D for Drishyam, D for Disappointment: How ‘Drishyam 3’ Damaged a Brilliant Franchise

Spoiler Alert: This article contains major plot details and spoilers for Drishyam 3. If you have not watched the film yet and want to avoid spoilers, stop reading now.

Drishyam 3: An unnecessary sequel?

The Drishyam franchise was never just another thriller series. The first two films became cult classics because they mixed suspense, emotion and intelligence in a way very few Indian thrillers manage to achieve. Georgekutty was not a superhero. He was an ordinary man using his mind to protect his family, and that grounded tension made audiences emotionally invest in every single move.

That is exactly why Drishyam 3 feels so disappointing.

Instead of delivering the sharp psychological thriller audiences expected after two iconic films, director Jeethu Joseph presents something that often feels more like a stretched family drama with occasional thriller elements forced into it. The emotional weight is still present, but the gripping suspense that defined the franchise feels diluted throughout most of the runtime.

Georgekutty Returns, But The Magic Does Not

The story takes place several years after the events of Drishyam 2. Georgekutty, played once again by Mohanlal, is now a successful film producer. Ironically, a film inspired by his own hidden past has become commercially successful.

The film opens with scenes from Georgekutty’s production world, featuring Biju Menon’s character in the lead role. These early sequences show Georgekutty struggling to balance his responsibilities as a newcomer producer while maintaining his carefully constructed life.

Financially, the family is now stable. They live in a bigger house and appear more settled than before. But internally, Georgekutty remains trapped in fear. The shadow of Varun’s death still follows him everywhere.

This psychological burden had the potential to become the strongest part of the film. Unfortunately, the screenplay spends too much time on emotionally repetitive moments instead of building the kind of tension the franchise is known for.

The Film Slowly Turns Into A Family Drama

One of the biggest problems with Drishyam 3 is its pacing. The film spends a large amount of time focusing on the family trying to move forward. Rani, played by Meena, wants peace after years of trauma. Anju, portrayed by Ansiba Hassan, is slowly recovering through therapy and preparing for marriage. Meanwhile, Esther Anil’s Anu appears more mature and emotionally confident compared to the previous films.

There are several scenes meant to highlight the emotional growth of the family, including conversations surrounding intercaste marriage and changing social mindsets. While these moments are well acted, they often feel disconnected from the thriller atmosphere audiences came to experience.

The major emotional conflict revolves around Anju’s marriage proposals getting repeatedly affected because of lingering rumours connected to the Varun case. Again, these scenes work emotionally, but they dominate the film far more than they should.

And that becomes the core issue. People entered theatres expecting a tightly written suspense thriller. Instead, much of the film behaves like a slow emotional family saga.

Old Enemies Return, But The Tension Feels Forced

The film eventually introduces its major conflict. Varun’s parents, Geetha Prabhakar and Prabhakar, played by Asha Sharath and Siddique, are still obsessed with revenge. Former police officer Sahadevan joins forces with them alongside IG Thomas Bastin. Together, they create a plan to frame Anju in a fabricated crime. Their real objective is not legal justice. They want to mentally destroy Georgekutty by attacking the one thing he values most, his family.

This setup sounds exciting on paper. But the execution lacks the layered brilliance of the earlier films.

In the previous installments, Georgekutty always felt like a man ten steps ahead of everyone else. Here, he mostly reacts to situations instead of controlling them. Rather than watching an intelligent cat-and-mouse game unfold, audiences spend much of the runtime watching Georgekutty emotionally struggle while trying to survive unexpected traps. That change in character dynamic weakens the entire franchise identity.

A Dark Climax With Emotional Weight

The climax is where the film finally becomes intense. After the conspiracy against Anju succeeds, Georgekutty once again crosses moral boundaries to save his family. In one of the film’s most disturbing moments, he manipulates the crime scene and even injures his own daughter in a non-fatal way to make her appear as a victim rather than a suspect.

This moment genuinely shocks the audience and reminds viewers of the darker psychological layers that made the earlier films memorable. Emotionally broken after years of living in fear, Georgekutty finally approaches Prabhakar with an unexpected proposal, he is ready to confess to Varun’s murder if his family is left alone forever.

Mohanlal performs these scenes brilliantly. His exhaustion, fear and emotional collapse feel painfully real. But again, the problem is consistency. The film reaches this emotional and psychological intensity far too late.

The Ending Clearly Sets Up ‘Drishyam 4’

Towards the end, Georgekutty is arrested, leaving his family devastated but temporarily safe.

However, the final scene changes everything. When Prabhakar asks Geetha whether she is finally satisfied, she coldly reveals that she still wants Anju to suffer for her son’s death.

The conflict remains unresolved, strongly hinting that the story is far from over and that Drishyam 4 is already being prepared emotionally.

The Biggest Disappointment Of All

The saddest part about Drishyam 3 is not that it is a terrible film. It is not. The real disappointment is that it carries the Drishyam name. Had this film released under a completely different title with different characters, audiences might have appreciated it more as an emotional family crime drama. But attaching it to one of India’s smartest thriller franchises automatically created expectations of suspense, unpredictability and masterful storytelling. And sadly, the film rarely reaches those standards.

The first two Drishyam films made audiences admire Georgekutty’s intelligence. The third film mostly makes audiences watch him suffer emotionally. There are still strong performances, especially from Mohanlal, Meena and Ansiba Hassan. Some emotional moments genuinely work. The climax also partially revives the tension missing from the rest of the film.

But overall, Drishyam 3 feels like a film that forgot what made the franchise iconic in the first place.

Sometimes protecting a franchise means knowing when to stop.

And after watching this film, many viewers may quietly feel that Drishyam should have remained a perfect two-part story.

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