Story
Gopi Reddy (Gopichand), claiming to be son of a crest-fallen builder named Bulreddy, rushes to Hyderabad from Milan in Italy with the ostensible goal of settling dues with some people. He then goes on to build bridges with his sweetheart, Sameera (Kavya Thapar), whom he had a tryst with while in Italy. In reality, he is out there to settle scores with some disgruntled elements. Who is Gopi and why is he in India? What is a terror ringleader (played by Jisshu Sengupta) up to? Answers to these questions are found as the story progresses.
Telugu Funda’s take on the Performances:
- Gopichand: Unpopular it might be to say this, but he looks younger and more motivated than Ravi Teja these days. He is pretty decent in ‘Viswam’.
- The bad guys: Uniformly boring. Jisshu Sengupta has been cast in terrible roles, time and again, in Telugu movies.
- The comedians: Well, what to say?! There are more than a dozen of them vying for space and a semblance of screentime. Barring Vennela Kishore and Prudhviraj, nobody else gets to make an impact.
- The seniors: VK Naresh is funny as the heroine’s father. VTV Ganesh, the much sought-after Tamil comedian, is bland. Mukesh Rishi plays an Anti-Terrorist Squad honcho.
- The bit players: Priya Vadlamani is seen in a small part.
Telugu Funda’s take on the Technical Output:
- Production Values: People Media Factory joined ‘Viswam’ midway. The locations are rich. The Italy and Kashmir portions work because of the grandeur.
- Music: Chaitan Bharadwaj’s music is not even average. Despite the grand scale of the special song ‘Gunguru Gunguru’, there is nothing much to be had.
- Cinematography: KV Guhan’s work is good.
- Action choreography: Forget it!
Telugu Funda’s take on the Overall Content:
‘Aagadu’, ‘Bruce Lee’, ‘Mister’, and ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’. Sreenu Vaitla didn’t take even four years to deliver four mega duds. The most punishing of them all was released in 2018 and, thankfully, Vaitla took a pause. He makes a return after six years.
‘Viswam’, to be fair to Vaitla, doesn’t give you a pounding headache. A few repartees and characterizations are actually fun to watch. You might find it surprising but the train episode is not terrible either. Yes, there is some insensitive comedy (mental illness gets caricatured, classist ‘humour’ is farted). But then, Vaitla’s comedies have never been known for greatness. The train episode in ‘Venky’ was about a bunch of drunk youths bullying Brahmanandam’s character, if you think of it.
‘Viswam’ never becomes too hard to sit through even when the chief antagonist hammers his way through a botched-up plot to screw India. The anti-terror operation of the good side borders on the ridiculous. Everytime we fear that the film might tempt itself into becoming another ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’, Sreenu Vaitla pulls himself back and works on the ideas from his older movies like ‘Baadshah’ and ‘Dookudu’.
Kavya Thapar is part of a badly-written rom-com track but the director uses her character to hit out at the exploitative nature of a bunch of artists in the film industry.
Vaitla should probably next do an out-and-out family comedy. We might never see him in the ‘Dhee’-era form. But we probably will see him get back his loyal audience in fits and starts at least on OTT.
Telugu Funda’s Verdict:
‘Viswam’ is not painful and that’s the best thing you could say about a Vaitla movie these days. Is it worth a watch in theatres? Absolutely not. Would we recommend you to wait for its post-theatrical OTT release? Most certainly.
Rating: 2.25
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