Report by Tanya Singh:
Mohanlal is flawless yet again as the husband/father who will stake his all to keep the police at bay. The other actors in the cast, especially Murali Gopi, pull their weight.
Cast: Mohanlal, Meena, Esther Anil, Ansiba, Asha Sharath, Murali Gopi, Ajith Koothattukulam
Director: Jeethu Joseph
Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 5)
Mohanlal is back as the unflappable Georgekutty. The character has evolved perceptibly since we last saw him. The veteran actor imparts subtle strains of novelty to the man who will stop at nothing to shield his family from the law. However, familiarity breeds blandness. The sequel to 2013’s Drishyam is disappointingly tepid.
Georgekutty (Mohanlal) is now the owner of a cinema theatre. His prosperity is reflected in the larger, posher house he currently occupies with his wife Rani (Meena) and their daughters Anju (Ansiba) and Anu (Esther Anil) on the same land where they earlier lived. He is still movie crazy. Rani and he are still a committed couple yet constantly sniping at each other as before. And they are still a rock-solid team in the upbringing of their girls.
The difference between then and now is twofold. First, the townsfolk had backed the family when IG Geetha Prabhakar (Asha Sharath) got after them on the suspicion that they killed her son. They are not so supportive any more, driven as they are by jealousy at Georgekutty’s rise in life.
The result is that nothing about Drishyam 2 feels contrived, nor does it come across as an opportunistic effort to cash in on the success of Drishyam. On the contrary, it now feels as if Part 1 is incomplete without Part 2.