Drishyam 3 emotional track a RISK ? / A HANU MAN OVER KILL ?

 The success of Thudarum and Hriddyapoorvam has confused Jeethu Joseph who is getting ready for Drishyam 3. His revelation that the third part will be more on emotions and not a crime thriller like the first two parts where the antagonist and protagonist are in a cat and mouse game but here the family head who successfully helped his daughter from going to jail and with support from family now goes through an emotional turmoil. Read on

Audiences across India are eagerly waiting for Drishyam 3, and director Jeethu Joseph has finally revealed some details. The film will focus on George Kutty’s life four years after Drishyam 2, exploring how much he has changed since then. Unlike the earlier parts, Jeethu Joseph said Drishyam 3 will not be a heavy intelligence thriller. Instead, the story will deal with George Kutty’s insecurities and the emotional consequences of the past. This shift has left fans both curious and worried. Many feel that if the film leans too much on emotions, it may not satisfy audiences who loved the suspense and mind games of the first two instalments. Social media users have compared this risk to Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Coolie, which faced backlash for not meeting expectations. Still, some believe Jeethu Joseph is purposely under hyping Drishyam 3 to surprise audiences with unexpected twists. The legacy of the Drishyam franchise is strong, and fans are hopeful that George Kutty’s next chapter will balance emotion with suspense.

Seeing the rush to cash in audience like for animation film with story from puranas, is Indian cinema going to kill the golden goose ?; Netflix, in collaboration with Alok Jain, Anu Sikka, and Ajit Andhare, has announced Kurukshetra, an animated retelling of the Mahabharata. This marks a strong global push for Indian mythology-based animation. Meanwhile, Telugu producer Naga Vamsi is backing Vayuputra, an animated feature on Lord Hanuman’s life. The film is set for a grand release during Dussehra 2026, raising anticipation across regional and national markets. While these projects are promising, some fans fear the trend could soon become repetitive. The industry often replicates successful formulas, and if this universe grows too fast, many producers may rush into similar stories. By the time several films are released, audiences may feel oversaturated and seek something fresh. This raises doubts about whether mythology alone can sustain long-term engagement. Still, this is a golden chance to shape a homegrown animation industry capable of competing with giants like Pixar and Disney. If handled with care, it can change Indian storytelling forever. If not, it may fade like many other trends. Tags:Mahavatar Narsimha

Copy Cat Jeethu's NERU caught

Neru starring Mohanlal and doing well in theatres is nothing but a little bit of tinkering of the 1995 movie ` Sketch 2 Hands That See’ is the charge. As with his earlier films starting from Drishyam onwards has been adapting the movies to suit the local audience and bring in elements that are of his own. This makes you puzzled as can it be called a plagiarism or just inspiration. In Neru there is partner to Jeethu and this lady a lawyer by profession is credited with writing the screenplay with him. Coming back to Sketch ,the story is about a blind girl who gets raped. All that the cop has is a sketch of the rapist and that too drawn from what little the blind girl’s touches that she had from the rapist during the act. Cut to Neru – Blind girl is raped in her house and as a sculptor she through what she felt by moving her hands over the rapist is made into a bust. Scene moves to court. The defense lawyer Mohanlal arguments and his difficulty to get the blind girl testimony and bust based observations by the court are similar to Sketch. After this Jeethu brings scenes where the rapist alibi is proved false and the girl’s father being looked as a possible rapist of his own daughter and this is not in Sketch. In Sketch, the rapist is a serial rapist and he leaves no evidence as he beheads the victim. But in case of blind girl, he does not kill her as she cannot testify against him. In Neru, the rapist has a track record of doing a similar crime and getting away as he managed to get evidence to prove that he was not at spot of crime. All this can be given a benefit of doubt or say a clever rewrite of a good plot but the scene where after the favourable verdict , the rape victim runs her fingers over the lawyer’s facial features and comes up with a sketch is ditto in Neru. Jeethu could not resist the temptation to not include this emotion charged scene in his film. Similarity between Jeethu films to Hollywood or other language films has been evident from the days when he made My Boss whose plot is The Proposal and to give due credit he added his own humour scenes .Drishyam plot is Suspect x and Jeethu turns the hero into a cinephile ( in original he was a Maths genius)with strong family bonds and introduces a character of Kalabhavan Shajon . Brillance of Jeethu is in 12th Man which is Perfect Strangers plot or rather the idea. Perfect Strangers is no murder mystery but he turns 12th Man into one. Is it not Brillant ? Leo the biggest blockbuster of Kollywood has a line – Tribute to the History of Violence. Will Jeethu at least give due credit in upcoming Ram ? If there is a plagiarism checker for movies, Jeethu will escape and even from the tools that detect AI content. Critic Bharadwaj Rangam rightly called Neru a writer’s movie/ To improvise on a borrowed plot does need lot of writing skill to shake off the similarity to original.

