2.5 out of 5 Stars | Certificate: U/A | Runtime: 2h 10min | Released: February 27, 2026
Directed by Yadunaath Maruthi Rao | Starring Sree Vishnu, Nayana Sarika, Satya, Murali Sharma, Brahmaji, Satyam Rajesh, Srikanth Iyyengar | Music: Radhan | Cinematography: Sai Sriram
There is a particular kind of frustration that comes from watching a film where the lead actor is clearly giving it everything he has, the premise is genuinely fun, and yet something somewhere keeps pulling the whole thing apart at the seams. That is exactly what Vishnu Vinyasam feels like for most of its two-hour-ten-minute runtime. You laugh. You smile. You check the time. You laugh again. And then you walk out wondering what could have been if the writing had matched the energy Sree Vishnu brought to the screen every single minute.
This is a film that works when it trusts its star and stumbles the moment it tries to do anything else.
What Is Vishnu Vinyasam About?
Vishnu (Sree Vishnu) is a junior lecturer at a college in Ongole who is obsessed with astrology, numerology, and vastu to an almost absurd degree. The man pays rent for his neighbour’s toilet because his own bathroom has bad vastu. He consults his astrologer before doing anything remotely important. And because of these beliefs, he has remained stubbornly single well past the age most families would consider acceptable.
Then he meets Manisha (Nayana Sarika), his department head, a wealthy, eccentric woman with her own baggage. She smokes, she drinks, she has an unusual lifestyle, and underneath all of it she carries a deep fear of marriage rooted in a jathakam dosham, a flaw in her horoscope that has upended her personal life for years. Vishnu and Manisha fall for each other in the way people in Telugu rom-coms do, with comic misunderstandings, escalating situations, and the kind of chemistry that keeps the first half moving at a decent pace. The conflict that arrives at the interval point is genuinely interesting. And then the second half arrives and things start to wobble.
Sree Vishnu Is the Whole Movie
Let’s not bury the lead. Sree Vishnu is absolutely the reason to watch this film. He has spent the last few years building a reputation as one of Telugu cinema’s most reliable entertainers and he does not waste a single scene here. His comic timing is instinctive. His body language is hilarious. The way he lands dialogue, those little pauses before a punchline, that slightly panicked energy he brings to every situation, it all works beautifully.
There is a sequence in the first half where he sings popular film songs as part of a scene that becomes one of the funniest moments in recent Telugu comedy. Moments like that remind you why Sree Vishnu has developed such a loyal following. He does not play it safe. He commits completely to the bit, however ridiculous it gets, and that commitment is what makes him watchable even when the script is not serving him well.
The problem is the script is not serving him well often enough in this film.
Nayana Sarika Holds Her Ground
Nayana Sarika, who impressed Telugu audiences with her performances in AAY and KA, does a solid job as Manisha. Her character is written with some genuine quirks and she handles both the comedic and emotional portions with a naturalness that keeps her from being overshadowed by her co-star’s energy. She and Sree Vishnu have real chemistry on screen, which is honestly what saves several scenes in the first half from feeling flat.
The emotional moments the film demands of her in the second half are handled with care. She is believable and grounded in a film that is otherwise more interested in laughs than emotional truth. If the writing had given her more to work with, she could have turned Manisha into one of the more memorable female leads in recent Telugu comedies. Instead she does what she can with what she has, and what she has is not always enough.
The First Half Works. The Second Half Does Not.
This is the central problem of Vishnu Vinyasam and it is a problem the film never finds a way out of. The first half is genuinely enjoyable. The comedy lands in enough places to keep things moving, the college setting is used well, the introductions of both lead characters are handled with a light touch, and the interval revelation adds a layer of emotional stakes that feels promising.
Then the second half arrives and the momentum simply vanishes.
The shift from romantic comedy to family drama is handled clumsily. The emotional beats that should hit hard land softly. A few important twists are introduced in the final stretch but they feel recycled from earlier Tollywood films, which takes away whatever freshness the premise had built up. The villains are over the top in the wrong way, their motivations unconvincing and their actions difficult to take seriously even within the logic of a light-hearted entertainer.
Director Yadunaath Maruthi Rao, making his debut here, shows real capability in the first hour. He sets up the characters with confidence and creates enough intrigue to hold your interest. But he loses the thread badly after the interval, and the screenplay never recovers. Scenes are stretched well beyond where they should end. Comedy bits that start well are milked for too long until the laugh fades into impatience. What should feel breezy begins to feel exhausting.
