Drishyam () is a 2013 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph. It stars Mohanlal alongside Meena, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Asha Sharath, Siddique, Roshan Basheer and Neeraj Madhav. The film was produced by Antony Perumbavoor under Aashirvad Cinemas. It is the first installment in the Drishyam film series. The film follows the struggle of Georgekutty and his family, who come under suspicion when Varun Prabhakar, the son of the IG Geetha Prabhakar, goes missing.
Principal photography commenced in October 2013 in Thodupuzha, where the film was extensively shot. The cinematography was handled by Sujith Vaassudev whilst the film was edited by Ayoob Khan. The soundtrack was composed by Anil Johnson and Vinu Thomas.
Drishyam was released on 19 December 2013. The film received widespread critical acclaim with critics praising the cast performance, story, screenplay, and direction. It was the first Malayalam film to collect 50 crore. The film grossed over 62 crore worldwide. It ran in theatres for more than 150 days. It also became the longest-running film in the United Arab Emirates, running for 125 days. The film remained the highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time until it was surpassed by Premam in 2015 and remained among the top 10 highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time for a decade. A sequel titled Drishyam 2 was released in 2021.
Drishyam won numerous accolades, including the Kerala State Film Award for Best Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value and the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Malayalam. The film was also screened at the 45th International Film Festival of India and the 8th Asian Film Festival. Drishyam has been remade into several languages including four regional languages which were Drishya (2014) in Kannada, Drushyam (2014) in Telugu, Papanasam (2015) in Tamil and Drishyam (2015) in Hindi. Internationally, it was remade in Sinhala language as Dharmayuddhaya (2017) and in Chinese as Sheep Without a Shepherd (2019). A Korean remake was announced, making it the first Indian film to be remade in that language. The Indonesian remake was announced in September 2021 and released in 2026 as Ayah, Aku Mau Cerita..., making it the first Indian film to be remade in Indonesian. An English language remake has been announced by Panorama Studios in 2024 with U.S. companies Gulfstream Pictures and JOAT Films. The Spanish remake was announced at the 2026 International Film Festival of Delhi.
Plot Georgekutty is an orphan and a fourth-grade dropout who operates a successful cable television service in the rural village of Rajakkad. He lives with his wife, Rani, and their two daughters, Anju and Anu. Aside from his dedication to farming, Georgekutty's primary obsession is watching films, a pastime that occupies most of his working hours in his office.
The family's peaceful life is disrupted when Anju attends a school nature camp, where she is secretly recorded in the bathroom via a hidden smartphone by Varun Prabhakar, the spoiled son of Inspector General of Police Geetha and Prabhakar. Varun later corners Anju and uses the footage to blackmail her, demanding she meet him outside her home late at night. When Varun arrives, Rani intervenes and desperately begs him to leave her daughter alone. Varun agrees only on the condition that Rani submit to his sexual demands instead. In a frantic attempt to defend her mother, Anju strikes Varun's head with a rod, accidentally killing him. Rani and Anju bury his body in a nearby compost pit while Anu witnesses. Upon returning home, Georgekutty learns of the tragedy and immediately devises a meticulously calculated plan to protect his family from criminal prosecution. He destroys Varun's phone and disposes of his car, though the vehicle transfer is noted by Sahadevan, a corrupt local police constable who harbors a personal grudge against Georgekutty.
Anticipating a rigorous police inquiry once Varun is reported missing, Georgekutty takes his family on an apparent weekend trip to the city of Thodupuzha to attend a religious retreat, watch a movie, and dine at a restaurant. Geetha spearheads the missing person investigation, and suspicion eventually falls on Georgekutty's family. When summoned for questioning, the family members maintain an identical, unwavering alibi. Georgekutty produces restaurant bills, movie tickets, and bus receipts to substantiate their timeline. Furthermore, when Geetha interrogates the business owners from Thodupuzha, they all corroborate the family's presence on the alleged dates. However, Geetha eventually uncovers Georgekutty’s manipulation: he had actually traveled alone on the day after the murder to collect the tickets and forge relationships with the local merchants, only bringing his family on the identical trip a day later. By doing so, he trickily conditioned the witnesses' memories to inadvertently validate a false timeline.
Unable to break the alibi through standard procedures, Geetha authorizes the unauthorized detention of the family. Sahadevan subjects them to brutal physical torture, eventually targeting young Anu. Terrified, Anu relents and points the investigators to the backyard compost pit. However, when the police excavate the site before a gathering crowd of locals and media personnel, they unearth the carcass of a cow rather than Varun's remains, revealing that Georgekutty anticipated the betrayal and relocated the body. Seizing the momentum, Georgekutty exposes the police brutality to the public. The outraged villagers, led by Rani's brother Rajesh, riot against the police and subdue Sahadevan. The public backlash results in Sahadevan's suspension and Geetha's resignation.
