Ajay Devgn                          Vijay Salgaonkar
Shriya Saran                        Nandini Salgaonkar
Tabu                                      Meera Deshmukh, Inspector General of Police, Goa
Rajat Kapoor                       Mahesh Deshmukh
Ishita Duta                           Anju Salgaonkar
Mrunal Jadhav                   Anu Salgaonkar
Rishabh Chaddha              Sameer Deshmukh
Kamlesh Sawant                Laxmikant Gaitonde, Sub-Inspector, Pondolem Goa Police

 

In 2013, “Drishyam” was released in the Indian language of Malayalam. It was to become the highest grossing film in that language’s history. Since this Dravidian language is spoken by some 38 million Indians, its success in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala and nearby states prompted other versions of the movie: first in the Indian languages of Kannada and Telegu in 2014, and then in the more widely spoken Tamil and Hindi in 2015. The Hindi version starring two of Bollywood’s biggest stars, Tabu and Ajay Devgn has done reasonably well commercially and has had mixed reviews critically by established Bollywood critics. So, why should an amateur American critic review this movie? Personally it presented a challenge, but on a more general level, “Drishyam” offers a non-Hindi speaking American audience a chance to compare an Indian thriller to the endless deluge of American thrillers. As you will see that at least in my opinion, there are points to be given to the Indian style of thriller, and again at least from an Anglo-American point of view, points to be taken away.

“Drishyam” poses several questions regarding what would be class distinctions in America; one might presume in India, these would be caste distinctions, but I could not detect that aspect in the movie. The two biggest issues are related to education and occupation. The protagonist is Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn). He dropped out of school in the fourth grade, a point repeatedly and without any subtlety made in “Drishyam”. It is however the primary point. Vijay is a successful businessman owning his own cable TV service in Pondolem, Goa. He has a tight-knit family consisting of his wife Nandini (Shriya Saran), his seventeen year old adopted daughter, Anju (Ishita Duta), and ten year old daughter, Anu (Mrunal Jadhav). They are shown living in domestic bliss together, though Nandini complains that Vijay spends a lot of time in his office watching movies. Co-incident with the scenes from home, the movie makes clear that Vijay is a man of integrity as he stands in defense of an elderly couple being harassed by the local police bully, sub-inspector Gaitonde (Kamlesh Sawant). These episodes of Vijay’s heroism in the face of Gaitonde’s criminal behavior are also used to set the scene for later confrontations between Gaitonde and other parts of the police department with Vijay. More critically though, these scenes create an atmosphere of “us vs. them” between the police and the populace, and it does so with a thickly laid on emphasis that the police are corrupt (with only a very few exceptions) and the people are preyed upon by those set up to protect them.

After these opening set piece scenes (as well as the movie’s opening montage of pastoral views of the surrounding countryside and of the Salgaonkar family on a shopping trip), the story arc begins its inexorable climb towards the building of tension, climax and resolution. The tension begins with Anju attending a summer camp where she meets a young boy, Sameer “Sam” Deshmukh (Rishabh Chaddha). Like almost all the characters in “Drishyam” there are no greys used in painting a picture of Sam. He is surreptitiously taking pictures of all the young girls while they are out in public, and not surprisingly, he has a hidden agenda. Poor innocent Anju is the victim of that hidden agenda. Sam has acquired embarrassing photos of Anju changing clothes. He presents these photos to Anju and later to her mother Nandini. In an effort to destroy the photos (spoiler alert), Sam is killed accidently by Anju. Worse yet, it is revealed by Anju that Sam is the only son of Goa’s top cop, Inspector General Meera Deshmukh (Tabu). And even worse yet, the movie goer has by this point in the movie observed Meera’s ruthless interrogation techniques. She is shown to be beautiful, relentless, and very competent in violent methods.

When Anju’s father, Vijay returns home he learns of what has transpired as well as the fact that the baby of the family, little Anu has witnessed some parts of the unfortunate ending of the equally unfortunate Sam. Vijay takes a dramatic stand in front of this family and states he will do whatever it takes to protect them, and no matter what, they will not go to prison. This is where the story’s cleverness comes into play and where the film’s greatest weaknesses are, as well. By staging Vijay’s declaration in the manner in which it was played, the audience is left to wonder just exactly what is it Vijay is willing to do: take up arms against the police, go to prison to save Anju by taking the blame, or something more nuanced? It is of course something more nuanced that Vijay does. I will not spoil the highlight of the movie by detailing his activities – some are completely predictable and broadly foreshadowed by the screenplay, others are cleverer. But what is worth discussing is that the movie now illustrates the title and sub-text of the movie. We know Inspector General Meera is smart and capable; and we know she disdains Vijay as the police quickly zero in on him as the prime suspect in the disappearance of her son. She will learn to her regret to underestimate someone by their “visual” (i.e. Drishyam); that is that they can be underestimated simply because they dropped out of school in the fourth grade.

To be sure, Vijay is the hero, Meera the villain. But Tabu in the role of Meera gives the movie’s best performance as she is placed in a position as IG to find the person responsible for her son’s disappearance (she does not even know for certain of his death, only fears it), and she must do this as she conceals her mother’s anguish over her missing son. In the scenes with her businessman husband, Mahesh (Rajat Kapoor) we see her internal struggle as she makes some attempt to recognize the rights of the accused and seemingly innocent Salgaonkar family as she drives towards the proof she feels in her heart of their guilt. The movie most definitely goes to some horrific extent is showing the family being beaten, including the ten year old Anu. As bad as these scenes are to watch they provide further proof of the lack of integrity to be found within the police department (especially Gaitonde and Meera), but they also provide a plot point that eventually sets the Salgaonkar family free and destroys the reputation of the worse parts of the police investigating Salgaonkars.

The most annoying parts of this movie however also occur during the “duel” between Vijay and Meera. He is shown acting out his plan and then in the most obvious melodramatic manner we have Meera explain it to the audience as she explains it to her befuddled comrades in the police department. The tone and pacing are a major aggravation to an American movie goer’s sensibilities, or at least to this one. The most obnoxious scene is when we first meet Meera as she tortures a confession out of an accused man in an unrelated scene. We see her toughness but at this point we don’t know she is a she. The closing parts of this scene slow down via slow motion as we watch her walk from the interrogation chamber, pull off her hat, and voila, she is a woman! Pitiful directing is the only description I can give to this scene and the many of her explaining Vijay’s plan. The plan is clever; the depiction of it in this movie is pathetic.

“Drishyam” is an interesting movie to see for several reasons: Tabu’s acting is first rate, the opening montage of rural peace used to set the apparent tone of life in Goa, the artfulness of Vijay’s plan, and the opportunity to see a very successful movie-making industry’s effort at a thriller. The movie has its flaws such as those described above plus I found the casting of Ajay Devgn to be very off-putting. It was not simply that his acting is wooden but rather the physical dissonance of him as this character written as the little man fighting and out-smarting the system. Devgn is this big, handsome man that almost anyone would see as a Hollywood marque actor (which he is in Bollywood). He simply is poorly cast as Vijay. In any event, this movie is available from Amazon and is perhaps worth viewing if you have any interest in Indian culture, in Bollywood, or would like to see just how clever Vijay was in this film.