There are many plusses and minuses from the original that starred the stoic Mohan Lal with his unwavering eyes and beautiful underplay.
Kamal Hasan gives it his twist, his flavour...he knows how to emote and he does it …and how!
The edge of the seat suspense story about the murder, the flow and treatment remains almost the same and here the star cast does a fair job too.
Amongst the performers, besides Kamal , it is left to Gauthami as his wife who, unfortunately with her washed out looks and sporting panic-struck expression most times, is a not patch on Meena who played the same in Malayalam version. The main antihero protagonist played by Asha sarath does exactly the same as in the original and it’s a commendable watch to see her myriad expressions of a woman, torn between mother’s love and Police ethics. The aggrieved daughter played by Nivedha Thomas is excellent in emoting and so is Kalabhavan Mani as a rogue cop with a prejudice, out for Kamal’s blood.
The BGM and songs are fine too and so is the green, hilly environs of Tirunelveli Distt where it is shot.
The characters obviously speak with Nellai dialect Tamil, which was difficult to understand, but maybe it’s only me.
The over-violent scenes of police torture are glaring and too graphic and could have been toned down as in the Malayalam version.
Ultimately it is left to Kamal Hasan, aided by a super-taut story line to carry the film on his able shoulders and his performance could be one of his best in his illustrious career.
Of course, on the flip side he looks older for a man having such a young family. Well he is 60 and it shows. But that’s only nitpicking!
I saw the Kannada version Drishya too stg Ravichandran, but sorry it did not stay in my mind for long.
