BEHINDWOODS COLUMN

Though Jeethu Joseph has a successful box office status in contemporary Malayalam movies with only hit movies to vouch for, his latest film Drishyam has just become a turning point in his career. Released in December, the movie has continued to make headway with huge reception in Kerala and elsewhere until now. For the same reason, it is now being speculated to become the biggest Malayalam hit ever made. As much as its Indian collections, the overseas collections are fueling the movie’s successful run.

With praises from film fraternity and the delight of a huge accomplishment in terms of box office sensation for a Malayalam movie in recent times, Drishyam’s remake right is now the most wanted entity in all of film business circles. Soon, there will be announcements of the thriller drama being made in virtually all of south Indian languages followed by Hindi as is usually happens with these cases. The various versions will be tweaked according to the regional viewership sensibilities and the movie will take each form in every language.

Despite the language barrier, you should watch Drishyam just when it is running in theatres. The theatres screening the movie in cities outside Kerala are reporting packed attendance, so tickets will be hard to come by, but persist. Why? Because Jeethu’s script looks like he underwent a crash course on ‘how to write murder mysteries’ (from the victim’s standpoint, no less) and employed every trick in the book to write a watertight script.

But if you are still not convinced, here are five reasons you should consider investing your time and money on Drishyam before it is remade.

Remake is not original
It is after all called ‘remake’ and hence you can only expect a watered down version of the original. The girl with the dragon tattoo movie was never as gritty and disturbing as its Swedish original. And Malini 22 Palayamkottai will always remind you of 22, Female, Kottayam.  Just how fake meat (it’s soya and has a woody texture) is not real meat, remake of a product will never possess its original qualities.

Creative liberties
When it gets remade into, say, Tamil, regional sensibilities come into play. Our producers might want younger actors to play the lead role (if you watch Drishyam, you will know why it’s not such a great idea). They might want song sequences, because you know that is what sells here. Or even worse, someone will have the bright idea to insert a fight sequence to save the lead family.

The classic whodunit
In murder mysteries, it is usually the police that hunt for the killer. Drishyam’s story simply doesn’t follow that protocol. It is a murder mystery all right but there is also another human angle associated with it. If you are the kind who can watch endless episodes of Sherlock and Castle, you will be delighted to note that there are directors in our pool who are capable of directing such smartly written thrillers.

The drama
It is not all mystery. The middle class family, their travails of living and their impeccable attachment with each other is played to perfection by Meena and Mohanlal and the child actors. From the dialogues to the setting to the slow building up of momentum of the movie’s crux, Drishyam has every reason to be called a family drama as well. But it never gets overwhelmingly dramatic because Jeethu keeps it simple and real.

Of course, if you can’t wait
A remake will also take at least a year, or probably more, and if you think it’s too much a time, wait no more. Because thrillers work best as soon as they are released. The more the movie is taking time to be remade, the more the script needs to be rewritten to suit the current technological advancements. After all, contemporary themes are never valid after a few years since they can get outdated in no time.

Do leave a comment, if you have watched the movie already or have heard so much about it and waiting to get a ticket very soon.