If a man could commit a perfect crime in six hours, what can he do to hide it, if he is given six years?
Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome
to #Drishyam2, technically the second half of the #DrishyamWhole!
If Drishyam1 (D1 for short)
showed how far a man will go to hide a crime, D2 shows how far the same man
will go to escape the eventuality!
D2 follows the same template.
Leisurely setting of the context for the first one hour! (so much so that I
even nodded off a couple of times!) Then a roller-coaster ride for the next 90
mins to leave you breathless.
If D1 was all about emotions
(parental, lust, power, remorse, the absolutism of family-first...), D2 is
about survival. How does a cornered family, nay, a man comes through the pangs
of guilt and fear to survive?
Years ago, read an abridged
version of Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, which had crime, morality and
redemption as central themes. The two Drishyams have packaged it colourfully to
cater to the modern audience, though I have to say that redemption is a bit of
a rare commodity in the movie as everyone seems to be yearning for it.
I did feel that GeorgeKutty was
more ruthless and even calculative here. His movie-in-a-movie meta-touch was
interesting, though Vellithirai had it better. There were a lot of emotional
connects in D1 which helped people to identify themselves with both the
pro/antagonists; but D2 is all about a super-intelligent man who would go to
any lengths to protect his family including himself.
There were no red herrings. All
actions were Newtonian. Cinematic licences were taken (court hearings, medical
tests, convenient acquaintances etc.) Thankfully, this movie was not done
by any of the Tamil/Telugu superstars, else the BGM would have been
Anirudhesque!
I
wanted to write a comparative note on how the ending of D1 was treated across
the various languages. Lalettan, Kamal, Venkatesh, Ravichandran, Ajay Devgan etc. showed different colours to practically the same scenario. Such was the climax's power. However, D2, though adorned with a oh-so-clever denouement did not tug your
heartstrings as the former did. Maybe it is because we are talking about the
Punishment part, rather than the Crime here?
A word about the scripting in recent Malayalam movies. They are simply awesome. Sujatha (and many other great writers) used to say:
‘Write. Scrap. Rinse. Write. Scrap. Rinse.
Write. Scrap. Rinse. By doing this, you might get something worthwhile in the
end.'
Mallu movies seem to have taken this to their heart. One can see the effort that has gone into chiselling the script to such an extent that it coruscates from any angle that you see!
D1 and D2 are the two perfect
halves of the same apple. One can binge-watch them over five hours and not find
a missing step or a jarring note. That is the true #crownjewel example of nuanced
yet powerful writing.
Watch it for sure. Then you can
have your own opinion on which one is better. 🤩
PS1: Not sure whether #Papanasam2 will happen or not. After all, Kamal has done the Crime and Punishment routine in Virumandi! 😛
PS2: Will there be a #Drishyam3? There is enough of an opening left in the movie. Only Jeetu knows though! But I would say, stop it here when the going is good.
#SriGINthoughts
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