Vishwanath & Sons - Soft and spoiled

The latest in the recent slew of heavily Telugu influenced films in Kollywood is the Venky Atluri directed masala film starring Suriya ‘Vishwanath & Sons’ - hot off the heels of this year’s success of ‘Karuppu’ - co-starring Mamitha Baiju. Atluri has also seen some recent success; he followed the tepidly received 2023 Dhanush starrer ‘Vaathi’ with the celebrated 2024 Dulquer Salmaan film ‘Lucky Baskhar’. However, Atluri’s films tend to lack substance, and ‘Vishwanath & Sons’ is no different. 

The film follows Sanjay ‘Sanju’ Vishwanath (Suriya), a billionaire with a heart of gold, who returns home from a trip abroad with a child. The child suffers from health complications, causing Maddy (Mamitha Baiju) to be summoned from the USA as a bone marrow donor. The rest of the film tracks the time Maddy spends with the Vishwanath family, which includes Sanju’s mother Nirmala (Radhika Sarathkumar) and his cousin Ramu (Sunil Reddy). Much like Atluri’s previous films, the writer/director is not interested in interrogating the subject matter he is tackling, instead projecting a superficial, sanitised version of reality, ready for family audience viewing. There are no ethical billionaires, and no matter how many instances of portraying what a kind-hearted man Sanjay is will change that. Sanjay takes monthly trips for pleasure on his private jet, throws money at problems and is out of touch from reality in his spacious mansion. The film’s overall construction - in content, style and tone - feels like a cocktail made from the plethora of K-dramas available on streaming sites. Also, the comedy in the film is lazy and cheap. 

The cast are not used to their best abilities. Suriya significantly pales in comparison to his powerhouse performance in ‘Karuppu’; this is another film in the space of a few months where a huge star has been unable to produce convincing tears. Mamitha Baiju comes out of the film with the best performance, but this may be due to the marginally more interesting character writing. The rest of the cast are given single-dimensional character archetypes rather than fleshed out individuals. 

Technically too, the film is uninteresting. Despite its sheen and gloss - the cinematography is imbued with the images and products of excess - there is little to nothing interesting happening filmically. The visualisation for the song ‘Pattampoochi’ is where the film is at its most aesthetically interesting, with displays of Maddy’s inner thoughts expressed in song and dance. Disappointingly, the score and soundtrack by GV Prakash Kumar is also once again underwhelming. 

Overall, ‘Vishwanath & Sons’ is yet another lacklustre effort by Atluri. ‘Lucky Baskhar’ was unnecessarily lauded by critics and the audience, and this film confirms that Atluri’s overly light treatment of his own work leaves us wholly unengaged. If you enjoyed ‘Vishwanath & Sons’, I would recommend the 2023 Vijay starrer ‘Varisu’ which operates on a very similar frequency. 

Gopis rating: 2 stars

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Official trailer for film below.