Drishyam 3 Movie Review & Rating: Jeethu Joseph may be Georgekutty. Hear me out here: Georgekutty is known for playing mind games. His main tools are misdirection and red herrings. Everything he does, or the way he is, may actually be carefully conceived and orchestrated as part of a grander plan. In Georgekutty’s (played so memorably by Mohanlal) case, all these efforts ultimately connect to two main things: cloaking the secret he has been guarding and ensuring the safety of his family.
Now, let’s come to Jeethu Joseph. At this point, I genuinely feel that almost every other thriller he creates outside the Drishyam franchise is actually part of an elaborate ploy. It seems that every other thriller of his is a misdirection, forcing us to look further away from Drishyam and losing all hope in him and his films. So, when he returns with a new instalment in the franchise, our expectations are at an all-time low. This way, when the movie turns out to be even serviceable, we feel that he has hit a home run yet again. In Jeethu’s words, “Wow, psychological move!” (Memories, 2013)
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As unfair as it may sound, given the significant effort that goes into making each film, the dismal quality of the movies Jeethu makes between Drishyam instalments leads me to believe this. Honestly, there’s hardly any other explanation for how someone who recently dropped a colossal stinker like Mirage (2025) and the abomination that was Valathu Vashathe Kallan (2026) suddenly emerged with something like Drishyam 3. I am not saying that Drishyam 3 is a great movie — it really isn’t! But Jeethu hasn’t ruined the franchise’s reputation this time either, which, in itself, is a big deal at this point.
The movie tagline, “the past never stays silent,” pretty much sums up Drishyam 3. Years have passed, and Georgekutty (Mohanlal) and his family are desperately trying to turn over a new leaf and move on. They have made some progress, too. Georgekutty has finally ventured into show business and made a film adaptation of Vinayachandran’s (Saikumar) novel, Drishyam, based on his own story. Rani (Meena) has ‘somehow’ (no clue how because the narrative doesn’t explore this properly) put the past behind her, and so have their children, Anju (Ansiba Hassan) and Anu (Esther Anil). The family is now focused on ensuring that Anju gets a good marriage proposal, thus helping her script a new chapter in life.
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But that’s easier said than done, since even if they want to move on, there are people who keep them tethered, refusing to let go. Worse still, Georgekutty is no longer in a position to run at full tilt. He isn’t perpetually battle-ready. The exhaustion of having run at full throttle for so long has worn him down. But, as he has always maintained, he will do whatever it takes to ensure that nothing shatters his family.
Unlike Drishyam (2013) and Drishyam 2 (2021), the third instalment treads a fresh trajectory. Varun Prabhakar’s (Roshan Basheer) body was the biggest threat to Georgekutty and his family once. That’s no longer the case, as shown in the ending of Drishyam 2. However, when it was a threat, Georgekutty knew exactly what the police were looking for, allowing him to channel all his attention on that one point. But now, he is basically taking shots in the dark, without even knowing who is leading the battle on the opposite side.
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While the first two films were built on open and concealed secrets, Drishyam 3 explores the emotional and psychological layers of the central characters and the toll that everything that has happened over the years has had on them. In a way, it can be said that Drishyam 3 is not about outsmarting the audience, but rather about changing their perspective on Georgekutty. Drishyam 3 spotlights the stifled life Georgekutty leads, irrespective of the sobriquets he has earned for outwitting the police. Basically, the entire narrative is not an elaborate build-up to a climax sequence packed with twists, as seen in the earlier movies in the franchise.
Has Jeethu learned his lesson and stopped putting so much focus on creating umpteen twists and slipping them in at every juncture, only for the audience to see them coming from a mile away? One can only say for sure after his next thriller.
Drishyam 3 explores the emotional and psychological layers of the central characters.
Nevertheless, Drishyam 3’s script feels all over the place, evidently torn between the writer-director’s attempts to make it both an emotional drama and a crime thriller at the same time. While there are certain instances and plot devices that are genuinely deep and offer glimpses of the story’s potential, Jeethu fails to explore them further.
