‘Viswam’ film evaluation: Sreenu Vaitla and Gopichand’s movie is marred by an outdated, meandering narrative

Gopichand in director Sreenu Vaitla’s Telugu movie ‘Viswam’
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association

Viswam, directed by Sreenu Vaitla, is a reminder that not every little thing has modified for the higher with mainstream Telugu cinema. When it comes to narrative type, character arcs and the plot itself, this Gopichand and Kavya Thapar starrer feels redundant. The movie teems with dozen of characters and a handful of sub plots — within the identify of providing healthful leisure — with motion episodes, romance, emotional drama and senseless comedy; it could possibly get tiresome to sit down by way of 155 minutes of an incoherence narrative, even when one doesn’t search for logical reasoning.

The primary jiffy units the tone for what’s in retailer. A terrorist who has infiltrated the political and educational circles within the Telugu states reveals his true colors when a scholar executes a bomb blast at a restaurant. The oft-explored India vs. Pakistan trope is additional narrowed all the way down to taking part in into non secular sentiments. Even earlier than the small print can sink in, the story swiftly modifications gear to point out a politician being killed, and his brother changing into a puppet within the arms of the terrorist who’s on a lethal mission.

Tackling the fear community, one would imagine, is a matter of urgency. However this movie is content material to invoke this facet of the story at any time when it fancies and in any other case dispenses with it. Viswam introduces a plethora of characters, every one that appears extra amusing or foolish than the opposite.

Gopi (Gopichand) introduces himself because the son of 1 Mr Bul Reddy and will get all enraged and bashes up anybody who says something in opposition to his father. This consists of the utilization of Telugu slang phrases which might be higher not written about right here. Magically, he helps his Jali Reddy (Prudhvi) go from being an worker at a high-rise condo advanced to changing into the proprietor who takes his former employers (Naresh and Pragathi) to activity.

In the meantime, 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 retains doling ‘out of the field’ recommendation; every time he mentions ‘out of the field’, it’s a code phrase for a field of booze!

There may be quite a lot of phrase play with phrases and contours that rhyme, however would not have a lot recall worth even a couple of minutes after they’re mentioned on-screen. Sreenu Vaitla shares the writing credit with Gopi Mohan and Bhanu-Nandu. However in contrast to the sooner blockbusters of the director, this one doesn’t rating on the leisure issue. Pattern this: Within the identify of humour, a personality is handed a bag and instructed it has dry fruits. Nevertheless it really incorporates fruits which have change into previous, shrunk and dry, not the precise dry fruits… you get the drift.

A romance sub-plot can be thrown in with the arrival of Samaira (Kavya Thapar), a film stylist who tries to swindle the producer by overcharging for costumes and equipment. All this occurs in Italy (the explanation for which is defined later). However how does she have a change of coronary heart? After the hero saves her from a bunch of goons, in fact. An previous, staid trope. The movie makes use of Samaiara’s character traits to elucidate why a movie’s price range might escalate, leading to elevated ticket costs that in flip makes the viewers look ahead to an OTT launch quite than head to the theatres. Truthful sufficient. However it’s also value contemplating that maybe the viewers would additionally need scripts that don’t take them obtained granted.

The phobia menace is all however forgotten on this maze of lame comedy and recalled in time for the pre-intermission section. As by way of the makers realised that motion and comedy alone could not suffice, an emotional story of a younger lady and her mother and father can be thrown in. No costs for guessing that the hero shall be her saviour. Every part concerning the identification of the protagonist is predictable.

A few of Sreenu Vaitla’s earlier movies, for example Dookudu and Venky, scored on the humour quotient and proceed to have recall worth. An elaborate prepare sequence in Viswam tries to recreate a few of that aura and largely fails. This portion depends closely on the poker-faced dialogue supply and characterisation of Vennela Kishore as ‘the household star’ however barring just a few moments that elicit laughs, the others simply take a look at our endurance. Kishore is on cue, however there’s solely a lot he can do when the writing doesn’t measure up.

The identical goes for the opposite actors. Gopichand, Jishu Sengupta and Sunil merely undergo the beats of what their characters are anticipated to do. Kavya is saddled with an element that requires her to look glamorous and nothing extra. In one of many scenes in Italy the place she has a showdown with Gopi, it’s powerful to not discover the shortage of lip sync too. Nevertheless, a vivid spark comes within the type of a short character performed by Priya Vadlamani. Within the nick of time, when she saves the protagonist, it comes as a shock in an in any other case macho-driven movie.

For probably the most half although, Viswam is hampered by a meandering narrative that feels dated by a minimum of 20 years.

Viswam is at the moment working in theatres