The general expectation when stepping into a theater showing a Tollywood movie is
1. A gravity defying introduction scene of the lead actor
2. A comedian (Brahmanandam/MS Narayana/Venumadhav) appearing in scene after for no reason and getting slapped for no reason
3. An item number with the dancer wearing the skimpiest of clothes.
4. The lead actress is mostly half the age of the lead actor and there would be two of them (actresses)
5. A climax with mindless action
Well! Surprisingly Sripriya's Drushyam (a remake of the Malayalam hit Drishyam) does not have any of the above and still manages to hold your attention with the premise that how far can someone go to protect their family?
Rambabu (Venkatesh) is a local cable guy who eats, drinks and sleeps Movies. He relates every situation in his life to a movie and takes decision the same way the lead actor in that particular movie would do. His whole life revolves around his wife Jyothi (Meena), his daughters- a teenager Anju (Kruthika Jaikumar) and school kid Anu (Esther). Since they live in a hilly region-rains often disrupt the cable connection-so Rambabu usually stays overnight at the office.
Varun (Roshan Basheer) blackmails Anju with a MMS and asks her to sleep with him. Anju and Jyothi in sudden twist of events end up killing him and burying the body in their backyard.
Rambabu decides to stand up for his family and devises a spectacular plan to save his family from the clutches of the police more so as the victim is the only son of the Inspector general of Police Geetha (Nadiya), who plans to leave all the stones turned in search of her missing son.
The high-point of the movie is-you end up rooting for Rambabu, you feel scared when you think he's made a mistake-feel relieved when he comes out in flying colors. At the same time balancing the act you feel sorry for Geetha who is desperately searching for her son and does not mind breaking the law for it.
The screenplay maintains a perfect balance between the antagonist (Nadiya) and the protagonist (Rambabu) i.e. seeing the story from each other's point of view-there is a fantastic role reversal.
Venkatesh steals the show as Rambabu, plays his age and you can instantly connect with the character. The ease he puts in essaying the character makes you see Rambabu on screen and not Venkatesh. The Romantic scenes between him and Meena, the fatherly nods towards his daughters- his scared act as the police close on him and the perfect touché at the climax-makes us feel that we are now looking at Tollywood's first "star" actor.
Meena is gorgeous as Jyothi. She suits the role of a housewife, mother of a teenager and all of 38 does not let her age be handicap for this role. In a time when roles are not written for actresses over 30-Meena is lucky to land herself in this role. She is so damn perfect that she has done the same role in 3 versions of this movie including the original. She is perfect in the murder sequence, and the aftermath, where she plays the scared housewife lurking in the shadow of her husband and hoping he would save her.
Esther is the showstopper of this movie (if you can use the word in a movie). She plays Anu to the hilt, her performance in the climax really needs a standing ovation. The fear in her eyes seems so real that you feel that she is not actually faking it. Everything from the playful kid in the beginning turning into a nervous wreck towards the end-the kid excelled in it.
Nadiya as Geetha and Naresh as her husband steal the show as the helpless couple who just want to know what happened to their son-and do not mind using their power to break a few laws.
Ravi Kale as the corrupt constable is excellent.
All in all-the performances of each one of the actors down to the extras leaves you satisfied .
Direction by Sripriya is not much as she only had to rely on the DVD of the original and copy paste the scenes down to the last frames. But giving her due-it would be nice to say that even copy-pasting is an art which can also go wrong in the wrong hands. She keys in the mood of the movie perfectly and with a large help from the screenplay-which is tight and well written (Jeethu Joseph).
Cinematography by Gopal Reddy captures the greenery of the hill town and the wide shots during key sequences. The music by Sharath however is a major letdown in an otherwise perfect film.
Well! All said and done a different film which coins a new genre "The Family Thriller". Go for it only if you are bored of the stale double ententes jokes and meaningless song sequences-otherwise this movie is not really for you.
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