‘Viswam’ movie review: Sreenu Vaitla and Gopichand’s film is marred by an outdated, meandering narrative

Viswam, directed by Sreenu Vaitla, is a reminder that not everything has changed for the better with mainstream Telugu cinema. In terms of narrative style, character arcs and the plot itself, this Gopichand and Kavya Thapar starrer feels redundant. The film teems with dozen of characters and a handful of sub plots — in the name of offering wholesome entertainment — with action episodes, romance, emotional drama and mindless comedy; it can get tiresome to sit through 155 minutes of an incoherence narrative, even if one does not look for logical reasoning.

The first few minutes sets the tone for what is in store. A terrorist who has infiltrated the political and academic circles in the Telugu states reveals his true colours when a student executes a bomb blast at a restaurant. The oft-explored India vs. Pakistan trope is further narrowed down to playing into religious sentiments. Even before the details can sink in, the story swiftly changes gear to show a politician being killed, and his brother becoming a puppet in the hands of the terrorist who is on a deadly mission.

Tackling the terror network, one would believe, is a matter of urgency. But this film is content to invoke this aspect of the story whenever it fancies and otherwise dispenses with it. Viswam introduces a plethora of characters, each one that seems more amusing or silly than the other.

Gopi (Gopichand) introduces himself as the son of one Mr Bul Reddy and gets all enraged and bashes up anyone who says anything against his father. This includes the usage of Telugu slang phrases that are better not written about here. Magically, he helps his Jali Reddy (Prudhvi) go from being an employee at a high-rise apartment complex to becoming the owner who takes his former employers (Naresh and Pragathi) to task.

Meanwhile, we meet a wannabe politician Bachiraju (Sunil), his assistant Deekshitulu (Rahul Ramakrishna who tries to be a conscience keeper) and a political strategist (Srikanth Iyengar) who keeps doling ‘out of the box’ advice; each time he mentions ‘out of the box’, it is a code word for a box of booze!

There is a lot of word play with words and lines that rhyme, but do not have much recall value even a few minutes after they are said on-screen. Sreenu Vaitla shares the writing credits with Gopi Mohan and Bhanu-Nandu. But unlike the earlier blockbusters of the director, this one does not score on the entertainment factor. Sample this: In the name of humour, a character is handed a bag and told it has dry fruits. But it actually contains fruits that have become old, shrunk and dry, not the actual dry fruits... you get the drift.

A romance sub-plot is also thrown in with the arrival of Samaira (Kavya Thapar), a movie stylist who tries to swindle the producer by overcharging for costumes and accessories. All this happens in Italy (the reason for which is explained later). But how does she have a change of heart? After the hero saves her from a bunch of goons, of course. An old, staid trope. The film uses Samaiara’s character traits to explain why a film’s budget could escalate, resulting in increased ticket prices that in turn makes the audience wait for an OTT release rather than head to the theatres. Fair enough. But it is also worth considering that perhaps the audience would also want scripts that do not take them for granted.

The terror threat is all but forgotten in this maze of lame comedy and recalled in time for the pre-intermission segment. As though the makers realised that action and comedy alone may not suffice, an emotional story of a young girl and her parents is also thrown in. No prices for guessing that the hero will be her saviour. Everything about the identity of the protagonist is predictable.

Some of Sreenu Vaitla’s earlier films, for instance Dookudu and Venky, scored on the humour quotient and continue to have recall value. An elaborate train sequence in Viswam tries to recreate some of that aura and mostly fails. This portion relies heavily on the poker-faced dialogue delivery and characterisation of Vennela Kishore as ‘the family star’ but barring a few moments that elicit laughs, the others just test our patience. Kishore is on cue, but there is only so much he can do when the writing does not measure up.

The same goes for the other actors. Gopichand, Jishu Sengupta and Sunil merely go through the beats of what their characters are expected to do. Kavya is saddled with a part that requires her to look glamorous and nothing more. In one of the scenes in Italy where she has a showdown with Gopi, it is tough to not notice the lack of lip sync too. However, a bright spark comes in the form of a brief character played by Priya Vadlamani. In the nick of time, when she saves the protagonist, it comes as a surprise in an otherwise macho-driven film.

For the most part though, Viswam is hampered by a meandering narrative that feels dated by at least two decades.

Viswam is currently running in theatres

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