Drishyam

Drishyam (transl. Visual) is a 2013 Indian Malayalam-language crime thriller film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph. It stars Mohanlal and Meena, as well as Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Asha Sharath, Siddique, Roshan Basheer and Neeraj Madhav in supporting roles. The film was produced by Antony Perumbavoor for Aashirvad Cinemas. It is the first installment to the series followed by Drishyam 2. It follows the struggle of Georgekutty and his family, who come under suspicion when Varun Prabhakar, the son of the IG Geetha Prabhakar, goes missing.

The film began principal photography in the first week of October 2013 at Thodupuzha in Kerala, where the film was extensively shot. Filming was completed in 44 days which was originally scheduled for 52 days. The cinematography was done by Sujith Vaassudev and was edited by Ayoob Khan. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Anil Johnson and Vinu Thomas.

Released on 19 December 2013 in Kerala, Drishyam received widespread critical acclaim with critics praising the screenplay, the performances and direction. It was the first Malayalam film to collect ₹50 crore at the box office. The film grossed over ₹75 crore worldwide and ran for more than 150 days in theatres. It remained the highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time until it was surpassed by Pulimurugan in 2016. It also became the longest-running film in the United Arab Emirates, running 125 days.

Drishyam won numerous accolades, including the Kerala State Film Award for Best Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value and the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Malayalam and screened at the 45th International Film Festival of India and the 8th Asian Film Festival.

It was remade into four other Indian languages: Drishya (2014) in Kannada, Drushyam (2014) in Telugu, Papanasam (2015) in Tamil and Drishyam (2015) in Hindi. It was also remade in Sinhala language as Dharmayuddhaya (2017) and in Chinese as Sheep Without a Shepherd (2019) thereby becoming the first Indian film to be remade in Mainland China. The Indonesian remake was announced in September 2021, making it the first Indian film to be remade in Indonesian. The Korean remake was announced in May 2023, first Indian film to be remade in Korean. A sequel Drishyam 2 was released in 2021.