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The extended running time weakens the effect of Drishyam 3, which concludes Georgekutty’s tale with intricate twists and moral ambiguity.
A Franchise That Won’t Let Go
Drishyam is one of those very few Indian thrillers that managed to stay relevant across multiple films. What started as a grounded family drama slowly metamorphosed into one of the most talked about crime sagas of Malayalam cinema, courtesy one man – Georgekutty.
Mohanlal is back, and he is the beating heart of the franchise – not because he is heroic, but because audiences are endlessly fascinated by how far he is willing to go to protect himself and his family.
At the beginning of Drishyam 3, Georgekutty is more than just a cable operator trying to stay alive through a nightmare. He’s a public figure, a successful producer and a man who’s turned his own trauma into cinematic storytelling. But underneath the polished image is the same calculating survivor who has spent years manipulating truth, memory and perception.
It’s presented as the final chapter in his story. The problem is that it’s a long road to get to that destination.
Georgekutty is now not just smart, but dangerous
One of the more interesting ideas explored in this installment is that Georgekutty’s intelligence has become an obsession.
In previous films he was an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances. Here the lines become blurrier. The text repeatedly implies that Georgekutty has come to rely on control. Every talk sounds like a play. Every public move seems like a strategic design. Even the film he makes, based on the original murder case, feels less an act of therapy than an attempt to rewrite history in his favor.
The film’s greatest weapon is that moral queasiness.
For years, viewers cheered for Georgekutty because the emotional core was about protecting his daughter from a predator. But Drishyam 3 also raises the question of whether the audience has been blinded by the light: this is still a man who got away with murder through manipulation and deceit.
When it embraces that uncomfortable truth, the movie is more compelling.
A Slow Burn That Tests Your Patience
The film’s biggest problem is its pacing, even with an interesting setup.
The first half is about Georgekutty’s film career, his family and his attempts to get Anju married. While these moments attempt to humanize the family once more, a lot of the scenes seem to be stretched for no reason.
Several comedic bits fall flat, especially when the story tries to mix modern arranged-marriage humor into what is otherwise a tense thriller. These detours don’t create suspense, they dilute momentum.
The screenplay also drags a little bit to get to its real conflict and the near two hours and forty minutes of runtime start to become quite apparent.
Ironically, once the film stops pretending that all is normal, it becomes far more interesting.
The Second Half Finds Its Edge
Drishyam 3 starts looking like the psychological chess match audience was expecting once the story starts peeling back its layers.
The film plays with timelines, missing memories, hidden agendas, and conflicting versions of events. The viewer is made to question what they thought they knew as past scenes are looked at again from new angles.
Some of these reveals are definitely smart.
At times the screenplay really nails the paranoia and tension that made the original film unforgettable. The investigative sequences gather momentum and Georgekutty’s frantic efforts to stay ahead of the game generate real suspense.
But the film occasionally gets a bit too complicated. Some twists feel manufactured just to surprise the audience, rather than arising organically from the story. Some explanations come with so much detail that they weaken the mystery rather than enhance it.
Sometimes the film mistakes complexity for intelligence.
Women Deserved Better
One of the letdowns of the trilogy’s final entry is the amount of agency the women are given.
Anju and Anu are largely sidelined, even if they bear emotional scars from the events that shaped the franchise. Anju is once again the central figure, but mostly because of the danger around her, not because of her own choices or perspective.
Meanwhile Rani remains the emotional anchor of the family, but even she seldom drives the narrative in meaningful ways.
The film, which is about the effects of trauma, surprisingly does not spend much time exploring the psychological evolution of these women over the years.
That shortcoming is hard to miss.
Darkness, Confusion and Visual Choices
The nighttime scenes in the forest are intended to be mysterious and unsettling, but they are inconsistently done. Some scenes are shot so darkly that it becomes difficult to follow important visual details.
Yet the darkness is both a symbol of Georgekutty’s uncertainty and paranoia, and frustrating in crucial moments.
But the atmosphere is more successful than the humour. The movie feels most alive when it indulges in dread, rather than trying to lighten the tone.
“Is There a Reason for the Finale to Exist?”
That’s the big question looming over Drishyam 3.
The second movie already provided a satisfying emotional and narrative closure in many ways. The third installment is often a story in search of a reason to exist. But it simultaneously offers a more conclusive examination of Georgekutty himself.
The film does not turn him into a folk hero. Instead, it slowly reveals the cost of living in a fabricated reality all the time.
The ending leaves the viewer more conflicted than victorious. And honestly, that may be the smartest decision the franchise ever makes.
There is no clear winner here—only survival.
Final Word
Drishyam 3 works when it is about Georgekutty’s psychological breakdown and the delicate web of lies woven around him. Mohanlal, once again, demands attention with a restrained performance that balances intelligence, fear and emotional detachment.
But its overstuffed pacing, uneven humor and over-explained twists prevent it from attaining the razor-sharp brilliance of the original classic.
Still, it’s a gripping thriller and has its moments of genuine tension, but is more exhausting than devastating as a finale.
3 out of 5