Viswaroopam

• Straight off the bat, Viswaroopam is no classic. It will probably not even figure as one of Kamal's above average efforts but it is watchable in most parts.
• The biggest problem with the movie is that it is wildly inconsistent. On one hand, it is meticulously detailed, in other scenes it is incredibly simplistic. There are times I thought it was Zero Dark Thirty, other times it felt like Ek Tha Tiger.
• Beautfully shot, technically sound are praises you'd read enough already. I concur. The action sequences are very stylishly filmed (including an obvious Guy Ritchie tribute) but somewhere in the middle, the movie loses its heart. The background though a tad loud fit well in the movie. The songs do not hamper the narrative so full marks to Kamal the director.
• Watch out for the dialogues - delightfully insouciant at places.The Pashto and Urdu made no sense beyond a certain point - where's the fun in checking out Tamil sub-titles at the bottom of the screen to understand the fundamentalist mumbo jumbo... There were times I just wished I was sitting through one of those funny Vijaykanth movies of the early 2000s with a Pakistani villain and his side-kicks, all speaking Tamil with a strange accent... 
• Now let's come to the characterisation...Why does Viswanath (Kaml) choose to pose as an effeminate dancer? There is no bloody reason at all. It's there to serve no plot purpose, it's more for Kamal to showcase that he has got Birju Maharaj associated with this project and that he can dance Kathak.....in an embarassingly amusing way for a 59 year old....and the effeminate bit, heck, its just to show off...or probably make audiences squirm. God only knows what goes on inside his mind. Now to the annoying Nirupama (Pooja Kumar) - which Tam Brahm in the 21st century speaks like that? Maybe one from the agraharam shown in Sethu but then she is also supposed to be a nuclear oncologist (who romances/flirts over Faraday Shields...wooooohoooo) living in NY who has no problem speaking with a phoren English accent. Honestly, it was so grating I felt like scratching myself with a nail. Give me the absolutley droolworthy Renu anyday please...
• On the acting front, I quite liked Pooja Kumar & I'm surprised Kamal chose a 36 yr old to play the female lead....no kissing scenes though...and you'd have to wait till almost the end credits for some "action".. Quite surreal that she is the same girl who starred in Kadhal Rojave long loooooooong ago... I really used to like this song....anyway I digress.
• Andrea Jeremiah has screen presence and one wishes to see her more often in front of the cameras. Rahul Bose was comical but Shekar Kapur was a pleasant surprise.
• Why are all the foreign actors in Tamil films so godawful - Dawkins and the FBI investigator couldn't act to save their lives. I do hope they paid to figure in this movie - that way Kamal gets to recover some of the 90 crores he put into this.
• The movie also alternates between "hey-look-I-am-so-smart" and "Look-here-dumbos-you-getting-it?" mode -  funny in the way NYPD, FBI were written in large font + bold and smart in the way it uses pigeons as agents of terror....but if you're a Kamal fan like I am, you've seen it before and you know its bound to rear its ugly head all too soon.
• Overall, Viswaroopam was what I'd call a time-pass one time watch (as long as you're not paying those extortionate Bangalore multiplex rates).

PS: The observant would have noted that my comments above did not mention Islam, Jihad or any of the 'forbidden words'.   All T-H-A-T controversy over this masala pot boiler? Someone's got to tell me what's happening here !!!!! How much money exchanged hands?