KOCHI: Premkumar, prime accused in the Udayamperoor murder case, before killing his wife, puts her mobile phone in Mumbai-bound Netravati Express train to mislead the police Resort manager Vaseem Abdul Khader kills employee Rijosh and buries him in his farm A body was buried inside an under-construction house near Mananthavady
If you at once found a link in the above three murders to Drishyam, you are not alone. The movie’s success has been so huge that the police use Drishyam-model to convey details of murders that have shades of its plot while the media refers to it often to spice up headlines and reports.
Jeethu Joseph, who directed the Mohanlal flick, says he believes cinema, as a medium, does influence public but does not buy the theory that the number of murders has gone up after Drishyam was released in the state and remade elsewhere.
“Of late, many murders are described as Drishyam-model or Drishyam-inspired. The basic reason, I think, is that not many movies had been made on murder cover-ups. In 99 per cent of murder cases, attempts are made to cover up. And there are similarities in the way people try to do that. There can be shades of Drishyam in those crimes. Drishyam could’ve inspired many people but don’t forget that there had been murders and cover-ups even before the movie was released,” said Jeethu.
That a crime committed in 2008 near Vaikom was described as Drishyam-model in 2016, a year after the movie was released, vindicates his claim.
Asked to describe the impact of the message in the climax when hero Georgekutty says “What I have before me is all right” and “I’ll go to any extent to do it” (sic), justifying the crime, Jeethu said: “It’s different.”
“Georgekutty’s family was forced to kill a youngster who intruded into their life. The girl didn’t commit the crime deliberately. If you’ve noticed, she aimed to smash the mobile phone but had a mishit, leading to the boy’s death. I wanted it to be scripted like that,” he said.
In a message to the viewers, Jeethu said it is naïve to replicate movie incidents in real life.“In movies, we somehow convince people. We ended Drishyam by creating a feeling that the hero ended up safe. It’s just make-believe. Has Georgekutty really escaped? If you ask me, I would say the case is still on,” he said.
Jeethu believes the artists are socially responsible, but sometimes the plot and narration demand negative ingredients.
“I believe artists should be socially responsible and movies should send out positive messages. But when we tell stories from our society, the situation sometimes, especially in thrillers, demands negativity to keep the viewers hooked to the plot.
“Having said that, I don’t buy the theory that crimes have increased after Drishyam was released, but at the same time, I believe cinema influences the public. That’s 100 per cent,” said Jeethu.