‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’ movie review: Ajay Devgn and Jaideep Ahlawat play to the gallery in a gripping finale

For over a decade, Vijay Salgaonkar used cinematic logic along with the shared memory of October 2nd to build an impregnable fortress around his family that the law simply couldn’t touch. But every perfect alibi has an expiration date. Drishyam The Conclusion marks the moment director Abhishek Pathak cuts the umbilical cord to the Malayalam mothership and finds its feet in the grit and grandeur of the Hindi heartland.

What distinguishes the franchise from a standard police procedural is its investigation of manufactured hyperreality. A story doesn’t need to be true; it just has to feel credible. It plays on a fundamental rule of human psychology: people believe what makes sense to them.

This also serves as a meta-device, paralleling how literature and cinema capture human belief, often differently across cultures. It remains the story of a common man, but after two successful installments, Vijay has become a mythical figure outside the theatres, and this legacy informs the writing.

The script smartly absorbs the franchise’s obsession, where viewers see Vijay as an unbeatable folk hero. So, instead of showing us how he hides the crime, the screenplay spends a lot of time on how the system attempts to deconstruct the myth of a 4th-grade dropout. In this subversion of power, Ajay Devgn’s inscrutable face forces the polished system to peel back its civility and resort to desperate hostility.

Ajay Devgn in ‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’ 
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Aamil Keetan Khan’s writing keeps the looming threat over the Salgaonkar family tight by introducing ironclad physical evidence that reopens the case. By engineering a clear sense of inevitability, a perceptible game-over kind of atmosphere for the family, Abhishek and Aamil revitalise the franchise.

Because the beats of the original don’t bind them, Vijay’s counter-moves feel less like lucky escapes and more like a grandmaster setting a trap for the police. In the Mohanlal-Jeethu Joseph version, the tone is deeply emotional, emphasising the moral decay that comes with protecting a dark secret. Abhishek scales up the conflict outward from the house to the system. The tone is heavily cinematic and sleek, trading the quiet domestic dread for an aggressive battle against the force of the state. Less family time means less screen time for the wife (Shriya Saran) and daughters (Ishita Dutta and Mrunal Jadhav).

However, Abhishek has a powerhouse ensemble that ratchets up the intensity and plays to the gallery. Accomplished performers such as Jaideep Ahlawat, Prakash Raj, Tabu, and Rajat Kapoor deliver with such fierce conviction that the audience doesn’t pause to dig beyond the dialogue. Their screen presence acts as a smokescreen, masking the script’s logical and not-so-logical leaps with undeniable gravitas.

Jaideep Ahlawat in ‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’ 
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Stepping in as Crime Branch officer Rajveer Singh Tomar, Ahlawat’s menacing presence and fiery swagger serve as the perfect foil to Devgn’s calculated silence. Those who follow popular cinema would remember that Prakash Raj and Devgn have an enduring screen connection, and the former brings the same cynical rhythm to Advocate Shetty that made Jaykant Shikre in Singham so much fun.

Standing right beside the tension in the ranks is Gaitonde (Kamlesh Sawant). Rather than just being the aggressive thug of the first film, he becomes a self-aware, funny vehicle for the script who speaks directly to viewers, reminding us that October 2 has mutated into an alibi for an anti-hero.

Drishyam: The Conclusion is currently running in theatres.