“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.” – Seneca

A man living in fear is a man who cannot celebrate life. Though Georgekutty (played by Mohanlal, reprising his role from Drishyam) seems to be a good husband and a father to his family where he seems to enjoy these small moments with his family, he is constantly in control of his actions, he keeps his mind buzzing about all the possibilities of an unexpected turn of events that may come their way in connection to that murder his family had committed six years ago. In addition to the fear, there is an enormous amount of guilt that compounds every time the parents of the boy (Varun) enquire him about the remains of their boy so that the boy could be laid rest to peace and they get a closure to everything that has been a mess all these years.

Drishyam 2 – The Resumption happens close to a realistic timeline, six years after Drishyam. The family is still trying to overcome the haunting memories of that unfortunate event that has rendered their lives in a constant state of fear. The wife and the elder daughter freeze when they hear the police sirens, they go into a shock when they see a random policeman on the road. The elder daughter gets nightmares even now, which makes their family wonder whether she will ever be alright to get married. People in the town still come up with cheap rumours, which makes the incident to stay fresh in the people’s mind. The police have become a laughing stock of the town as they are still unable to find any clue about the whereabouts of the body whatsoever, rendering them unable to produce proper evidence against Georgekutty and his family.

The storyline for this movie needs a definite applause. Given that Drishyam itself was a complete film, there was curiosity about what could possibly be coming out of the sequel that would interest the audience. A small sidetrack beautifully constructed and inserted into the timeline fits in perfectly into the proceedings. The beauty of this sidetrack lies in the fact that it was kept to a bare minimum and was brought out just at the right time.

Mohanlal as Georgekutty is as brilliant as he was in Drishyam, with his staunch attitude that emanates very easily out of him. And now, with Georgekutty growing remorseful, making himself aware of the situations, Mohanlal brilliantly shows the guilt that has grown inside that man in the course of time. Mohanlal’s acting prowess has always been his very subtle variations in his facial expressions with eyes conveying everything that the face or the dialogues are generally required to convey. Meena, Ansiba Hassan and Esther Ali all reprise their role of Georgekutty’s family, play their parts to perfection. The characters of the family and the town have been made to behave the very same way, staying true to the Drishyam universe.

The most important thing, a much appreciable one indeed, is that the murder committed by Georgekutty and his family is not justified in this sequel as well. The character sketches stay the same way how it was created in the first part, that Georgekutty will go to any extent to protect his family, and no one can breach that protective wall that Georgekutty has built around them. Generally speaking, a sequel would justify/make a point of an earlier event (if continuing from where it left off), but here that justification seems to be immaterial now as the society has believed for six years that they had indeed committed the crime. Proving them all wrong could have been easily done by Jeethu Joseph (the director of Drishyam 1 and 2), but that would not have been fair for the boy’s parents. In all fairness, this was probably the most realistic ending for such a storyline and it is satisfying to see that it stayed that way.

We have had sequels in our cinema, but each of them have had its own way of dealing with the concept of sequels. There are a few sequels that pick up exactly from where it ended, and there are a few that pick up from where it started – more of a prequel, and there are a few films that retain the core characters and its world and weave a different story out of it. And, lastly we have a set of film series that do not have any connection to each other and yet have been called as sequels just because it falls under the same concept. Here, Drishyam 2 safely falls under the first category and a little bit of third category. It picks up from where it left off, but with a different angle adding a little more spice to this newer proceedings.

Drishyam 2 may not be as thrilling as the first part, but it surely does what it was intended for, to show the after-effects of an unfortunate incident that took place in the lives of a happy family. Having said that, it still has quite a brilliant revelation at the end that leaves us mindblown, making us love the movie even more. This could well be a movie that deserves to be recognized as one of the best sequels to an already best earlier part.

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