Drishyam 2 Movie Review: A thrilling second ride you cannot miss

Movie: Drishyam 2 - The Resumption (Malayalam)

Cast: Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil

Rating: 3.5/5

Drishyam 2 is the much awaited sequel to the very popular Malayalam movie Drishyam which was later adapted into different regional movies and Bollywood too, giving it a cult status. As a matter of fact, we have only watched Drishyam - Bollywood version before.
This movie takes place 6 years after the events of Drishyam. We are shown the effect the events had on the people of the village and Georgekutty's family. There is an omnipresent aura of suspicion over Georgekutty in the village.

Georgekutty is now a well settled theatre owner who still lives with his family in the same village.

The movie slowly builds up in the first half around Georgekutty's obsession to produce a movie by himself against his wife's desires. Georgekutty's wife Rani and her elder daughter Anju still live in constant fear and suspicion, and this in turn also forces Rani to be over protective of her younger daughter Anu. The police which had already lost face in the murder investigation of Varun (son of former Inspector General Asha), is still shown to be after Georgekutty to regain their pride and prestige.
As in every thriller movie, multiple characters related to the main characters are included as the movie progresses with a good pace. The movie even successfully gives us a recap of the last movie in a very subtle and short manner.

To make the story even more murky and interesting, a witness angle is introduced to further corner Georgekutty for Varun's murder, while his family further becomes a emotional wreck. The insensitivity of Georgekutty starts affecting Rani's emotional well being which unintentionally helps the police in locating Varun's dead body.
As the story proceeds, this movie again makes the same mistakes as Drishyam. In this movie too, there is needless dramatization where again family is made to stand together and they are interrogated and pressured to confess their crime. This scene was again not at all necessary, and could have been avoided. Again to give more teeth to the suspense of the movie, the story delves into unnecessary police procedures which we know are not admissible in court and wont make the against Georgekutty any stronger.
The climax of the movie is very satisfying and gives perfect justification to the time taken to build up the story.

The direction by Jeethu Joseph is spot on and he successfully keeps us engaged and committed till the end of this 2 hour 30 minutes movie.
The cinematographer Satheesh Kurup complements Jeethu's direction perfectly and keeps the camera moving to keep the audience guessing.
The screenplay by Jeethu Joseph himself, is well structured - creates the prefect base for the eventual climax. Some characters were included as decoy in the story, which were actually not necessary and it looked as if he was trying to amp up the suspense and thrill a little too much.
In terms of the acting ensemble, it is Mohanlal who steals the show. He is perfect as Georgekutty and again he makes the audience root for him. Other supporting cast members are good and make their respective characters believable.

This is definitely one of the very few sequels which can live up to the standards of the original film. This sequel is a complete success and should not be missed.