It’s a perfect sequel.
In the first instalment, Inspector General of Police Meera Deshmukh (Tabu) had used intimidation and police domination to browbeat video parlour owner Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn), wife Nandini (Shriya Saran) and daughters, Anju (Ishita Dutta) and Anu (Mrunal Jadhav). The IGP’s son was missing, the top cop was sure he’d been murdered and dead certain that the Salgaonkars were behind it. But even the wrath of the whole police force couldn’t rattle Vijay who stood stoically to protect his family from persecution or prosecution. Outfoxed by Vijay at every turn and unable to find their son’s body, Meera and husband Mahesh (Rajat Kapoor) had shifted base to London.
Drishyam had ended ingeniously – Vijay had buried the body of the missing son under the nose of the force in the newly constructed police station.
Vijay Salgaonkar’s theme, ‘Drishyam jhoot nahi bolte… isliye sawaal ye nahi ki aapke aankhon ke saamne kya hai, sawaal ye hai ki aap dekh kya rahe ho…’ sets the mood.
In a brilliantly plotted sequel by writer-director Jeetu Joseph in Malayalam and adapted by Abhishek Pathak and Aamil Keeyan Khan in Hindi, a gangster is introduced. On the run from the police, David (Siddharth Bodke) had spotted Vijay Salgaonkar burying a body where a new police station was coming up. That was seven years ago before he was caught and jailed.
He has served his time and is out.
Meanwhile, Vijay is the well-to-do owner of a movie theatre with plans of producing his own film. But he knows the game isn’t over.
He’s up against a new force. Tarun Ahlawat (Akshaye Khanna) is a chess-playing cop who has all his moves plotted in his head, he won’t give up.
Meera and Mahesh also return every year for their son’s anniversary. And the mother won’t rest until she’s found her son’s body.
The combined brainwork of cops at different levels has spread an unbelievable net to trap the Salgaonkars while Vijay goes about his video, theatre and moviemaking business seemingly quite unaware.
Mahesh Deshmukh visits him and pleads, “Give us our son’s ashes.”
Tarun Ahlawat visits the Salgaonkars, Nandini and daughters are rattled.
David the gangster has recognised Vijay Salgaonkar as the man he’d seen burying a body in the police station under construction.
This time around, more than the muscle power of the police, it’s a cops-n-robbers tension that’s built with both sides using cleverness to outwit the other.
Directed by Abhishek Pathak, before the elaborate plot of the police settles in, there are pockets of boredom and, unlike the Malayalam original, the friendship between Nandini and Jenny (Neha Joshi), a husband-battered neighbour, is not too convincingly etched.
But these are minor hiccups in an otherwise smartly planned counter by Vijay who’ll go to any lengths to protect his family. As it turns out, he’s not one step but several leaps ahead of the police even as he empathises with the Deshmukhs who mourn their son.
Ajay Devgn has both the image and the screen presence to be the protective husband and father. Though Ajay’s face is puffed up in places, he makes Vijay Salgaonkar entirely credible. Akshaye Khanna adds menace to his policework. But it’s Jeetu Joseph’s brilliant plot that once again gets your applause.
Watch the trailer of Drishyam 2:
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