Vishwanath and Sons stays polite about a hard premise

Vishwanath and Sons opened on 14 August. It is in Tamil and Telugu. The runtime is 2 hours and 41 minutes.

Suriya plays Sanjay Vishwanath, who is 42. Mamitha Baiju plays Maddy, who is 22. Radikaa plays the mother. Venky Atluri directed.

The plot starts with a surrogate father. Then it becomes a romance.

Times of India's M. Suganth gave it three stars out of five. He credited the film for handling the premise with dignity. The treatment stays light. The second half is weaker. The music is a letdown. The ending, he said, is sensible.

NDTV also sat at about three stars. The first half is breezy. The second half is uneven.

The age gap is the hard part of the premise. A 42-year-old surrogate father and a 22-year-old mother is a plot that can turn ugly on contact. Atluri keeps it polite.

That politeness is the film's choice. Suganth's three stars rest on dignity and a light touch. They also rest on a second half that sags, music that does not help, and an ending he found sensible.

NDTV's split is the same shape. The first half moves. The second half does not keep that pace.

Suriya and Mamitha Baiju have to carry that. The reviews say they do enough of it for a three-star family drama. They do not say the script holds for 2 hours and 41 minutes.

A family drama that stays light can get through a hard premise. It can also run out of steam once the romance takes over. Both papers land in that gap. Three stars is the shared grade. The shared complaint is the second half.

The film is out in Tamil and Telugu. The reviews have settled around three stars. The run will show whether a polite family drama of this length still fills seats.