Bollywood review: Tabu, Ajay Devgn lock horns in riveting thriller

After borrowing scripts that celebrates mindless action and peppy dances, it's encouraging to see Bollywood finally take on a South Indian drama that demands the audience to be all ears and exercise their grey cells.

It's definitely a massive shift in texture and treatment, with every conversation holding a crucial clue to unraveling the mystery.

Director Nishikant Kamat's faithful remake of Jeetu Joseph's Malayalam suspense drama ‘Drishyam’ is a tad disappointing for an audience who has seen the original, with many frames mere copies of the original.

Even the characters appear lifelessly identical in feel and wardrobe, and their houses eerily duplicated. Had effort gone into altering the characters to bring about some element of novelty into the Bollywood frame, the movie would've benefitted deeply.

Even the narrative deserved a tighter first-half to match its incredible end. However, Jeetu leaves his script untouched, and happily parades a lengthy 175-minute-long screen time.

For a new audience, however, 'Drishyam' show signs of brilliance.

Based on Japanese crime-writer Keigo Higashino's novel, 'Drishyam' was originally made in Malayalam and has since been remade in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and now, Hindi.

Grade 4 school dropout Vijay Salgaonkar is a devoted family man, who spends many a night away from his wife Nandini and two daughters to run his TV cable business. They lead a fairly simple life, untouched by the glitz and glamour of the big city. Trouble hits paradise when a young boy, who threatens to ruin them, suddenly disappears.

It's when the boy's influential mother guns for Vijay's family in a bid to find her son that things get murky. What follows is a thrilling family battle where each one steps in to protect their own.

Unfortunately, Ajay Devgn is unable to lend credibility to Vijay, and struggles to surrender to him. He broods constantly, but never quite grasps Vijay's sensibilities. It's a letdown, considering Ajay's capable of much more. He may have benefitted had he borrowed a few tips from seasoned South Indian actors MohanLal and Kamal Hassan, who played the parts in Malayalam and Tamil.

Tabu, on the other hand, excels as the unrelenting cop, who fights bravely to find her boy. It's incredible to watch her lend so many layers to top cop Meera Deshmukh. Even though you dislike her despicable ways, it's tough to ignore her pain.

Kamlesh Sawant as the nasty cop Gaikwade is superlative. Even the young Ishita Dutta and Mrinal Jadhav make an impression.

'Drishyam' picks up momentum towards the second-half, so if you are willing to indulge the filmmaker, you wouldn't be disappointed.

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