Drishyam: The Eternal Vigil

February 19, 2021, was no ordinary day for me. Like millions of other Malayalam cinema fans, I was looking forward to the launch of Director Jeethu Joseph's Drishyam 2—starring the versatile and indefatigable Mohanlal (Lalettan)—on Amazon Prime Video.

Drishyam can be roughly translated into English as the ‘view’ or the ‘scene’. A sequel to the widely hailed movie Drishyam, which was released in 2013 and featured the same main cast, Drishyam 2 is an astonishing ride into the shrewd mind of a man whose single-minded focus is to protect his family.

After wrapping up my day’s work, the family got together after dinner to watch the film, and it was an extraordinarily gripping experience.

No, I am not going to reveal any spoilers of either the 2013 prequel or the 2021 follow-up. But there is a theme running through the series that people in the business world can remember and apply, in my humble opinion.

It is that if you care about something deeply and genuinely in your business, you will constantly think in a 360-degree manner to make sense of your complex market environment.

For example, a totally committed entrepreneur will think through multiple layers and functions of the business in an intense and integrated manner, even in those phases when there is no need to at all. In other words, even if the lead entrepreneur is essentially a technology person, the individual will fully immerse oneself in widely learning about functions like Marketing, HR, Finance, etc., so that the pitch and the go-to-market (GTM) strategy are just right.

Simply put, ‘eternal vigilance’ is the watchword for starting and continuing a reign of success in a shifting, competitive and complex business environment.