‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’ (2026) Movie Review - A Twist-Heavy Thriller That Runs Out of Steam

The real protagonist of the Drishyam movies is their writing. And by writing, I specifically mean their succession of twists that eventually reframe Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn) as a mastermind who shouldn't be messed with. In his belief in protecting and caring for his family, Vijay is not so different from Dominic Toretto of the Fast and Furious movies. Is this why there are so many shots of him driving his car in Drishyam: The Conclusion, which is supposed to be the final installment of this franchise? No, Vijay doesn't get into car races or car chases, and neither does he drive his vehicle on a crowded road at very, very high speed. Instead of car stunts, he pulls off "criminal" stunts, like digging up bodies, spreading fake WhatsApp news, and planting false evidence to fool the prosecutor and the police. Vijay, then, doesn't only drive his car; he also ends up taking the justice system on a ride.

This fourth-standard-failed movie buff sells stories to the world to save his family from being found guilty. He is, in a way, a filmmaker who directs reality to serve him. He creates setups and payoffs in his story (a church group is riled up through WhatsApp messages that their land is being seized) and cleverly manipulates people to make them look in the direction he wants them to look at the appropriate time (a prosecutor is subtly prompted to bring up a home surveillance recording during the trial). In one of the scenes, Vijay's wife, Nandini (Shriya Saran), and his kids, Anju (Ishita Dutta) and Anu (Mrunal Jadhav), converse with each other by reading from a script. Perhaps Abhishek Pathak, with his writers Aamil Keeyan Khan and Parveez Shaikh, wants to make a point about the deceptive nature of movies—how storytelling is all a game of perspective. We root for criminals like Vijay and his family because Drishyam is mostly filtered through their eyes.

But what Pathak only manages to get at is an exciting idea that doesn't receive any weight in the film. Sure, the Salgaonkar family might have committed and concealed a crime, but the boy whose death they concealed had also attempted to sexually assault Anju and Nandini, with the latter intervening when he tried to attack Anju in the first movie. The narrative, then, has been morally tilted in favor of the Salgaonkars from the beginning. I don't think Drishyam would have altered your feelings very drastically if it had been told from the perspective of the Deshmukhs, Meera and Mahesh, played by Tabu and Rajat Kapoor, respectively. It's just that from that other point of view, the movie might have been an emotional drama, which, I suspect, would have exhausted its emotions over the course of three films in the same way that this Drishyam, as a twisty thriller, has run out of steam over the course of three movies.

As I mentioned earlier, the main hero of this franchise is the twists, and that becomes a problem in the hands of Pathak, who relies on them too heavily for cheap thrills. Drishyam: The Conclusion opens with Meera on the verge of committing suicide, as she feels quite helpless and powerless, given that even with all the money and status, she isn't able to get justice for the murder of her only child. A few scenes later, Mahesh talks about his wife's mental health in front of SP Rajveer Singh Tomar (Jaideep Ahlawat), and you wonder what Pathak would do with all this psychological stress and grief. Turns out, absolutely nothing. Meera's mental health simply becomes a catalyst to kick-start the film. You might expect her to end up in an asylum after the events of this third film, but, as in the earlier installments, Meera and Mahesh are present only to be angry at Vijay and be shocked by his tricks. Pathak doesn't even try putting the audience in a discomforting position where they are forced to recognize Meera's misery.

By adopting a fairly straightforward approach to the story, Pathak creates a simple-minded narrative where all the audience can do is sit in their seats and wait for the twists. There are some jokes sprinkled here and there, and Ahlawat poses with his cigarette so hard that it seems as if his life depends on it. But all those chuckles and poses barely cover up a sense of emptiness that washes over your body as you head towards the exit. After luring you into a trap with Vijay and his family shaking and trembling, Pathak throws one revelation after another onto the screen with such swiftness that, in the moment, you don't get the opportunity to realize that these reveals are...just fine. They don't blow your mind, and they aren't really jaw-dropping (one of them, an audio recording, does manage to offer you a temporary high). For Pathak, his characters are a medium through which he delivers the puzzle-box-like design of the film. After three movies, it no longer matters who originally committed the crime and why. Hence, Drishyam: The Conclusion comes inbuilt with a sense of detachment, and by reducing characters to chess pieces, Pathak bombards you with a winding plot and an enveloping impersonality. That's the issue with movies like Drishyam that are basically one-trick ponies: if they falter in their sole area of competence, they leave you dry and mostly unsatisfied.

But thankfully, this is the final installment in this franchise—until the studios pull off a twist in the vein of Vijay Salgaonkar and end up remaking the fourth movie, which Jeetu Joseph is reportedly developing for his Malayalam franchise. Well, I think it's time to finally put the Salgaonkars and the Deshmukhs to rest permanently. Leave them alone; let them live and grieve peacefully. And anyway, after adding a subtitle like "The Conclusion," what would the filmmakers even call the fourth film? On my ride back home, I kept thinking of potential titles for that sequel. How about Drishyam: The Resurgence or Drishyam: The Rebirth or Drishyam: The Reawakening? Feel free to add your own suggestions. Go on, get creative.