Drishyam 2

Seven years have passed. Vijay Salgaonkar is still living with his family; he had a small cable television business and is now opening a cinema and planning to make a film. The town has not forgotten; everyone thinks they know what happened that night and the whispering continues. The police never closed the file. A new officer is appointed and one of the old witnesses starts to talk. There is fresh evidence. Abhishek Pathak directs. Ajay Devgn plays Vijay. The film is a remake of a Malayalam production of the same name, adapted into Hindi. The first film had been remade in the same way. The subject is not the crime but keeping it up. Vijay has protected the same lie for years, and what that has done to his family is the real matter; the daughters have grown and that night stands over all of them. The structure is the same as the first film: a long preparation, then everything falling into place in a single section of explanation. Ajay Devgn plays the part calmly; the man is afraid and does not show it. It was a large commercial success. Its limit is comparison with the original; the narrative is nearly identical and brings no new reading. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian thrillers and narratives of planned crime. Who it is not for: the context is missing without the first film, there is no surprise for anyone who knows the original, and it is long.