A family man tries to protect his family after his daughter kills a horny young man. The deceased young man who likes both daughters and mothers has a mother who is a powerful police woman, and she is determined to find her horny, dead son!
I’ve seen Drishyam (2015). Several Indian remakes of Drishyam (2013) have been made. And it seems all the movies have taken inspiration from the Japanese novel, The Devotion of Suspect X.
I think it’s around 6 months since I watched the 2015 version of Drishyam, one of many remakes. After discovering this guy, the God of Malayalam cinema, Mohanlal, I thought no. I can’t watch a guy who looks like he has a dead animal on top of his head and looks like a sleazy used cars salesman. But then Drishyam 2 came out, and I was like, shiiiit, now I have to watch the original. So the White Devil Viking King has to review both of these movies. Shiiiiit!
Many people think that this is the best movie since it is the original. But I do not agree. I think Drishyam (2015) is a better movie. And the 2015 version has so many prettier and hot women. Remember, I am a very superficial person, and the police woman in the 2015 version has some huge, delicious airbags! I’m coming, mummy!
Both movies have the same long runtime, but Drishyam (2015) is a more expensive movie, something you notice. The biggest weakness of the original movie is the parents of the dead boy. Unfortunately, they have little character depth. They have more depth in the 2015 version, and they feel more fleshed out. The actors who play the parents are also better in the 2015 version, and I felt sympathy for them. The parents in this movie feel empty, and the actors never manage to take them to the next level.
The original movie spends too much time in the start on the family we follow. They could have done this in half an hour. But no, everything in this movie must feed the viewers with a teaspoon of how important the family is, especially for the man in the house. But it does not stop there. It feeds us with a lot of silly information that everyone understands if you have a healthy brain. They could have cut down the runtime by 40 minutes. The movie would have been better if it had been shorter. This also goes for the 2015 version.
I do not have a problem with a long movie, but I have a problem when a movie spends too much time repeating the same thing and adding nothing interesting. We understand that the protagonist will do everything for his family. But it destroys the quality of the movie when it repeats the same things in the first hour. A long runtime does not automatically equal quality, we experience that in this movie. The script is not tight enough in the first hour. The movie wastes too much time telling us the same things. It is frustrating, and it took me out of the movie several times.
This feeding of unnecessary information about the value of a family, technology, corruption, and the world we live in today, offended me. I am a grown-up man that still has some brain cells left.
And how many times are they going to remind us that the protagonist is a man with little education? A movie does not have to tell us all the details. Adults can read between the lines! The movie is annoying at that point, and I felt like I was watching an involuntary comedy. Yes, he has little education. But he is a movie nerd that makes him smarter. And I love movie nerds!
But to be honest, the protagonist is a creepy man. He plays with the police, and I can imagine he can become a narcissistic serial killer! He likes to play with those who look down on him. I reckon this is a movie that was not intended for the foreign market. So why spend so much time on unnecessary information that the locals know? And if the subtitles are correct, the family has to commit suicide if the young man uploads the video to the Internet? What kind of sick tradition is this? Are we living in the stone age? That’s crazy talk! Someone call a psychiatrist! Do not try to defend this shit! Don’t!
Drishyam spends an hour introducing the family. Then the murder happens, and the movie is in a great hurry, and it forgets to give the parents of the deceased, horny fucker, depth, and personality. The 2015 version is much better on that point. It is also good that he died because he could remind me of Ted Bundy!
The editing is bad in some scenes. They cut some scenes too early, and there are also some strange transitions here to the next scene that feel very amateurish. The flow is much worse here than in the 2015 version.
And what is going on with the silly background score when the characters talk? When the movie tries to be funny, we hear an inappropriate background score that took me back 60 years in time! But the 2015 version also has some laughable scenes with an inappropriate score. But the background score in the talking scenes irritated me more in this movie than in the 2015 version. I was just waiting for a laugh track, and if they had used it, it would not surprise me! I understand what they are going for, but it’s more irritating than useful. But there are also some scenes where the background score is pretty good and effective.
Compared to the larger production from 2015, the original movie can feel more amateurish. Both movies have some actors who are not good. But overall, the actors are better in the 2015 version. But the mighty Mohanlal is great. He has to carry much of the movie on his hair. The same is true of the flow and storytelling. The 2015 version offers a much more engaging journey. So I recommend watching the 2015 version if you have not watched any of them yet.