For the last 4 years, Siva and Ajith have been churning out one subpar movie after another. Vivegam, their last one, pretty much hit rock-bottom in terms of unintentionally hilarious dialogue/presentation and heightened levels of hero worship. Viswasam can be deemed a return-to-comfort-zone for both Siva and Ajith. The setting is purely rural until the film shifts to Mumbai in the second half.
Nothing much happens in the initial half till lady superstar Nayanthara makes her entry. Ajith is all-business as usual: he beats up baddies every other day, conducts festivities in his village, and dances to traditional numbers. The comedians (Robo Shanker, Thambi Ramaiah, and Yogi Babu) can't even manage to make us chuckle, let alone make us laugh our hearts out. They've been conveniently placed to sing praises to the hero after he mouths every line or delivers punches to goons in slow-motion. Vivek makes an appearance in the second half, in scenes that should have clearly been chopped off in the Edits room. The songs are nothing beyond bathroom breaks; neither are they memorable nor foot-tapping for the moment. Even the background score is so-so: Thooku Durai's recurring theme isn't catchy. I forgot it while I was writing this review.
The character of Nayanthara (Dr. Niranjana) gives us hope for a turnaround and to be honest, she does the best with what's offered to her. At least, in a film such as this (set in a rural milieu), no one questions Niranjana's bold attitude towards Thooku Durai (Ajith) or talks back at her for the decisions she takes. Plaudits to Siva on that front! I do believe that the character was bestowed some additional grace since it was Nayanthara who took it up.
Ajith, surprisingly, is a lot relaxed and lighter in this film compared to his other recent outings. A village bigwig he begins as, and a village bigwig he remains throughout. As Thooku Durai, he pokes fun at himself for his negligible understanding of the English language; he employs tactics that a village man would when it comes to pushing the corporate antagonist off his throne (hint: the tea shop sequence!); and he even lets his daughter take centre-stage for a good part of the second half. I couldn't help but let out a sly smile when the big-shot villain, another badly written role for Jagapathi Babu who repeats the same act for the umpteenth time, describes how big of an empire he owns and the limitless power he possesses in the economy, and all that Thooku Durai says in return is that he's the uncouth dude who didn't understand a word of what he was being given a lecture about.
Once again, Siva enters soap-opera territory playing the dynamics between father and daughter to the galleries. Thankfully, Ajith and Anikha, who don the respective roles, know what they need to do and keep the excessive emoting in check. If not for the three leads (i.e. Ajith, Nayanthara, and Anikha), the film would have been downright unwatchable. For anyone who has watched the movie, just try replacing Ajith with someone like Vishal and Nayanthara with someone like Kajal Aggarwal and you can imagine the results. Yet, I wouldn't say that Viswasam is a good movie in its current form. It's just a passable flick with a message about good (or is it bad?) parenting.
