‘Drishyam 3’ first half review: Suspense simmers slowly in Georgekutty’s latest chapter

After years of speculation, theories and endless discussions around what comes next for Georgekutty, Drishyam 3 finally arrives carrying the weight of its own legacy. Director Jeethu Joseph had already cautioned audiences against expecting another Drishyam or Drishyam 2, and the film makes that clear early on. Unlike the tightly wound tension that powered the earlier films, the third instalment spends much of its first half sitting with the emotional residue of everything that came before.
The film opens with a quiet nod to the previous chapters before revealing a family that appears, at least outwardly, to have moved on. Georgekutty and his family are now in a more comfortable place in life, but peace remains elusive. The memory of the past still lingers heavily over the household, particularly Georgekutty himself.
Mohanlal returns to Georgekutty so naturally that the character never feels revisited, only continued.
Meena, along with Ansiba and Esther Anil, also settle comfortably back into their roles.

Jeethu Joseph does not completely abandon the thriller framework, but the sense of novelty is understandably harder to recreate this time. After two films built around secrecy and revelation, the audience already knows these characters too intimately for the tension to function in quite the same way. New conflicts are introduced, though the narrative takes its time getting there, and the first half occasionally feels weighed down by that deliberate pacing. It is only around the interval block that the film begins to hint at the larger game it may be preparing to play.
Follow this space for the full review.