The Supporting Cast Is Largely Wasted
Vishnu Vinyasam has a genuinely impressive supporting ensemble. Satya, Murali Sharma, Brahmaji, Satyam Rajesh, Srikanth Iyyengar, Goparaju Ramana, Srinivas Vadlamani, and comedian Srinivas Reddy are all on board, and together they represent a group that could have elevated the film significantly if the screenplay had made use of them.
Instead, almost all of them are pushed to the margins. Satya, who has been one of Sree Vishnu’s most effective comedy partners in past films, does not find his usual groove here. His track feels underwritten and his moments rarely land with the impact you would expect from someone this capable. Murali Sharma gets one interesting scene involving a backstory narration but is otherwise underused. Brahmaji and Praveen produce a few laughs in their lecturer roles but nothing memorable enough to stand out.
This is a film where the director decided Sree Vishnu could carry the whole thing on his own. That is not entirely wrong. But it is a waste of talent.
Radhan’s Music Is a Missed Opportunity
A romantic comedy lives and dies partly by its music. You need at least one song that people leave the theater humming. Vishnu Vinyasam does not have that song. Radhan, who is a genuinely talented composer, delivers a background score that serves the film adequately enough but songs that fail to connect in any meaningful way. Not a single track stands out as memorable or adds the kind of energy a film like this needs to push through its slower moments.
For a genre where music can lift an entire film, this is a significant gap.
Sai Sriram’s cinematography, on the other hand, does a clean job. The small-town Ongole setting is captured well and gives the film a texture that feels lived-in rather than set-designed. That groundedness actually helps the comedy land in moments where the writing is thinner than it should be.
What the Film Gets Right
Despite everything, Vishnu Vinyasam is not a bad time at the movies. The first half delivers enough genuine laughs to make the ticket feel worthwhile. Sree Vishnu is on remarkable form. The core concept, an astrology-obsessed man falling for a woman whose own horoscope is the obstacle between them, is a good idea with real comedic potential. The chemistry between the two leads is warm and natural. There are individual moments scattered across both halves that genuinely work.
The film also has heart, even if it does not always know how to express it cleanly. The intention behind the story is decent. The family drama angle, messy as its execution is, comes from a genuine desire to add emotional depth to what could have been a purely surface-level entertainer. Debutant director Maruthi Rao clearly cares about the material. He just needs sharper writing to back that care up.
Audience reactions on social media have been divided but not unkind. Fans of Sree Vishnu are calling it another worthy entry in his comedy catalogue. More discerning viewers are pointing to the uneven writing and weak second half. Both reactions make sense.
Final Verdict
Vishnu Vinyasam is a film that has enough going for it to be a decent single watch but not enough to be the comfortable hit Sree Vishnu’s recent track record had led fans to expect. It is carried almost entirely by its lead actor’s irresistible screen presence. The first half earns its laughs, the second half loses the thread, the music disappoints, and the supporting cast goes mostly unused.
If you enjoy Sree Vishnu’s comedy style and want a light, relatively harmless two hours, you will find enough here to keep you from demanding a refund. If you are expecting something with the tightness of his better recent films, Vishnu Vinyasam will feel like a step back.
The potential was there. The execution was not always up to the task.
Quick Verdict
Strengths: Sree Vishnu’s comic timing and screen presence throughout, a solid first half, decent chemistry between the leads, Nayana Sarika’s natural and grounded performance, clean small-town cinematography by Sai Sriram.
Weaknesses: A dragging and emotionally flat second half, weak and recycled villain motivations, underutilized supporting cast, forgettable music by Radhan, comedy sequences that overstay their welcome, and a predictable story that needed fresher treatment.
Who Should Watch It: Sree Vishnu fans, lovers of light Telugu rom-coms, and families looking for a breezy, clean entertainer with no serious demands on the viewer.
Who Might Skip It: Viewers expecting a tight, well-written narrative, fans of Radhan hoping for memorable music, and anyone who felt his recent films already pushed this formula far enough.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
OTT: Streaming rights reportedly acquired by Amazon Prime Video, with release expected four to eight weeks after theatrical run.
Vishnu Vinyasam is currently running in theaters. Certificate: U/A. Runtime: approximately 2 hours 10 minutes. Produced by Sumanth Naidu under Sree Subrahmanyeshwara Cinemas.