Sometime later, a grieving Geetha and Prabhakar privately confront Georgekutty. They apologize for their son’s predatory behavior and plead for closure regarding his fate. While expressing profound sympathy, Georgekutty subtly confesses to the shielding of his family without explicitly admitting to the homicide or revealing the burial site.
The film concludes at the newly constructed Rajakkad police station, where Georgekutty, currently out on bail, signs the daily attendance register. The new station inspector vows to eventually uncover the truth and locate the body, to which Georgekutty calmly replies that he maintains faith in the protective nature of the law. As he walks away from the compound, a flashback reveals that Georgekutty had permanently concealed Varun's corpse within the foundational cement of the police station's interrogation room floor during its construction.
Cast
Production
Development In July 2013, it was reported that Jeethu Joseph will be directing a film titled My Family with Mohanlal in the lead.NR (8 July 2013). In August 2013, Jeethu clarified that the film was titled Drishyam. A thread similar to that of Drishyam has been with the director since the early 1990s. He was inspired by a conversation he had overheard about the plight of two families involved in a legal battle.Rajaneesh Vilakudy (24 December 2013). Jeethu had penned the story of Drishyam even before Memories (2013).Deepa Gauri (26 September 2013). He says, "I started working on the subject some two years back. But I wanted to stick to the planned order and hence postponed the project till I finished Memories".Sivalakshmi Roshith (5 September 2013). The script was initially planned to be filmed by another director but since that director could not find a producer, Jeethu took back the script and decided to direct it himself.Mythily Ramachandran (26 December 2013). Drishyam contrasts from the director's previous films. He says, "Different films require different treatment. I toiled hard while filming Memories as the film was full of twists and turns and the handling of the subject mattered a lot. But Drishyam is a complete script-oriented film that does not require any special effort. We shot the film sticking completely to the script, and the shooting was completed effortlessly."Parvathy Nambidi (19 December 2013).
Casting Jeethu had initially approached Mammootty to play the lead, but he was unable to commit and asked Jeethu to proceed with the film with another actor.. According to the director, Mammootty was instrumental in casting actress Meena for the film. The director, in an interview with The New Indian Express, stated that he wrote the screenplay with Mohanlal in mind and that the character was tailor-made for Mohanlal. He later added that no changes were made in the script when Mohanlal agreed.
Kalabhavan Shajohn, who previously worked in the industry as a comedian and the sidekick of the lead actors, was chosen for the main antagonistic role. The director stated, "I had two-three actors in mind, but at last decided to pick Shajon. I was very clear that I did not want anyone who has played negative characters so far to do the role. Shajon was a total revelation." Roshan Basheer, who debuted through Plus Two (2010), was chosen after conducting a screen test. Asha Sarath was later signed for the role of a police officer. Child actors Ansiba Hassan and Esther Anil, along with Siddique, Irshad, Kunchan and Koottickal Jayachandran were also cast to play major supporting roles.
Filming
Drishyam commenced principal photography in the first week of October 2013. Mohanlal joined the sets only from 10 October. The film was shot at Thodupuzha in Kerala. The road-side house shown in the film, which was a major location, is situated at Vazhithala, near Thodupuzha. The shooting had to be halted for a while as Meena fainted on the location. Drishyam was initially planned to be filmed in 52 days, though it was completed in 44 days.
Themes A reviewer from The Hindu noted, "The film takes off as a typical family drama. The first half of the film is intentionally slow-paced and shows to the audience the lighter moments in the family of Georgekutty. This half combines the elements of drama and comedy genres. The audience gets completely absorbed in the twist of events that begin to unfold from the end of the first half. The second half is more like a thriller and is about how the family, despite the vengeful villainy of a corrupt cop, stands its ground even as the law takes its course." When asked whether this change in narrative style post-interval was intentional, Jeethu replied: "I really don't understand when people say the first half lacked pace. A story or a film has its own way of progression and it does travel in a zig-zag way, capturing all the ups and downs of our lives. Right from the start if you accelerate the pace, sooner or later, the story-telling will lose its steam."
When asked whether he had kicked off a new genre in Malayalam—family thriller, a genre which combines the elements of a family drama and thriller, Jeethu replied, "I still believe it belongs to the genre 'drama', not a thriller." He also stated in another interview, "We usually brand a film as a thriller, simply because there is some mystery in the narrative or the story unfolds through an investigation. But I don't subscribe to this. Although there are some twists in the tale and some suspense as well, Drishyam is essentially the story of a family."