Sripriya’s Drushyam (2014) Movie Review
Cast: Venkatesh, Meena, Nadhiya, Naresh, Ravi Kale, Chalapathi Rao, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Chaitanya Krishna, Benerjee, Sameer, Roshan Basheer, Sapthagiri, Baby Esther, Kritika.
Directed by: Sripriya
Written by: Jeethu Joseph
Music by: Sharreth
Censor Certificate: U
Runtime: 158.07 Minutes
Rambabu (Venkatesh Daggubati) is a self-made man. An orphan who dropped out of school after 4th Grade. Rambabu has just about worked in every field he has come across. When we meet him, he is the owner of a small cable TV company. Married to Jyothi (Meena) a sweet and typical housewife, with two daughters Anju (Kruthika) and Anu (Esther). Rambabu spends his days trying to make ends meet and save money for his future plans. The rest of the plot revolves around a terrible situation that threatens to shake the very foundation of the family and the events that follow.
The acting performances in this film are uniformly good, with every character rooted to earth. Venkatesh Daggubati grows in stature moment by moment. Takes the suffering of Rambabu upon himself with such a resilience that his life depends on it. When compare him to Mohanlal’s performance in the original, he is very close enough. Meena given her best performance in the Original, but she did a fine job in the remake. The children Kruthika and Esther have the natural ease of veterans before camera. The pick of the cast though is Nadiya as Geetha Prabhakaran . Her character is least likeable of the top characters yet she manages to steal empathy with the shades of gray she summons up. Ravi Kale has given a powerful performance as Veerabhadram. The rest of the characters Sameer, Kasi Viswanath, Annapurnamma, Chitram Seenu, Uttej, Naresh, Chalapathi Rao and Nellore Giri have given nice support to the lead cast.
Drishyam about a cable operator Rambabu, who has been living peacefully with his wife and children. His life turns upside down when a character enter his life. The things that the family, especially Rambabu goes through and has to do forms the rest of the storyline. The basic plot is similar to Korean Crime Thriller Suspect X (2008), but Jeethu Joseph has his own story to narrate and that too in a way which simply grabs your attention. In very few instances movie made with very similar concepts surpasses and delivers with fresh approach. Drishyam (Telugu) is a remake of the most unforgettable and trendsetting movie of Malayalam cinema with the same name directed by Jeethu Joseph. Drishyam original was already made in Kannada (with some changes) and received a decent applause from the audience, but in Drishyam (Telugu) things turned out to be a bit different. For the first time makers of a remake film just rendered everything from scenes, shots, dialogues, tunes, locations etc. The problem here is Malayalam flavor doesn’t fit our culture and nativity. The Songs and dialogues fails to elevate the film as it happened in the original. Direction of Sripriya is ho hum, she just copied every scene from the original blatantly with out any changes to suit our nativity. The first half of the film talks about Family, mutual relationships in village, little fights, creating an interesting base for the mystery. Sripriya should have worked a bit more on the love warmth – relationship between Rambabu and his family, its totally crisp and cut short of what original has provided with the family point. The thrilling moments in the film actually begin just 15 minutes before the interval. However what comes next is the final film which has some truly impressive thrills which eventually makes you forget the lazy and slow paced moments of its first half quite easily. Dialogues by Darling Swamy are translated version of Malayalam dialogues. There are no big changes in script yet Paruchuri brothers are given credit for the screenplay. The cinematography by S Gopal Reddy is neat, he succeeded in showcasing the feel of original via. his camera lens. Editor Marthand K Venkatesh could have cut short the film in the first half by 10 odd minutes. Script should have been still stiffer in order not to leave any setback in storytelling. Music by Sharreth (180 & Naa Bangaru Talli fame) failed to support the film with his songs, but given his best with the background score. The production values of Suresh Productions are flawless.
Venkatesh has not had a great outing in the recent year. His last two movies Shadow and Masala miserably failed at the Box Office. Drishyam is the Telugu remake of Jeethu Joseph’s 2013 movie Drishyam. Original created history at box office with its terrific script and with natural thrills, but same cannot be said about the Telugu remake. Producer and director have succeeded in staying true to original, but they haven’t taken any extra effort on the script & nativity changes. If you are remaking a movie some changes are necessary to keep in our audience engaged to the screenplay, but Drishyam has no such fresh changes as a result those who have watched the original will be frustrated with the final outcome of the remake. Sripriya deserves no sympathy as she hasnt made any changes to the original script. Not in a single scene she steer away from the original. But when you compare the two, this movie fails to move you emotionally like the original did. This film only appeals to those who haven’t watched Drishyam (Malayalam) and for the rest it will be decent thriller to watch out.
Survi Review: 2.5/5
(Drushyam is out in theaters on July 11th, 2014)
Theatrical Trailer:
Recent Comments