Georgekutty (Mohanlal) is a nice enough guy. An orphan who dropped out of school, he now runs a cable TV service in the town of Rajakkad, where he lives with his wife Rani (Meena) and their daughters, teenager Anju (Ansiba Hasan) and the younger Anumol "Anu" (Esther Anil). Apart from his devotion to his family, his main passion is movies.
On a school trip, Anju is filmed changing her clothes by Varun Prabhakar (Roshan Basheer), the spoilt only child of Geetha Prabhakar (Asha Sarath), the Inspector-General of Police. Varun uses this video to try to blackmail Anju into sex. On the night of August 2, Varun enters her house again trying to pressure her into sleeping with him; when Rani attempts to intervene, he says he is willing to sleep with her in exchange. A panicked Anju tries to smash the phone with the video...
...only to accidentally smash Varun's head in, killing him instantly.
The women, in a panic, hurriedly bury him in their backyard. When Georgekutty finds out, he knows that the police, led by Geetha, will be coming. How far would a Genre Savvy Papa Wolf go to save his family?
A sequel, Drishyam 2, was released in 2021. Six years after the death of Varun Prabhakar, the events of that fateful night return to haunt Georgekutty and his family.
Drishyam and Drishyam 2 provide examples of the following tropes:
- Asshole Victim: Varun, obviously - it's hard to get more asshole than threatening to leak a video of your naked classmate unless said classmate (or her mother) sleeps with you. Deconstructed as the film goes on, however - Geetha still loved him and is driven to find him or his killer. Deconstructed even further in the sequel - the death has remained traumatic to the whole family, with Anju suffering from epilepsy and untreated PTSD.
- The Chessmaster: George Kutty is this through and through, he has a plan and a back up plan for every possibility.
- Bittersweet Ending: More bitter or more sweet depending on who you find more sympathetic. After massive public pressure against the interrogation of Georgekutty's family, Geetha has to resign as Inspector-General and Sahadevan is suspended. Georgekutty and his family are effectively exonerated, as Varun's body has been buried underneath the newly built police station.
- The sequel has one as well. Bastin is ordered to stop any investigation into Varun's death, and Georgekutty and his family are let go again, seemingly for good. However, Georgekutty anonymously sends Geetha and Prabhakar Varun's remains to conduct his last rites, with Bastin convincing Geetha that Georgekutty's life is his punishment as he will forever have to fear the law finding him (and an eavesdropping Georgekutty seems to agree), and the whole film has made it clear that the family's life will never be the same again.
- Genre Savvy: Georgekutty, who has watched enough mystery movies and shows from his work to outsmart the police.
- Street Smart: Georgekutty, having never studied beyond the fourth standard, is able to foresee the steps taken by the local police force to an impressive extent. A rare case where this trope is not accompanied by Book Dumb, as it was his financial circumstances that prevented him from studying further, and not his actual performance in school.
