Drishyam: The Conclusion

For over a decade, Vijay Salgaonkar hasn’t just been a movie character. He’s been a permanent resident of Indian pop culture. Mention the date October 2nd and our minds instantly race to Panjim, Guruji’s satsang, and a plate of pav bhaji. It is a testament to the franchise’s grip on our collective imagination that a simple alibi became an immortal meme. Naturally, Drishyam: The Conclusion arrives not just as another theatrical release, but as a high-stakes farewell tour for a family we’ve watched navigate hell.

Ajay Devgn returns as Vijay Salgaonkar in Drishyam: The Conclusion, the third and final chapter of the Hindi-language Drishyam franchise, directed by Abhishek Pathak. Tabu, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta and Rajat Kapoor reprise their roles, while Jaideep Ahlawat and Prakash Raj join the ensemble as the story moves towards its promised denouement. The franchise has always revolved around a deceptively unsettling question: if a lie is constructed convincingly enough, can it eventually become indistinguishable from truth? The concluding chapter now has the unenviable task of giving that question a final dramatic meaning.

Drishyam The Conclusion (unofficially known as Drishyam 3) starts off six months after the previous film Drishyam 2 ends. Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn), his wife Nandini (Shriya Saran) and two daughters Anju (Ishita Dutta) and Anu (Mrunal Jadhav) have moved on in their lives in Goa but they are well aware of the impending danger. They know that Meera Deshmukh (Tabu) and her husband Mahesh Deshmukh (Rajat Kapoor) are still vying for justice for their dead son Sameer aka Sam (Rishab Chadha). And that is exactly what the couple is thinking.

There is something almost inevitable about Drishyam: The Conclusion arriving in theatres on 2 October. The date has been woven so deeply into the mythology of Vijay Salgaonkar and his family it seems to belong, at least partly, to this fictional alibi. In the third and final chapter of Abhishek Pathak’s Hindi-language franchise, the familiar date returns, as does the question that has followed Vijay (Ajay Devgn) since 2015: can he stay one step ahead of the law? Six months after the events of the second film, Meera Deshmukh (Tabu) and her husband Mahesh (Rajat Kapoor) are still living with the loss of their son, Sam. The case of his death, however, has been closed. The Salgaonkar family has moved on, but Meera has not. Her need for justice has been replaced by a desire for revenge. When a senior police officer reveals that new evidence has surfaced, the fragile truce ruptures. The case is reopened, and Vijay once again finds himself being hunted.

What started as a one-off Malayalam film in 2014 has also become one of the biggest franchises in Hindi. The remake, Drishyam, arrived in 2015, followed by a sequel in 2022. Now, Drishyam: The Conclusion is here and, supposedly, this is the final instalment. It is not easy to give up on a lucrative franchise, so we’ll have to wait and see if that holds true.

Because somewhere along the way, we have completely accepted the Salgaonkars as our people. Yes, we know Vijay has done something wrong and, technically, he should face the law. But director Abhishek Pathak makes us look at the story from Vijay’s side. We are not sitting in the theatre hoping the police win. We are waiting to see how Vijay gets out of the next situation. Tabu returns as Meera Deshmukh, and this time her frustration has reached another level. She hasn’t been able to get Vijay punished, and that anger turns personal. She wants revenge. Enter the SP Crime Branch, played by Jaideep Ahlawat. And this is not simply the presence of an actor. This is the presence of a star. Every time he appears on screen, there is an authority and intensity that immediately changes the atmosphere.