Years before he ever set foot on a film set, Jeethu Joseph heard a story from a friend. It was about two families: a boy, a girl, a relationship that unraveled into a police case. Both families had done something right. Both had done something wrong. And nobody in the room could decide whose side to take.
The question lodged somewhere in Joseph’s mind and stayed there. What would happen if you put an audience in that same position? What would they do when there was no clean side to choose?
That single ethical knot became the seed of “Drishyam,” the 2013 Malayalam thriller starring Mohanlal as Georgekutty – the wily cable operator who buries a crime so thoroughly that it takes the law years to find its footing. The film became a phenomenon. Two sequels, a Hindi, Telugu and Kannada-language remakes, a Tamil remake Joseph directed himself with Kamal Haasan, and adaptations in Chinese, and Sinhala later, the franchise is still expanding. Now Joseph is heading back into Georgekutty’s house for “Drishyam 3” – and this time, the walls are closing in.
“What ‘Three’ is basically concentrated on is Georgekutty’s fear and his tension, from his angle,” Joseph tells Variety. The children have grown up, their thinking has shifted. Georgekutty has aged. And the punishment that “Drishyam 2” left hanging over his head is no longer theoretical.
