'Drishyam,' the cult classic which appealed to all across the world

Like many regional films made in other languages, one is sure the banner which put together the 2013 Malayalam film ' Drishyam' would have never imagined the response it garnered, once it hit the silver screens in Kerala. Firstly, for the next three years it was a film whose box-office collections – at Rs 50 crore - remained unbeaten. Even when it was overtaken, it was by another film – Puli Murugan - by the same hero who was the leading face of the former – Mohan Lal – the invincible superstar of Malayalam cinema. Not surprisingly in a way, the film had been offered to Lal's onscreen competitor – Mammootty – who could not take it up. Other than the home state, it was remade into all southern languages, Sinhalese and surprisingly in Chinese (Mandarin) in 2019.

In 2015, remade in Hindi at a reported cost of Rs 38 crore, it did not disappoint the producers. Led by Ajay Devgn who was paired with Shriya Saran, the film netted more than Rs 110 crore. Here too, the film was initially offered to Saif Ali Khan, then Akshay Kumar was supposedly interested in taking it up before it came Ajay Devgn's way.

Nishikant Kamat, the director who gave a few pulsating hits prior to his untimely death was given the task of maintaining the knotty suspense of the original, which had the protagonist, a film buff using some incredible techniques to fob off the police from investigating the murder which happens in his backyard. Since it concerns his family, the hero goes to great lengths to throw the investigators off scent and be a few steps ahead of them till the end.

The understated performance of Mohan Lal was well-matched by Devgn too and he had Tabu to counter him as the senior cop whose son is the murder victim. The one-step forward technique which Lal shows was the USP which kept the cat-and-mouse game going and this was effectively captured in Hindi too.

Drishyam 2, released during the pandemic was a sequel which drew mixed reactions and also as it was released over the OTT platform. Yet, the film has already been picked up and production work is complete in Telugu. Mohan Lal's enduring box-office pull has seen another successful reprisal, one can assert. The Hindi version should affirm it.