Drishyam 3: Ajay Devgn’s Vijay is like any political leader who uses religion to get his way

Drishyam 3 The Conclusion released in the theatres this past weekend and if you, like many others, were waiting for the promised conclusion at the end of Vijay Salgaonkar’s story, this must have been a disappointment, for the story never really ends. The loose ends still exist, the decade-old crime is still unsolved, and those who committed the accidental killing are still walking around, scot-free.

In the first film, back in 2015, the chain of events begins after Vijay’s daughter Anju and wife Nandini accidentally kill a boy named Sam, who sexually harassed Anju and is now blackmailing her. Vijay then makes it his life’s mission to save his family from getting imprisoned. He forges evidence, coaches the family to lie, and befriends any potential pawn who could help him in his scheme. He succeeds. The film projects Vijay as the family man, the hero, who will do anything for his family, while completely dismissing the fact that, in this attempt, they are villainising those who are trying to seek justice for the dead son.

No justice for Tabu’s Meera Deshmukh, the bereaved mother who is struggling with her mental health.

Vijay lies like a sociopath and trains his family like he is running a sleeper cell so no one gets caught for a crime that was indeed committed by them. Of course, the man was killed in an accidental altercation, but he did end up dead, and someone was responsible, but the film is not interested in that conversation. There is no concept of justice in the Drishyam universe. The film only cares about worshipping the family man Vijay Salganokar’s family values, and not examining how those values come across as completely hollow.

Vijay incites religious hatred, and believes it’s completely okay

In many ways, Vijay is the exact representation of the political leaders of our times, which also explains his popularity amongst the masses. He claims to be an uneducated man who has supposedly become street smart from working at a cable TV shop and watching a bunch of movies. This somehow explains his warped idea of morality, as it’s entirely derived from fictional films, but it also explains why he lives his regular life like a main character where everyone else is just background noise.

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In the new film, Vijay even uses religion as a weapon to save his family because his political smarts tell him that this tactic, if used correctly, cannot fail. This has worked for many political leaders, and it works perfectly for him as well. The authorities watch his plans unfold while being fully aware of how he is manipulating a mob, and just end up being mute spectators. There is even a scene where Prakash Raj lists the qualifications of those trying to put Vijay behind bars. He points out that a ‘chauthi-fail’ Vijay has left even Harvard graduates scratching their heads but the film fails to acknowledge that a conniving, sly man doesn’t really need a degree to fool the world. Fooling the system for ten long years is not a cause for celebration.

For over a decade, Vijay has spent hours and days befriending those who are in a weaker position than him so he can take advantage of their situation and save his family. And all this while, the film has never bothered to actually reflect that his morally corrupt practices have turned him into a hate-inciting criminal.

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Daughters scarred for life but Vijay believes he has saved them

Amid all the damage that he has been inflicting on those around him, there has never been even the slightest pause to actually ponder over how deeply he has damaged his own daughters, whom he is supposedly trying to save. In this film, when he pushes his older daughter to get married, he simply talks about moving on, as if she is not still scarred by the act of killing a man with her bare hands. The woman has been living a nightmare that led to seizures, and Vijay’s solution is just to get an arranged marriage match so she can move on. It’s almost as if he truly believes that he ‘saved’ his family, and did not create a monster that would never be tamed.

Vijay Salgaonkar believes he has ‘saved’ his family, but it doesn’t look like they are saved.

The family is constantly looking over their shoulder and can’t even breathe peacefully without Vijay’s nod, for they don’t know what awaits at the next corner. The younger daughter, who must have been just 7-8 years old when Sam was killed, has lived with the burden of this case all her life. Vijay has coached her into believing that he is her saviour but the poor girl doesn’t know that normal families aren’t hiding bodies and murders for family time. He has created an elaborate scheme for everything, and the family is playing along. Do they think they are saved? Because it definitely doesn’t look like they are living a good life.

Drishyam 3 is the representation of the moral decay of our society because here, good does not win over evil, and justice is never served. Vijay’s family faces no consequences for taking the life of a young man but Vijay is celebrated for being a mastermind criminal who can fool the masses by manipulating them.