Kushi (2023) Movie Review
From the moment of the official announcement on ‘Kushi’, the anticipatory levels were pretty high as all the three – Director Shiva Nirvana, actors Vijay Devarakonda and Samantha had this movie as acid test to eclipse their previous mediocre movies. Significantly, the film’s visual promos and the songs gave a brightest hope that probabilities are high for them to bounce back and strike a best spell.
Apparently, the film works out very well for all of them, as director Shiva takes up a time and tested theme revolving about the relationships, and manages to present them in an impressive package.
Director Shiva’s innovative attempt in storytelling is very much visible from the way, he has named his characters, and the method, he tries to introduce the conflict.
The film is about Lenin Sathya (Sachin Khadekar), an atheist, who strongly believes in science. And there, there is Chandrangam Srinivasa Rao (Murali Sharma), a staunch religious believer. Both of them have bitter encounters that includes television debate indeed. However, the twist is when Lenin’s son Viplav Devarakonda (Vijay Devarakonda) and Chandragam’s daughter Aradhya (Samantha Ruth Prabhu) fall in love, and decide to get hitched.
Shiva’s fanboy moment for Mani Ratnam-AR Rahman can be blatantly noticed in many places, and it has been done exquisitely. Of course, Kushi can be ennobled as the present-day Alaipayuthey. There are lots of cute moments and emotional sequences in the film that get embellished by G. Murali’s elegant cinematography and Hesham Abdul Wahab’s music.
Both the characterisations played by Vijay Devarakonda and Samantha are captivating. Vijay’s innocuous shades that often reminds us off his ‘Geetha Govindam’ and Samantha’s perfect performances show up as the major attraction in this movie. Jayaram and Rohini are the additional attractions in this movie. On the flips side, the running length of first half gets slightly stretched out and even the confrontations between the characters too look overdosed. But that doesn’t hamper the progression of screenplay anywhere, and the movie overall turns to be a decent family entertainer.
Verdict: The adorable screen presence of Vijay Devarakonda-Samantha, decent narrative and appreciable technical aspects make ‘Kushi’, a laudable one.
Rating : 3/5