Rajini missed Drishyam role - Kamal to opt out of BB7 Tamil ?

Mohanlal and Jeethu Joseph combo that gave Drishyam is readying its next release Neru, an investigative thriller. Jethu says that in first thirty minutes itself the suspense is over and what follows is what lead to it. This means the screenplay is such that it does not give any clue as to how this took place and unfolds inside the Court. In an interview, Jeethu said that Drishyam Tamil was first planned with Rajinikanth. Rajinikanth declined it and after a friend told him that the subject had a box office potential, he called back . By this time, Kamal Haasan had signed the project. It was Pappanasam with Gauthami in Tamil. The film is releasing on December 21. Reports indicate that Neru is bought by Disney Hotstar. Jeethu – Mohanlal combo film Ram with Trisha has completed the first part and is to complete the second part and release in 2024. This third release for Mohanal after Camo in Jailer and Alone. Lal has acted with Priyamani in Grandmaster released in 2012 and is coming back after a big gap.

Tamil TV buzz is that Kamal Haasan will not host the coming episodes of Bigg Boss 7 as he is all set to embark on his mission to contest the MP seat in the coming polls. It is not clear whether he will not host remaining five weekends of the current season or it applies to the next season. Kalki 2028 which was come for next year has postponed as the sequel portions with Kamal who plays Kali and Big B who plays Ashwatama have not shot anything. As soon as the film gets ready for release, makers realized that there is no content with these two actors for use in promotional puropose. Kamal will finish his portions for Kalki and move towards his political career as by March he has to hit the road. H Vinoth project is postponed and only Sivakarthikeyan and Pradep Ranganathan film will move forward. Thug Life of Mani will be post Lok Sabha polls. Kamal in last weekend agreed that BB had no entertainment content as most of the time, two groups sat in different corners and discussed ways to out beat rival groups. They came together for tasks and went their ways. For those watching HotStar live, it was a big bore and night capusule on Vijay was even more boring. BB Telugu finale is on December 17th. For the first time 6 contestants enter finale week instead of five and mid week in Wednesday, one will be eliminated. Nagarjuna is the host

12th Man review ; A rehash and a boring whodunnit

 Except for Mohanlal performance as the investigating cop, 12th Man by way of content is nothing but a rehash of two  movies and that too a bad one as it keeps on dragging and such investigation thriller can keep you rooted only if there is enough surprises in the narration. There are only two ` twists' in the tale of 3 hours duration.

The Perfect Strangers ( Italian ) released in 2016 was actually a comic look at the society. The couples who meet on a therapist challenge start to play a game where they keep their mobile phones on the table and hear the calls on speaker and share SMS they get . As the game unfolds, a tale of lies and secrets tumble out and in the end no one is spared.  Film ends with every body going  home as if such a game never took place. Put this sequence into a bachelor party of  a friend and his classmates with their wives and GF.  Instead of a comic look make it a source to unravel a death of one party mate. Jeethu Joseph needs credit for this superb adaptation and that too the guts to do it from  a film that was remade in 20 languages worldwide.

Next film is An Inspector Calls - a TV thriller film telecast on BBC One. The TV film was highly watched as it was an adaptation of a popular stage play written by J B Priestley. Film was telecast in 2015. A wealthy British family is celebrating an engagement of the daughter , when an Inspector comes unexpectedly and asks questions about a suicide of a local town girl. The questioning exposes that many of the family members had in one way or other contributed to the death. In the end, it turns out that it was a fake Inspector. Here in 12th Man, the Inspector is introduced as a drunkard and pal of the hotel owner to the celebrating guests.  After the death of a member of  the partying crowd, he dons a role of a investigating cop.

Editing and cinematography is what to a great extent removes the `claustrophobic feeling of seeing an entire film happening inside a board room.  The switch from the Mr Cool to the angry cop scenes by Mohanlal is a treat to watch. Among the long list of actors, Priyanka and Anusree do give a good account. Music ?? Did I hear a Bond theme music in a slow mode or was I imagining ?

Coming after Drishyam and it's sequel, expectations from  Mohanlal - Jeethu combo was high and even if this is kept aside, 12th Man stiil does not satisfy you of having watched a investigative thriller that as Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie novel says gave some work to your `grey cells'.