Imagine Georgekutty or Vijay Salgaonkar from Drishyam as a police officer instead of a civilian, in the same situation: a crime to conceal and the law one step behind him. Would knowing the system from the inside help him get away with it? That, more or less, is the premise of Parvathy Thiruvothu-led thriller Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar, which arrived on OTT on October 9 after a successful theatrical run in September.In Drishyam, Georgekutty uses his love for cinema to cook up an elaborate plan to protect his family and outsmart the police. In Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar, Aleena takes her cue from a book written by Harris Meeran, a Crime Branch investigating officer. She and three other police officers are in trouble after a suspect dies accidentally at a police station while they are trying to control him.Like Georgekutty, the four officers try to stay ahead of the investigation by anticipating the moves of those pursuing them. But Georgekutty always seemed to be several steps ahead. Aleena and the others look frightened, and it shows. At one point they even confess, explaining that the death was accidental, before trying to outsmart the investigating officer.The echoes of Drishyam are there in the premise and in the attempts to outwit investigators. The twists hit softer, though, and these four don’t have the confidence or the meticulous planning that made Georgekutty such a formidable opponent in Jeethu Joseph’s first two Drishyam films. The similarities are hard to miss. The execution is not as convincing.The Drishyam benchmarkSince the OTT release, viewers have been pointing out loopholes and comparing it with Drishyam. That makes you wonder whether Drishyam has become the benchmark, the one filmmakers and audiences instinctively hold every Malayalam thriller up against.Drishyam, released in 2013, was about an ordinary man using his intelligence and his love for cinema to stay ahead of the police. Georgekutty anticipates the investigation, manipulates the evidence and builds an elaborate story to protect his family. The twists were good. What really worked was watching small details fall into place.ALSO READ: ‘I want all of them gone’: Tanushree speaks out amid row over remarks on Nana Patekar’s deathStory continues below this adPradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar flips this, because the people covering up the crime are police officers themselves. On paper, their knowledge of the system should give them an edge. They know how investigations work, and what could lead the police to them. But that also makes their actions easier to question. Georgekutty built his plan around the police’s next move. These four mostly react to the mess they’ve made. A still from Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar.Georgekutty stayed composed even as the investigation closed in on his family, and that composure made us believe he had thought of things the police hadn’t. Aleena and the others aren’t as sure of their plans. Their fear makes them more human, but it also shrinks the twists. So what is really being tested is whether we believe these people can outsmart the law.That’s a hard standard to match. In Drishyam, details that seemed insignificant took on new meaning as the investigation went on, and the thrill came from realising Georgekutty had anticipated the very questions we were asking. Viewers have changed since. They check timelines, evidence, what a character would actually do. A twist isn’t enough anymore. The story has to hold up once the mystery is solved.Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar has its limitations and lacks the precision that made Drishyam so effective. Yet the comparisons persist because the two films share territory and also because Drishyam has shaped what audiences expect from a Malayalam thriller.Story continues below this adResponding to criticism that the film resembles Jeethu Joseph’s Drishyam, director Shahad Nilambur has called the comparisons a form of recognition, given the impact Drishyam had on Indian cinema. He doesn’t see it as a burden and is happy that viewers are drawing parallels with such a landmark thriller.Fair enough. The comparison, however, can be both useful and limiting. Drishyam need not be the blueprint for every Malayalam thriller, and a similar premise doesn’t make a film derivative. Still, when a story follows a familiar path, audiences will ask not only what makes it different but whether it delivers the same satisfaction as Drishyam. A still from Drishyam.From cinema halls to OTTThe film had a good theatrical run. Since its streaming debut, it has been taking a fair amount of heat online.In a cinema hall, suspense and pacing carry you along. On OTT, you can pause, rewind, go back to a scene looking for the clue you missed or the detail that doesn’t add up. A moment that felt convincing the first time can start raising questions once you know the ending.Story continues below this adThe questions people are asking are specific. Is a narco test really that easy to cheat, and would the investigating officer not know the trick? Does the ballistic examination work the way the film shows it? Where did Aleena get the new bullet to replace the one in the gun?A second viewing is unforgiving for a thriller. The genre lives on how carefully it hands out information, and one unexplained development can shake the whole plot. But not every unanswered question is a plot hole, and not every creative liberty sinks a film. There is a difference between a story that deliberately leaves room for interpretation and one that asks you to overlook gaps in its logic.In an interview with Onmanorama, Shahad said the team deliberately avoided explaining every development, hoping audiences would connect the dots themselves. He also admitted they may have misjudged how much detail viewers expected.“There have always been films where filmmakers go to great lengths to explain every scene. However, when such films are released, people complain that they are being spoon-fed. We wanted to be careful about that and deliberately tried to avoid spoon-feeding the audience. We clearly misjudged the audience in this regard,” he said.Story continues below this adHe maintained that the loopholes being discussed are already addressed in the film. On the ballistics scene, he said the team chose to bring the relevant characters together in one place rather than stretch the proceedings across several scenes.Drishyam’s legacyThe success of Drishyam has shaped expectations for Malayalam thrillers, but its legacy doesn’t have to become a formula that every later film must follow. What people remember about it is the satisfaction of watching details gain meaning as the investigation unfolds.For filmmakers, the trick isn’t to copy Georgekutty’s methods or pile on ever more elaborate twists. It’s to tell stories that surprise us and still make sense when we look at them closely. Viewers could try judging a film on its own merits instead of expecting every thriller to feel like Drishyam.Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar may not have that precision. But the debate around it shows how far audience expectations of Malayalam thrillers have come.Story continues below this adThere is, however, another conversation: whether films since Drishyam, by showing and at times promoting characters who get away from the law, shape how audiences think about crime. That is a larger question, and a conversation for another day.