Kushi - Telugu Movie

 Kushi written and directed by Shiva Nirvana is the story love, marriage and thereafter of Viplav Devarakonda (Vijay Devarakonda) and Aaradya (Samantha Ruth Prabhu) who hail from different backgrounds from faith perspective. Aaradhya’s father (Murali Sharma) is a spiritual speaker who believes in God and rituals whereas Viplav’s father (Sachin Khedekar) is a famous atheist and scientist. They oppose the marriage due to horoscope mismatch for which Aaradhya’s father demands to perform some rituals and Viplav’s father rejects its outright. The rest of the movie deals with whether the couple can sustain their marriage despite their differences in faith and if they are different from their parents, as they think they are. This is presented in a feel-good pastel shade with extremely good-looking lead pair and a concluding message. Read on for the long review. Beware of spoilers.

In the beginning, Viplav is shown as an adventurous young man who wants to experience life and its grandness. He requests a posting to Kashmir because of the Mani Ratnam-AR Rahman influence. He meets Pitobosh (Vennela Kishore) who brilliantly supports the comic streak in the first half and very soon realizes that life in Kashmir is not as rosy as he had imagined. Then he meets Aardhya and falls in love at first sight though he thinks she is a Pakistani Muslim. The situations are so comical that most of the first half is breezy. There are beautiful people against the backdrop of beautiful locations and then there is love! There are a handful of scenes that celebrates The Vijay Devarakonda’s cult status and Samantha’s popular movies. His broken Hindi also yields some laughter. The cinematography captures the feel-good vibe and the snow-capped Kashmir mountains beautifully. Editing is alright, yet 2 hours and 45 minutes seemed too long. Music director Hesham Abdul Wahab’s songs are a big hit already and he has done an amazing work with the background score as well, letting silence linger when needed.

Saranya Ponvannan as Viplav’s mother aces it because it is a character, she has played many times. Rahul Ramakrishna plays Viplav’s friend (again) and does that with the irritating pitch he had used in Geetha Govindam. The Vijay Devarakonda plays the character with charming breeze. He looks cute and handsome as ever and tries his best to be the best. Samantha looks cute as ever and has tried to own the character as much as she can. There is good chemistry between them, but the conviction in the screenplay is missing.

The movie carries a message that humanity transcends beyond faiths and beliefs. While the message as such is a good concept, the overall presentation is generic.

The problem with writing begins in the second half. Montages over a song shows how happily married the couple are and that strangely is not convincing enough. Also, immediately after marriage, Aaradhya seems to be obsessed with getting pregnant and takes test month after month. Where did the adventurous streak that Viplav claimed to have go? After an emotional event, they start fighting so much that Aaradhya appears sad all the time and Viplav angry. Their falling apart is not organic enough. Then there are several scenes screaming misogyny. An elderly couple (Jayaram and Rohini) advise time and again that a wife could keep her husband happy if she cooks the food he likes. Therefore, the vegetarian wife cooks fish for him! However, in one of the earlier scenes, she runs away puking while she knows that the food that she touched had meat! Then there is a scene where Viplav preaches a guy who misbehaves with Aaradhya that when a woman visibly appears married with the black beaded chain on her neck and toe ring, he is supposed to understand there is a husband who could beat him to death. Well, does that mean it is alright to misbehave with unmarried women or married women who don’t visibly appear so? There is also a scene where Aaradhya’s manager acknowledges that she is his pet and one where a foreign client flirts with her in an office party. That kind of remarks are not encouraged in MNCs these days are disciplinary actions would be taken if such instances are reported. But these are included so that Viplav overhears and feels dejected his wife did not slap the foreign client for flirting. No woman with brains would do that. She would only try to walk away like how Aardhya does. Cherry on the cake comes when Viplav beats her manager because he didn’t allow him and his friend to have free alcohol reserved for the party! And of course, the wife bashing song erupts out of nowhere. In the climax, we even see Aaradhya explaining why God is important to her because there are things that she could share with Him only and we see Viplav nod without volunteering to be an empathetic friend first.

The backstory of the elderly couple was moving. But it seemed to be out of place and included only to teach the young couple a lesson. Movies like Alaipayuthe and Ok Kanmani also had such characters, but they were not preachy. Deliberately quoting Mani Ratnam films here because this one seems to have heavily inspired with references like Roja, Dil Se and an entire song with his movie names!

Last but not least, what was that with the end credits? It looked forced and generic. Overall, it is a feel-good film for the most part and could have been lot better.

 

Cast	:	Vijay Devarakonda, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Sachin Kedhekar, Murali Sharma, Sharanya Ponvannan, Jayaram, Rohini, Vennele Kishore, Rahul Ramakrishna
Director	:	Shiva Nirvana
Cinematographer	:	Murali G
Music	:	Hesham Abdul Wahab
Editor	:	Prawin Pudi
Producer	:	Mythri Movie Makers
Release Date	:	September 01, 2023
Length	:	2 Hours and 45 Minutes
Language	:	Telugu/Tamil