Before you watch Mohanlal's Drishyam 3, here's a refresher on what happened so far
Planning to watch Drishyam 3? With so much having already happened, here's recalling the adventures of Mohanlal's Georgekutty in the first two films.
There is a basic irony about the Drishyam films that subconsciously draws you every time Mohanlal returns with a new suspense drama as Georgekutty. The hero here is constantly on the wrong side of the law as he strives to cover up a death. And the cops, who essentially uphold the law as they try to solve death, are the 'villains'.
Legally, Georgekutty is wrong – we see him constantly bending the law. Morally – now that's where the story justifies his heroism. Georgekutty goes to any extent to protect his family. It's something where the series opens up the scope of emotional involvement for the audience every time.
QUICK RECAP: WHAT WE SAW SO FAR
When writer-director Jeethu Joseph made Drishyam, the first film of 2013, not many in the audience would probably have imagined he'd still be looking for new threads to pull in order to set up a third film 13 years later.
Yet, too much has happened for Georgekutty and family over two films, and a lot has been promised in Drishyam 3. It's interesting then, to do a rewind on the key plot points that shaped the story that has continued over the two earlier films opened in 2013 and 2021, before watching the just-released Drishyam 3. Ahead of getting into a recall, though, let's quickly pick up where the first two films left us.
Drishyam started it, with an accidental death. Mohanlal is Georgekutty, a cable TV operator and film buff in the Kerala smalltown of Rajakkad. Crisis strikes his family when his school-going elder daughter Anju (Ansiba Hassan) gets secretly photographed in the bathroom at a nature camp by Varun Prabhakar (Roshan Basheer), son of the police chief Geetha Prabhakar (Asha Sarath). Varun attempts blackmail, there is a confrontation. The boy dies accidentally.
Thus starts Georgekutty's unending struggle to protect Anju, as well as his wife Rani and younger daughter Anu (Esther Anil). He must find the perfect place to hide the body and create an elaborate alibi (the films he watches give him ideas). As Geetha and her husband Prabhakar (Siddique) come after his family, Georgekutty must manipulate evidence, outwit the police and all along protect his traumatised children with patience and ingenuity.
Drishyam 2, a Direct-To-Home release owing to Covid-19 in February 2021, pushed Georgekutty's travails further. The story opens six years after the incidents of the first film, at the end of which the police had found no evidence to nail Georgekutty or anyone in his family for Varun's murder. Georgekutty owns a local cinema hall now, and dreams of being a film producer. He lives a life of prosperity with wife Rani, and daughters Anju and Anu (Esther Anil), though guilt continues to torment them. Former police chief Geetha Prabhakar (Asha Sarath) and her husband Prabhakar (Siddique) are still desperate for justice.
Undercover officers move into Georgekutty's neighbourhod as a family, and infiltrate his home as friends. Drishyam 2 shows how Georgekutty's peace is shattered when a witness turns up, linking him to a hidden corpse unearthed at the local police station compound, which was being constructed around the time Varun disappeared. We've seen in the sequel how Georgekutty meticulously set up deception involving swapped corpses, legal manipulation and strategic foresight – inspired by numerous films he'd seen – to outsmart investigators and continue safeguarding his family from the law.
All that, in a nutshell, works as a refresher for the continuing saga. But you're keen to know the vital plot twists, of course, over the two films so far that mattered most.
If you plan to watch both films before checking out Drishyam 3, you must stop here. Else, here are the key sequences from the earlier Drishyam mysteries that should ease you into the new film of the ongoing saga.
TWISTY TRAIL: WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND
Kill by chance: The most interesting fact about the Drishyam films is that the 'murder' of the murder drama is technically anything but that. It's actually an accidental death. Recall how there is a scuffle when Varun comes to blackmail Anju at her home. Rani gets involved in the exchange and Anju, while trying to destroy the phone with the offensive video, strikes him. He dies.
Cinematic cover-up: Mohanlal as Georgekutty banks on knowledge he gained from the many films he had watched, to cook up a plan to save his family from arrest for Varun's death. It's also the ploy from which Drishyam gets its title.
Georgekutty manufactures false alibi by carefully creating a timeline of a family trip the next day. He establishes multiple witnesses – a bus conductor, a restaurant owner, a theatre operator – by engaging in friendly and detailed conversations with the vendors, staff and ticket checkers at these places, to ensure they remember seeing him and his family. He also collects tangible proofs, including bus tickets, restaurant bills and a cinema ticket. The trick is simple: He knows the police would come calling a few days later, but by then the witnesses – all strangers – would not keep the specific day in mind when they had come across him and his family.
