Vishwanath & Sons - Altered States

 Vishwanath & Sons

2026, Tamil

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Director: Venky Atluri

Stars: Suriya, Radhika Sarathkumar, Mamitha Baiju, Raveena Tandon, Sunil Reddy, Baby Charvik Reddy.

 

Mohan's Measure - ZERO 

 

 

I have warned you all before about the decrepit cesspool called Pan Indian Cinema.  Today, I failed to heed my own warnings and now every square inch feels like it needs fumigation.

 It would seem that with such a nice title like Vishwanath & Sons, the movie would be like the aroma of freshly brewed filter coffee.  Perhaps, a story about a well-meaning, conservative man owning an old bookshop, whose sons turn the nostalgia into a Chennai phenomenon. A pretty girl, a couple of big city villains, and you have the makings of a watchable film. To those who share this feeling, I can only say, I am truly sorry.

 

So, the premise of Vishwanath and Sons is about the son of a man named Vishwanath, who is a hard working and disciplined corporate head of a multi-billion dollar Telugu AI virtual game. He lives in an AI generated megalith with a small, but well meaning AI puja room.  He has a host of servants, and a perfect mother who cherishes her equally perfect offspring  and his achievements.  

 

Sanjay Vishwanath has only one small vice, he doesn't want to get married, because he thinks he will let his wife down the way his late dad let down his mother by cheating on her.   His mother wants grandkids. What is poor man to do, in an around visiting European brothels once a month?  I know, says the writer, let's have him come home with a surrogate child.  To make matters all the more interesting, says the writer who has had one to many drinks, let's have the surrogate mother have to move in, and let''s have her, a 20 year old woman, fall in love with this 40 something guy.

The above sums up the this overtly Cyberabad biased movie, which has the clear intentions of labeling Chennai with the same amoral Gen Alpha amorality.  Little wonder that that movie's plot resembles Naga Chaitanya's mid-life crisis. It has been hyped as wholesome family entertainment, but one should say it puts holes in any sense of family. 

The list of sins could fill several confessionals. Bigamy, alcoholism, greed, prostitution, extramarital relationships, and eyebrow-raising May-December partnerships are seen as a part of normal life. What to say for the CGI lavishness and hedonism. It seems telling that an actor who recently portrayed a Tamil god would now take on a Brahmin name to act in a morally fluid role. One pictures copies of the Thirukkural being burned in the AI fireplace.

Questions too abound about how a young woman would act so quickly to be impregnated by an unknown donor, or why she, as a fledgling doctor, would not be aware of the dangers to her newborn's need for a bone marrow transplant. If this is the current modus operand of Indians in the US, it is little wonder they hate us. 

 

Miss Mamitha plays her Bohemian ABCD role well, only because she is a good actress. However, it is destiny, money, or sheer stupidity that makes her fall for a middle age Madrasi? She claims purity, but after seeing her in a drunken stupor at a pool party, one would question her credentials.

My credentials as a movie buff have gone down several notches after seeing this movie.