Not long after Jeethu Joseph created a sensation in Malayalam cinema with Drishyam (2013), Hindi cinema came calling for the rights. The setting was moved to semi-rural Goa, the directing baton passed into the hands of Nishikant Kamat, and Mohanlal’s shoes were filled by Ajay Devgn. Thus was born Drishyam (2015), which matched the Malayalam original’s success.
When the Malayalam original spawned a sequel, it was but natural for the Hindi offspring to follow suit. Directorial duties fell to co-producer Abhishek Pathak, Kamat having passed away well before production began. Devgn, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta, Mrunal Jadhav, Kamlesh Sawant, Yogesh Soman, Rajat Kapoor, and Tabu all reprised their roles from the prequel, with Akshaye Khanna and Saurabh Shukla joining to play two new characters.
The night Vijay Salgaokar (Devgn) deposited the body of Sam, the son of IGP Meera Deshmukh (Tabu) and her husband Mahesh (Kapoor), he was seen by David (Siddharth Bodke), a criminal on the run. Since David was soon apprehended and imprisoned, the matter appeared to die there.
In the seven years since the murder, the Salgaokars have moved on, though Anju (Dutta), who suffered at Sam’s hands, is stricken by PTSD. Vijay has expanded his business substantially and owns a movie theatre aside from the local cable network. He wants to move into film production next and is developing a script with screenwriter Murad Ali (Shukla) in the hopes of making a film soon.
The family’s prosperity has invited the wrath of the local gossip-mongers, who have theorised that Anju was in a relationship with Sam. An upset Nandini (Saran) finds comfort in her neighbour Jenny (Neha Joshi), a victim of domestic violence.
On the anniversary of Sam’s death, Mahesh approaches Vijay, asking for the location of his son’s remains. Though Vijay rebuffs him, Nandini lets slip to Jenny that Anju killed Sam. It is then revealed that Jenny and her abusive husband Shiv (Nishant Singh) are undercover police officers tasked with keeping an eye on the Salgaokars by the Inspector General Tarun Ahlawat (Khanna)
Ahlawat is an old friend of Meera Deshmukh’s, and is reinvestigating Sam’s murder at her behest. Meanwhile David, who has just been released from prison, offers to the police his testimony of having seen Vijay at the construction site. Ahlawat calls Meera and Mahesh over and the land is excavated, uncovering a skeleton. Vijay seems to give up at this point, going over to Ahlawat with his family for questioning.
The Salgaokars maintain their innocence but Meera reveals that Nandini’s candid confession to Jenny was recorded. Gaitonde (Sawant), still smarting from his defeat seven years earlier, exacts revenge upon Vijay by brutally attacking his family in custody. When the beating causes Anju to have a fit, Vijay agrees to confess to the crime. Ahlawat and his team formally arrest Vijay and the trial gets underway, though Meera is unhappy with Vijay’s wife and daughters escaping “justice”.
Murad rushes to meet Ahlawat and the Deshmukhs after learning of Vijay’s arrest, and fills them in on the background: he claims that Vijay had outlined a crime thriller film during one of their meetings, which has now been published as a novel titled Drishyam, though it is credited to Murad. Concurrently, Vijay claims innocence in court and his lawyer suggests that his confession has been lifted from Murad’s novel. With this new evidence and the absence of a DNA match between the excavated skeleton and Sam, the judge releases Vijay on bail.
Murad adds to the thickening plot by telling the trio that Vijay had fashioned an alternate ending for his film: The hero, aware of the possibility that his plan might fail, would acquire a similar corpse as the buried one, right down to age and similar wounds, and would swap the skeleton out for the actual one by befriending a mortuary guard, thus preventing a DNA match.
Ahlawat is summoned by the judge and reprimanded for his investigation and tactics, and then advised to close the case, since true justice is likely to elude both families.
Later, Murad tells the Deshmukhs that Vijay’s climax also featured the hero handing over the ashes of the villain to the latter’s parents, which the Deshmukhs soon experience first-hand.
They immerse their dead son’s ashes and decide to move on with their lives since antagonising Vijay further will not bring them any more satisfaction. Vijay watches the proceedings from afar, and then leaves, content that he has done right by his family and what little he could do to assuage the Deshmukhs’ feelings.