'Drishyam 3' Movie Review: Mohanlal In All His Elements In This Mostly Satisfying Conclusion 

Can anyone really be friends with a man like Mohanlal's Georgekutty? Or is it just impossible to trust a man as devious as he is, to the extent that he’s become a prisoner of his own mind (in instances, he is literally behind bars, just that these are bars to the windows of his home). This is something of a starting point for Jeethu Joseph’s Drishyam 3, which is as much a character study of this man as it is a game of one-upmanship between a family man and an army of police officers who are out to get him. Yet again. 

It’s been six years since the release of the second film, and it’s been just as many years for his family, too. The movie that Georgekutty set out to make as a decoy has not just bought him time and another chance at normalcy, but it has also made him a hit movie producer with a ₹100 crore film. If he’d made his way up the social ladder by owning a movie theatre from being a humble cable TV operator in the first film, the rags-to-riches arc for his family is complete as he is now a famous new producer in town.

Naturally, the love and cooperation he enjoyed from people in this town, too, have disappeared entirely. From one of us, George has gone on to become one of them, a man who isn’t just lucky, but also connected enough to find his own way out. When a pirated print of his film is leaked online, he now has the wherewithal to go directly to the DGP to raise a complaint; Optics be damned.

Just as unfigureoutable as he usually is, age seems to have corroded the sharpness of his mind. From being a master at using people as pawns, he goes on to become someone who forgets to keep tabs on people like he used to. And just as talk of his daughter Anju’s wedding (Ansiba Hassan) begins, we see the man’s control slipping, unaware of his inability to think on his feet. There are eyes all over, looking at him like they’ve never been before. Will he continue to go to any extent to save his family, or has he already gone too far, far beyond redemption?

It’s these aspects of the storytelling that make Drishyam 3 go beyond thriller territory, operating more like a complex morality tale. Georgekutty’s shift to the dark side has become so obvious by now that it’s no longer easy to take a position. If the first two films showed us the damage his family’s actions had caused to another family, here the victims are many. So, when we meet Rajan (Dinesh Prabhakar) today after all that he has had to lose, we almost hope for Georgekutty to fall, because he has virtually destroyed far more families than he has saved. From being films about self-preservation, the Drishyam franchise has begun to border on selfishness.

But Jeethu Joseph, the writer, is aware of his film’s morality. When a movie director meets George, he has already found a purpose with that connection. And when a young girl from an impoverished family thanks George for all his help, we’re able to see just how conditional all of his “help” has been. For a man too cheap to spend money on his own daughter’s wedding invitation, he’s quite the spendthrift when it comes to purchasing people’s loyalty. 

Which is perhaps why Jeethu Joseph must have realised the need for an obvious bad guy to counter the greyness of Georgekutty’s character. For a film that existed in the greys for most of its runtime, Drishyam 3 turns into a more convenient thriller after this entry. Plans upon plans are hatched to finally get a hold of Georgekutty, and we feel like the entire universe is out to get him. But by now, we’ve been so prepared not to underestimate George that we end up overthinking his every move. 

There’s so much Mohanlal needs to convey in this film without a single character he can speak to. The dilemma is all hidden several layers beneath, and we see the man struggling to keep secrets, knowing very well that he has no one to trust. When you contrast his quite implosions with the overt exaggerations of other, lesser characters, we witness a tug of war between clever storytelling and obvious, plain exposition. Complex plans are broken down like they’re being told to children, and after several such scenes, we feel exhausted by just how much the film’s trying to say.

But if the film returns to what it does best, it’s because of how much we’ve come to invest in these characters. Jeethu Joseph becomes another person when he enters this franchise, especially when the film he’s writing has 'Drishyam' in the title. The film takes turns you do not expect to, despite the overthinking and even after a major drop in its energy, the film still has a way to pull out the rug from right under you. And when it hits you, it’s not because you don’t see it coming or because the twist is that clever…despite spending 13 years and three films with Georgekutty, we still do not fully understand the things he is ready to do, to protect his family. It might be the weakest of the three films, but enough is going on in the film to understand that we will never fully understand Georgekutty.