The cover-up plan is the most defining plot push across all the films, for it is ultimately what ensures his family is let off the hook.
The smart body disposal: An important spin pertains to where Mohanlal's Georgekutty hides the body. The police search Georgekutty's home and all around, but to no avail. We finally get to know he had buried the body in the premises of the local police station that was under construction, on the fateful night. It was a master trick because Georgekutty knew the police would never think of their own turf.
The undercover couple: A man named Jose, in prison for another crime, recalls seeing Georgekutty at the under-construction police station on the night Varun disappeared. With fresh suspicion, Drishyam 2 has the police excavating the ground beneath the police station. They uncover a human skeleton. Two undercover informants, Saritha and Sabu, move into Georgekutty's neighbourhood as a couple. The plot pusher here is Saritha befriends Rani, and at one point manages to record the latter talking about the case, which leads to Georgekutty's arrest.
The brilliance of the hero's mind lies in the fact that he doesn't try to outrun the police at this point. Instead, he's orchestrated a clever body swap that eventually leads to his acquittal.
The body swap: It is what gives Drishyam 2 a clever climax. Guessing that the cops would eventually dig up the police station, Georgekutty had planned his next move well in advance. He had acquired a similar skeleton through a gravedigger, and swapped it with Varun's corpse. The DNA test would prove the exhumed skeleton did not belong to Varun, so no conclusive evidence linked Georgekutty to the murder.
DRISHYAM 3: WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
(No spoilers here)
Mohanlal and the primary cast return in Drishyam 3, with the film branching out into an altogether different direction: The media gets involved.
To begin with, the police have dropped the case, with no evidence to connect Georgekutty with the boy's disappearance/killing. The hero himself has realised his dream of becoming a film producer. Life, of course, cannot remain a cruise for Georgekutty and family, can it?
So, a journalist turns up wishing to make a documentary based on Varun's case. He could have an ulterior motive. More importantly, Georgekutty and his family are thrown into turmoil all over again.
Mohanlal has already said Drishyam 4 and 5 are not ruled out. Go in to watch Drishyam 3, therefore, knowing well that Georgekutty's worries are far from over. That's a whole lot more of Mohanlal to watch out for, of course, so who's to complain!
There is a basic irony about the Drishyam films that subconsciously draws you every time Mohanlal returns with a new suspense drama as Georgekutty. The hero here is constantly on the wrong side of the law as he strives to cover up a death. And the cops, who essentially uphold the law as they try to solve death, are the 'villains'.
Legally, Georgekutty is wrong – we see him constantly bending the law. Morally – now that's where the story justifies his heroism. Georgekutty goes to any extent to protect his family. It's something where the series opens up the scope of emotional involvement for the audience every time.
QUICK RECAP: WHAT WE SAW SO FAR
When writer-director Jeethu Joseph made Drishyam, the first film of 2013, not many in the audience would probably have imagined he'd still be looking for new threads to pull in order to set up a third film 13 years later.
Yet, too much has happened for Georgekutty and family over two films, and a lot has been promised in Drishyam 3. It's interesting then, to do a rewind on the key plot points that shaped the story that has continued over the two earlier films opened in 2013 and 2021, before watching the just-released Drishyam 3. Ahead of getting into a recall, though, let's quickly pick up where the first two films left us.
Drishyam started it, with an accidental death. Mohanlal is Georgekutty, a cable TV operator and film buff in the Kerala smalltown of Rajakkad. Crisis strikes his family when his school-going elder daughter Anju (Ansiba Hassan) gets secretly photographed in the bathroom at a nature camp by Varun Prabhakar (Roshan Basheer), son of the police chief Geetha Prabhakar (Asha Sarath). Varun attempts blackmail, there is a confrontation. The boy dies accidentally.
Thus starts Georgekutty's unending struggle to protect Anju, as well as his wife Rani and younger daughter Anu (Esther Anil). He must find the perfect place to hide the body and create an elaborate alibi (the films he watches give him ideas). As Geetha and her husband Prabhakar (Siddique) come after his family, Georgekutty must manipulate evidence, outwit the police and all along protect his traumatised children with patience and ingenuity.
