Drishyam Movie – The Litmus of Morality
Couple of weeks back we all heard Aniruddha Bapu talk about the movie Drishyam during his weekly pitruvachan at Shree Harigurugram. Hence on the following weekend we all in our family decided to watch it. And what we saw left us in admiration of its story, acting, direction and mainly the message that it wants to send across to us.
The movie showcases how a common, middle-class family gets shattered by an unwanted incident which happens to their daughter without her knowing of it. What begins from here is the tale of complete preoccupation of minds of all the family members with this incident and the agony they undergo due to their genuine guilt. This ‘guilt’ is a characteristic of every individual who has pull towards the various virtues and morality in life.
But actually the incident happens due to the wrongful behavior of a male colleague of the daughter of Vijay Salgaonkar, the central character of the movie played by Ajay Devgan. This colleague is from a wealthy and an influential family having his mother as Inspector General of Police of the state of Goa and his father is top businessman. In trying to blackmail Salgaonkar’s daughter, she accidently kills this unwanted and uninvited intruder in her attempt to destroy her own video clipping which the intruder had filmed while she was changing her clothes without her knowledge. Essentially this act should not been not performed at all at the very first point. And from this point when the intruder gets accidentally killed the story takes a completely different turn.
Vijay Salgaonkar a common-man, a local cable-operator metamorphoses himself into a real ‘head of the family’. He creates an alibi to protect his daughter and stand behind her in the situation where she is not at fault. Anticipating the future happenings out his alertness and presence of mind he directs all of his family members to face police questioning and interrogation firmly and in unison.
The ‘IG mother’ of the accidently killed offender is herself investigating the case. She comes to know of the wrong-doings of her son and pins Salgaonkar family as the prime suspect. With complete disregard of morality she goes behind Salgaonkars and tortures them, both mentally and physically in a very brutal manner. She does this even when she is well-aware that her son and his immoral behavior have been solely responsible for what has happened. She is not ready to forgive Salgaonkars and rather abuses her authority and position. She even crosses limits to implicate Salgaonkars only to satisfy her own ego. Here the featured IG epitomizes the rule of ‘might is right’. We are witnessing these behavioral traits very frequently in the modern day society and the director has very well succeeded at baring this fact.
But even during the ruthless and harsh torture, Vijay Salgaonkar gathers not only the physical strength to himself bears it but also musters mental toughness to see the same being suffered by all his family members including his school-going daughter. A father can stand to see this and digest it only when he is seeing a ‘larger good of the family’ and it is only pure love that can give a person mental and physical capacity to bear all this. It is this pure love that chisels out previously unknown qualities in personality of individuals and elevates their capacities to unprecedented levels. It also throws light on the reality of what even a simple common man can do. Here Vijay Salgaonkar also exemplifies an ideal and competent ‘head of the family’.
Incidents like these and others are seen increasingly to be committed in and around us which is the sorry but a true picture today. Ultimately in such cases when there is no recourse, it usually leads to revenge. The movie clearly clarifies and differentiates what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and shows us that for the righteous cause one should be willing to do anything and to go any length. Also ‘unnecessary guilt’ need not be carried in case of outcomes and eventualities inspired by ‘righteous cause’.
Ajay Devgan has come as a very mature actor from this film. Jeethu Joseph and Upendra Sidhaye have penned down an touching story portraying realities of modern-day society. Also, director Nishikant Kamat has succeeded in putting this entire story very logically and that too without crossing any limits of family viewing. Overall the movie conveys a very pragmatic and real-life message. I would surely recommend this movie to all.
|| Hari Om || || Shriram || || Ambadnya ||