'Viswam' is one of the festival releases this week. In this section, we review the most "commercial" Dasara release of the season.
Plot:
A pre-teen girl named Darshana witnesses the murder of a central minister in the wake of a terror conspiracy to ravage Indian cities. Gopi Reddy alias Viswam (Gopichand) enters the scene and starts confusing everyone around him. Realizing the grave danger to the girl's life, he vows to protect her at all costs. Who is behind the series of bomb blasts? Does Viswam manage to save the girl? That's what the film is about.
Post-Mortem:
Sreenu Vaitla's storytelling has long ceased to make sense. Almost every single film he has made in the last ten years has been dense. His brand of comedy was phenomenal in 'Venky', 'Dhee' and 'Dookudu'; Originality and contemporary language were the hallmarks of his style. The high phase started deteriorating from the days of 'Badshah'. The filmmaker overdid the plotting aspect in Ravi Teja's 'Amar Akbar Anthony', his worst movie to date. Realizing the folly of telling plot-heavy stories at the expense of comedy, Vaitla hits a reset button this time, marshalling his forte in 'Viswam', where idiosyncratic comedians dominate cardboard villains, and where the main plot subserves the gags, including a long stretch inside a train. Is it a hilarious entertainer? No. Is it trashy? No. Is it somewhere in between? Yes, if you are liberal in your judgement and if you watch 'Viswam' with sub-zero expectations.
Vaitla films are always a circus, and the more clowns, the better. With Gopi Mohan as his partner in crime, Vaitla can avoid the tedious task of crafting a coherent plot. Why bother with serious themes like terrorism when we can have more fun with absurd, over-the-top comedy? Let's embrace our strengths and leave the gritty dramas to those who can do them well.
Vaitla's imagination has not become updated despite the six-year hiatus in his filmography. And despite Gopi Mohan, the Bhanu-Nandu duo and another writer joining him. There is a need for a fundamental shift in Vaitla's thinking. He needs to jettison the temptation of shooting in foreign locales. In 'Viswam' almost all bad scenes are set in the backdrop of terrorism, anti-terrorism, and posh foreign locales.
Gopichand's character is too predictable and lacklustre. Jisshu Sengupta, as the main villain, is not the enfant terrible this story needed. The heavy-lifting is done by the comedians (read VK Naresh, Pruthviraj and Vennela Kishore). The talents of Sunil and VTV Ganesh haven't been put to use. Pragathi and Rahul Ramakrishna, Chammak Chandra and Shakalaka Shankar, Bharath and Gundu Sudarshan, Gautam Raju and Raghu Babu have been thoroughly wasted. This is sad in a film teeming with a peculiarly high number of comedians.
Chaitan Bharadwaj's music is generic. The musical quality of Vaitla's movies has been dwarfed by a blunt imagination for years now. 'Viswam' is no different.
Closing Remarks:
'Viswam' is a barely-watchable movie with a very silly plot and too many comedy scenes that offer too little.
