Dridam Review

Dridam (2026) Movie: What's Behind

Malayalam movies are captivating movie lovers across the country and now a thriller named Dridam released in theatres last month and did well at the box office. The film is now streaming on Jio+Hotstar and let us see what the film offered to movie lovers.

Dridam (2026) Movie: Story Review

Dridam story revolves around a police officer and how his life changes when he discovers human remains. Vijay (Shane Nigam) lands in Kuzhinilam town after getting appointed as the sub-inspector. Everything goes well with him, including his subordinates who are genial and develops a liking for him and the town is also free of crimes.

However everything turns drastically with the discovery of the dead body and crimes increases one by one challenging his investigative skills. Where this leads to and what role CPO Vidya Jayachandran (Saniya Fatima), ASI Krishnan Kurup (Shobi Thilakan), CPO Remya Surendran(Krishna Praba), CPO Sathyan(Dinesh Prabhakar), Manoj (Abhiram Radhakrishnan) and SCPO Balan Nair (Kottayam Ramesh) form the interesting part.

Dridam (2026) Movie: Artists Review

Shane Nigam is good in the role of a cop. He showed good expressions and emotions as a new and inexperienced SI but at times he looked inconsistent as his body language is stiff. He looked convincing when it comes to show his confusion and anger.

Others like Shobi Thilakan, Kottayam Ramesh, Dinesh Prabhakar, Nandan Unni, Vinod Bose, Krishna Prabha, Saniya Fathima, Mathew Varghese, Abhiram Radhakrishnan, Prashanth Murali, Bitto Davis, Joji K. John and Abhishek Raveendran performed according to their roles.

However most of their characters are underdeveloped and under written and offered nothing new to the story.

Dridam (2026) Movie: Technicians Review

Dridam story is penned by Jomon John and Linto Devasia and is directed by Martin Joseph. He tried to thrill viewers movie lovers with invetigative drama and it seems he drew inspiration from the films like Drishyam etc. He started the narration in an interesting manner and didnot devaite from the main plot and manages to surprise all with a climax twist.

However, as he drew inspiration from Jeethu Joseph's films, much to the shock of all, he included the same flaws and this impacted the film. He showed the transformation of the cop from a rookie to an efficient one in an able way. However the director failed with his lazy manner of story telling. There are many scenes that looked artificial and staged and looked awkward on the screen.

He spent most of the time, showing the admiration of the subordinates to the protagonist and all these looked unnecessary and irrelevant. At times, the scenes and the screenplay looked clumsy and convenient insulting the intelligence of the viewers. There are also many illogical scenes and this impacted the final output. The director failed to execute the decent story with the screenplay and direction.

The behavior of the protagonist in various scenes looked silly and this impacted the basic investigation and the whole idea. Some of the so called scenes and the scenes looked absurd and even kids would laugh it out loudly.

The cinematography of PM. Unnikrishnan showed the scenes in a natural and realistic manner showing the village atmosphere in a serene and calm way. The background score of Sreerag Saji elevated the scenes and managed to keep the viewers glued to the screen with the twists and turns. The editing of VS. Vinayak could have been better as there are many scenes that slowed the pace of the narration. Dialogues are ok and production values are good.

Dridam Movie: Advantages

• Climax Twist
• Cinematography
• BGM

Dridam Movie: Disadvantages

• Slow Pace
• Sub Plots
• First Half

Dridam (2026) Movie: Rating Analysis

Altogether, Dridam turns out to be a botched up thriller. Director Martin Joseph came up with a thriller that looked like a slow poison and unlike other investigative thrillers where a twist comes during the interval bang, the twist appears only during the climax. Till then the director passes time with unnecessary scenes and the slow pace in the screenplay and narration tested the patience of the viewers. Only the cinematography saved the film from sinking further. Except for the final 30 minutes, everything goes for the toss in Dridam. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 2.5 rating for Dridam.
---- Pramod Nandivada