Jan 11, 2014 07:40 PM
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There’s been a revival of sorts in the mystery thriller genre in Malyalam cinema in the last one year or so with the script writers & the new generation directors, shying away from the cliché & conventional arc in their screenplays – two of the most overused of terms to describe our mystery thriller genre films.
First came the bold & smart “Mumbai Police” starring Prithvi Raj as a police officer “Anthony Moses”, a man who albeit struggling with a memory impairment problem is shown as trying to work a case out; a case which resulted in the demise of his close friend/fellow associate played by Jayasuriya.
Although flawed to a degree - with its snail like pacing & spoon feeding execution playing spoilsport - “Mumbai Police” - was worth commendable because it brushed aside a major slump in Malayalm mystery thriller genre over the years, a slump which occurred mostly due to our dumbing down of the material to formula screen writing, giving the audience a ham handed/heady experience as opposed to a thought provoking/invigorating one - in the past decade or so.
Among all the bad films I’ve witnessed during this period, the most regrettable of the lot was Mohan Lal’s “Grandmaster” directed by P. PadmaKumar, which dumped down Agatha Christie’s classic “ABC Murders”, a terrific pulp fiction novel based on which that movie was structured.
But this year(in 2013 that is) – I’ve witnessed two fine thrillers from the same director “Jeethu Joseph”(with one superseding the other) – featuring a new generation star & a veteran superstar in – Prithvi Raj & Mohanlal – in the hot prospect “Jeethu Joseph” venture titled “Memories” & “Drishyam” respectively.!(Prithvi’s performance in “Memories” was the best I saw throughout the whole year!)
Jeethu Joseph, the talented brains behind that stylish sub-standard thriller “Memories” have given us the movie we’ve all been waiting for.
His “Drishyam” starring Mohanlal, Meena, Asha Sharath & Siddique may not be the best movie of the year but just the right kind of movie which brings us back its forgotten art – the good ol’ “Mystery thriller” – just in the nick of time. (I would have preferred it a couple of years earlier as well but as they say always – something is better than nothing!)
In Drishyam, Mohan Lal plays “Georgekutty” a film enthusiastic cable tv operator living in “Rajakkadu” a fictional district lying somewhere in the north of kerala – where most it’s narrative circles around.
Georgekutty is only a fourth standard when it comes to education but his immense craving for movies helps him to frame out things from the imaginary to real – thereby helping him & his family – to come out of a precariously dangerous situation which looms above them like an evil spirit trying pull their lives upside down.
This is the universal story about a family’s struggle a metaphorical struggle which these people are forced to fathom, involving the use of a precariously dangerous homicide situation, a felony which they had committed in actual but only as a means of “self defense”.
After the body has been buried, Georgekutty realizes(instinctively) that he won’t be able to prove their innocence on court(because of lack of evidence) and hence it’s better to frame a crooked up story creating multiple alibi’s & circumstances along the way whilst deceiving the police force into an abracadabra(hence the title “Drishyam” which means a soulful depiction of a moving Panorama!).
When a police procedural ensues towards them afterwards - which in most cases is the inevitable – the family is called upon to confront its innermost of fears and anxieties as the story & characters leads up to an unpredictable/spellbinding climax.
The movie starts as a sub-standard Sathyan Anthikaad drama showcasing some light family interplays in the opening quarter or so but it’s only towards the end of the first half the real plot sneaks its way in, throwing the audience & the characters in to midst of a bone chillingly original jigsaw puzzle with some intelligent soupy morality agendas woven in to the screenplay.
The director keeps the flame twinkling up to a point but when a strange guest walks into the family with some clear-cut & sinister ideas, the narrative leaps into the 4th gear mode as our leading man “Georgekutty” is called up on to do the rescue act – an act which requires the shrewd, overactive brain of a reigning grandmaster.
Ever since Fazil’s “Manichitrathazhu” I’ve not seen a better suspense thriller in Mollywood revolving around a precarious situation of a family & its members - other than this “Jeethu Joseph” near masterpiece.
Near Masterpiece.? Well, I wouldn’t call this an out & out masterpiece as such because if you’re to nitpick into details with the exception of the perfectly executed mystery thriller facets - there are some minor hic-cups in Drishyam’s screenplay, hic-cups which occurred thanks entirely due to that sloppy first half.
The narrative in the first half where the director featured some mildly entertaining family interplays(like in Sathyan Anthikkad movies) had no other purpose other than to push story & screenplay forward with the sole intention of creating a paradigm shift in demeanor in the second & third quarter which is so paradoxically different from the first half.
In the first half of “Drishyam”, the director was solely concerned with portraying a simple cum peaceful atmosphere within a family & later in the second half i.e., he turns the tables upside down by changing the momentum into a hostile one.!
The intention was indeed praiseworthy but the sloppy execution & the unnecessarily over the top feminist dialogues stroke an unbalanced chord with the final output and thereby that portion in the movie stood out like a sour thumb.(He tried to do replicate a Stephen Spielberg here – playing the audience like a piano – but the execution of which leaves a lot to be desired.)
Which leaves me to talk about the second half – the mystery aspect – It’s the best I’ve seen in a Malayalam film especially since the days of K.G. George’s 1980’s film “Yavanika” – that Mammooty starrer cult classic which I consider to be the best mystery thriller ever made in Malayalam cinema.
The script, written by the director himself - resuming from the point of the “howdunnit” narrative must have called for some prodigious concentration like playing hide n’ seek while walking a tight thematic rope – is the best thing about Jeethu Joseph’s “Drishyam”.!
What I particularly liked in this movie, apart from its layer by layer onion-like unraveling(which comes together so spellbindingly at the end) – is the the manner in which each & every character gets fair justice at the end(one way or the other) - without ever being solemn & somber in other words - dumbing down the material.
Mohan Lal & Meena were in super good form as usual but the best performance in the movie comes from the always reliable “Siddique”_ that veteran, often villainous character actor(villainous in the past!) who gives one of his best performances in “Drishyam” as a father of a teenage kid who understands his child’s devilish mistakes – completely.(Kalabhavan Shajon is also a revelation in this movie!)
The music album has two major songs - “Maarivil Kudaneerthi” a sweet, aptly pictuarized song composed by Anil Johnson with lyrics from Santhosh Varma providing a glimpse to the characters & their relationships and a post intervention song “Nizhale” sung by Vijay Yeshudas, which quite skill fully pushed the narrative forward instead of pause & play! .
There’s no certainty in life - my-way or the highway! - but Drishyam’s spellbinding climax will most likely leave you with a smile at the end without ever flinching away from that fact.
It’s a soul soothing, mind-calming knockout of an ending that leaves the audience wi
