Everything that has to be written about Drishyam has already been written. Analysis on every plane, metaphysical to material has been pondered. Retelling the story (borrowed or not, the controversy persists) has been attempted with every possible Dravidian language already. Yet, it's worthwhile spending a couple of minutes on this.
Drishyam is not a movie that stands out for its stellar performances by the thespian (similar to Blessy's Bramaram) or uniqueness in story telling style (Plethora of Ranjith movies), but the simplicity of the story and its ability to connect with the common man were the factors that made this movie one of the all time popular movies in malayalam. Surprisingly, or not so, the distributors (One of the home production companies of Mohanlal) did a low key release to help with the tone of the movie itself hitherto unheard of for his movies of this century.
This elegant movie tells the story of Georgekutty, an independent cable operator, akin to the video cassette shop owner of the 1980s. Not particularly educated or articulate, Georgekutty has modeled his life and life's activities around movies of all genres, especially the suspense thriller ones. Due to an unfortunate series of events an acquaintance of his teenage daughter ends up dead at his house while he was away one night. An attempted blackmail gone wrong, the family does everything they could possibly do to cover it up including Georgekutty's meticulous planning to create last bit of alibi using papertrails that would be throw off even an FBI investigation.
Suspicions grow about Georgekutty's role in this, mostly driven by a rogue police constable, Sahadevan's hunch and pre-disposition. With the brains of the dead teenager's mom, ably portrayed by Asha Sharath and the guile of Sahadevan, the law has its final laugh coercing a confession from Georgekutty's younger daughter. However, the protagonist outsmarts the law and everyone else by borrowing yet again from an old movie. The climax of the movie is where he eventually confesses to the bereaved parents , of course, leaving the one part that keeps him safe, what exactly he did to get out of the case scot free. The uniqueness or the suspense of the story lies herein, where Gerogekutty refuses to tell the ultimate truth to anyone including his family for the fear that they might spill the bones beans.
The movie is brilliant for its story and casting of Shajon as Sahadevan and Asha as Geetha, the law enforcement supremo. Meena has lost all her charm in this second reincarnation (or third ?). Ansiba as the pivotal daughter character is passable, while Baby Esther is fantastic as Anu. The rest of the ensemble cast is quite good. Cinematography by Sujith Vasudev is phenomenal, and John Kutty's editing is quite non intrusive as he and Jithu have edited out just about inconsequential scene leaving us with exactly what we need to and want to see.