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For instance, while Georgekutty and the family are trying their best to move on, every time they meet someone who knows them, the conversation veers to the one topic they desperately want to avoid. It simply shows that no matter how hard we try to avoid something, it may find still its way back to us. Hence, one can say that the tagline “the past never stays silent” implies this too, not just that someone is out there on the prowl.
Drishyam 3’s writing gives the impression that Jeethu took a deep dive into the franchise, taking note of everything he had overlooked thus far to keep the story revolving around Georgekutty and Geetha Prabhakar’s (Asha Sharath) families. Here, Georgekutty begins to pay the price for the wrongs he committed in his determined efforts to protect his family. The movie also explores the lives of the people he once used as pawns in his schemes, and they are given a voice here. It’s no longer just in front of Varun’s parents that Georgekutty is forced to hang his head in shame.
Unlike the earlier Drishyam movies, Jeethu takes us not into Georgekutty’s mind but into his heart. Guilt — the feeling that he himself is a criminal — has started to overpower him. He is no longer the strategic person he once was, nor is he one step ahead of everyone anymore. He makes mistakes here, blindly trusts people, and faces setbacks, much like what happened to Rani in Part 2. These were all brilliant plot devices; unfortunately, though, Jeethu never manages to explore them beyond the surface.
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Former police constable Sahadevan (a superb Kalabhavan Shajohn), the antagonist in the first instalment, returns here. Also, his tragic life experiences have turned Geetha’s husband, Prabhakar (Siddique), into a villainous figure, in contrast to the soft-spoken, compassionate man he once was. In terms of such characterisations, I would say that Jeethu has done a solid job. But the overall screenplay never does justice to any of them, particularly since Drishyam 3 is almost entirely focused on Georgekutty/Mohanlal and little on the others.
(Spoilers ahead)
The core idea in Drishyam 3’s climax is impressive: the protector goes to lengths one wouldn’t even imagine, even hurting his “precious” to protect her. However, much like many other Jeethu Joseph movies, violence against women is simply thrown in here as well, almost making one question if there isn’t anything else he is capable of coming up with. It’s not just in the climax that this attack on women occurs; even with the numerous possibilities for the story’s development, Jeethu simply opts for the character assassination of Anju at crucial junctures.
Much like the earlier movies in the franchise, Jeethu cleverly impresses the audience in the final act of Drishyam 3 as well, almost making one forget the several shortcomings the crime thriller had until then. The slow and steady tension-building in the final hour is impressive, and the scenes here genuinely evoke a heaviness in our chests. However, the writing never quite hits the mark, as several elements and characters introduced prominently early on are quickly relegated to the background towards the end, making one wonder why they were treated so significantly to begin with.
Drishyam 3’s writing gives the impression that Jeethu Joseph took a deep dive into the franchise, taking note of everything he had overlooked thus far.
Also, I think it’s high time that Jeethu Joseph shifted his focus completely to screenwriting and entrusted direction to someone else. Drishyam 3’s visual language is too amateurish, to the point that there are times it almost becomes unbelievable that we are watching a Mohanlal-led feature film. The unnecessary close-ups, the weird and pointless camera angles at times, and the artificial ‘perfection’ in the production design and colour grading — visible in the previous instalment too — deprive Drishyam 3 of the organicness of its surroundings. Additionally, the sheer number of continuity errors between shots also plays spoilsport. Satheesh Kurup’s cinematography is simply unimpressive throughout. Anil Johnson’s music, on the other hand, is serviceable at best.
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Among the actors, only Mohanlal delivers a performance worth mentioning. He highlights the many layers of Georgekutty’s psyche with finesse, especially in the climax. The casting of Veena Nandakumar as Yami, Sahadevan’s daughter, may have been the costliest decision Jeethu made in Drishyam 3, as her performance — particularly her lip movements while delivering dialogues — is simply terrible.
As a concluding note, I sincerely hope Jeethu Joseph and producer Antony Perumbavoor stop milking the Drishyam cash cow now, at a safe point, as this was a close shave. Had the movie been a bit worse, the entire franchise’s legacy would have been tarnished.
Drishyam 3 movie cast: Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Murali Gopy, Siddique, Asha Sharath
Drishyam 3 movie director: Jeethu Joseph
Drishyam 3 movie rating: 2.5 stars
