Drishya 2 movie review: A scene-by-scene remake, only this time, Ravichandran’s leading the narrative

3/5

Story: Drishya 2 opens seven years after Rajendra Ponnappa and his family managed to 'sell their story' that they were not at home when his daughter Sindhu’s classmate Tarun goes missing, presumed dead, in their neighbourhood. In the time, Rajendra grew from a humble cable TV service operator to a movie hall owner. His new-found prosperity doesn’t go down well with people in the area, who begin to doubt the veracity of his story. But to make matters worse, the cops stumble upon an eye-witness from the night the body was hidden. Can Rajendra find a way out this time too?

Review: Drishya 2 is the Kannada remake of the Malayalam film Drishyam 2, which came out on OTT in February this year. And that is the film’s biggest drawback. Back in 2014, when the first installment Drishya came out as the remake of Drishyam, it was a time before OTT platforms and subtitles, so, a Kannada version of a story that was widely appreciated made perfect sense. But the appeal of the story was such that anyone who was even remotely invested in it, keenly awaited a sequel. This year, there have been two versions already – the Malayalam original, with Mohanlal in the lead, and the Telugu remake with Venkatesh, both of which were OTT releases. At a time when audiences across social, economic and linguistic backgrounds are lapping up content from across the world on OTT platforms, the probability of Drishyam 2, or for that matter, Drushyam 2 (Telugu) having been seen by a majority is rather high. The argument in favour of remakes has been that audiences would want to see local actors and hear their language and that they may not have access to said OTT platform. But let’s not kid ourselves here – these arguments come from the same people who acknowledge the need for quality content creation given that everyone, including, say, a security guard, a driver or a tea seller, etc., watches films/shows on their mobile devices. And if they do not have a subscription to an OTT platform, pirated crystal-clear copies make their way to instant messaging services within hours of a release. And Drishyam 2 is not a dialogue-heavy film that you absolutely need to understand what is being said to get the drift. So…

Anyway, the Kannada remake is in theatres now and if you, like me, have seen the Malayalam original, it’s highly unlikely that you will find the proceedings engrossing. There’s an added comedy track with Sadhu Kokila, but a few extra chuckles are not exactly incentive enough to watch this in theatres. But if you’ve not seen the original and managed to stay away from reading/hearing about spoilers of the sequel in the last nine months, of course, you will like this film, primarily for Ravichandran. The veteran actor ensures that audiences see and feel for Rajendra Ponnappa and not Ravichandran the actor in every frame.

I have to be honest that Drishya 2 did not work for me because I’d seen the original. Often, when filmmakers talk about having remade a popular movie from another language, the common utterance is that they’ve made changes to suit the sensibilities of Kannada audiences. The Drishyam franchise is not one that requires such ‘nativity’ adaptations. The modifications are minor, like for instance, having Sita (Navya Nair) accompany her neighbour Savitha to church because she respects all religions, instead of the Christian Rani (Meena) in the original. The rating, therefore, is for the story by Jeethu Joseph.

Verdict: Drishya 2 is a scene-by-scene remake, so, if you have seen the Malayalam original you can skip this one.