Drishyam 2, a Direct-To-Home release owing to Covid-19 in February 2021, pushed Georgekutty's travails further. The story opens six years after the incidents of the first film, at the end of which the police had found no evidence to nail Georgekutty or anyone in his family for Varun's murder. Georgekutty owns a local cinema hall now, and dreams of being a film producer. He lives a life of prosperity with wife Rani, and daughters Anju and Anu (Esther Anil), though guilt continues to torment them. Former police chief Geetha Prabhakar (Asha Sarath) and her husband Prabhakar (Siddique) are still desperate for justice.
Undercover officers move into Georgekutty's neighbourhod as a family, and infiltrate his home as friends. Drishyam 2 shows how Georgekutty's peace is shattered when a witness turns up, linking him to a hidden corpse unearthed at the local police station compound, which was being constructed around the time Varun disappeared. We've seen in the sequel how Georgekutty meticulously set up deception involving swapped corpses, legal manipulation and strategic foresight – inspired by numerous films he'd seen – to outsmart investigators and continue safeguarding his family from the law.
All that, in a nutshell, works as a refresher for the continuing saga. But you're keen to know the vital plot twists, of course, over the two films so far that mattered most.
If you plan to watch both films before checking out Drishyam 3, you must stop here. Else, here are the key sequences from the earlier Drishyam mysteries that should ease you into the new film of the ongoing saga.
TWISTY TRAIL: WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND
Kill by chance: The most interesting fact about the Drishyam films is that the 'murder' of the murder drama is technically anything but that. It's actually an accidental death. Recall how there is a scuffle when Varun comes to blackmail Anju at her home. Rani gets involved in the exchange and Anju, while trying to destroy the phone with the offensive video, strikes him. He dies.
Cinematic cover-up: Mohanlal as Georgekutty banks on knowledge he gained from the many films he had watched, to cook up a plan to save his family from arrest for Varun's death. It's also the ploy from which Drishyam gets its title.
Georgekutty manufactures false alibi by carefully creating a timeline of a family trip the next day. He establishes multiple witnesses – a bus conductor, a restaurant owner, a theatre operator – by engaging in friendly and detailed conversations with the vendors, staff and ticket checkers at these places, to ensure they remember seeing him and his family. He also collects tangible proofs, including bus tickets, restaurant bills and a cinema ticket. The trick is simple: He knows the police would come calling a few days later, but by then the witnesses – all strangers – would not keep the specific day in mind when they had come across him and his family.
The cover-up plan is the most defining plot push across all the films, for it is ultimately what ensures his family is let off the hook.
The smart body disposal: An important spin pertains to where Mohanlal's Georgekutty hides the body. The police search Georgekutty's home and all around, but to no avail. We finally get to know he had buried the body in the premises of the local police station that was under construction, on the fateful night. It was a master trick because Georgekutty knew the police would never think of their own turf.
The undercover couple: A man named Jose, in prison for another crime, recalls seeing Georgekutty at the under-construction police station on the night Varun disappeared. With fresh suspicion, Drishyam 2 has the police excavating the ground beneath the police station. They uncover a human skeleton. Two undercover informants, Saritha and Sabu, move into Georgekutty's neighbourhood as a couple. The plot pusher here is Saritha befriends Rani, and at one point manages to record the latter talking about the case, which leads to Georgekutty's arrest.
The brilliance of the hero's mind lies in the fact that he doesn't try to outrun the police at this point. Instead, he's orchestrated a clever body swap that eventually leads to his acquittal.
The body swap: It is what gives Drishyam 2 a clever climax. Guessing that the cops would eventually dig up the police station, Georgekutty had planned his next move well in advance. He had acquired a similar skeleton through a gravedigger, and swapped it with Varun's corpse. The DNA test would prove the exhumed skeleton did not belong to Varun, so no conclusive evidence linked Georgekutty to the murder.
DRISHYAM 3: WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
(No spoilers here)
Mohanlal and the primary cast return in Drishyam 3, with the film branching out into an altogether different direction: The media gets involved.
To begin with, the police have dropped the case, with no evidence to connect Georgekutty with the boy's disappearance/killing. The hero himself has realised his dream of becoming a film producer. Life, of course, cannot remain a cruise for Georgekutty and family, can it?
So, a journalist turns up wishing to make a documentary based on Varun's case. He could have an ulterior motive. More importantly, Georgekutty and his family are thrown into turmoil all over again.
Mohanlal has already said Drishyam 4 and 5 are not ruled out. Go in to watch Drishyam 3, therefore, knowing well that Georgekutty's worries are far from over. That's a whole lot more of Mohanlal to watch out for, of course, so who's to complain!
