DRUSHYAM 2 Interesting Telugu remake stays faithful to original

THE 2013 Malayalam language film Drishyam was such a huge success that it was remade in multiple languages, including Hindu, Tamil, Mandarin Chinese, and Kannada. The 2014 Telugu language remake Drushyam saw popular actor Venkatesh play the devoted family man, who outwits the police to save his family.

Jeethu Joseph directed the original and helms Telugu sequel Drushyam 2 too, which premiered on Amazon Prime and carries on the story six years later. The family, who got away with the perfect crime, is now leading a seemingly affluent life. The father owns a movie theatre and is very much focused on producing his own film. While he seems to have moved on, it soon becomes apparent that his daughter hasn’t fully psychologically recovered from past events and the police are still determined to pin the murder on him. What follows is another intriguing game of cat and mouse between a devoted family man and the police.

Drushyam 2 has pretty much stayed faithful to Drishyam 2 and doesn’t really add any extra layers to the story.

The sequel is very much a family drama until it ventures back into the thriller territory in the final 40 minutes. It is that final act that makes sense of the whole story and why this sequel is ultimately worth watching. Although it is unable to match up to the first part, the story has plenty to keep you interested. There are solid performances from the entire cast and lead star Venkatesh plays the devoted father with conviction but isn’t as good as actors who have played the same role in other languages. The rest of the cast play their parts well and give each character a unique dimension.

This will be one of many versions of this sequel, including a Bollywood one with Ajay Devgn, but ultimately none of the remakes can match up to the Malayalam original films starring Mohanlal.