‘Kushi’ Review: Vijay Deverakonda, Samantha’s middling rom-com is confusing

Thousands of romantic comedies may come and go, but the audience will always have a soft corner for films of the same ilk. Vijay Deverakonda and Samantha tasted massive success in the past by attempting rom-coms. Now, the two stars are getting back to the familiar ground after big flops, respectively. Has ‘Kushi’ worked in their favour? Let’s find out!

Viplav (Vijay Deverakonda), who works in a government telephone exchange, is born to an atheist father, Lenin Sathya (Sachin Khedekar), and a theist mother (Saranya Ponvannan). Aradhya (Samantha Ruth Prabhu), works in the corporate sector and hails from an orthodox Brahmin family. It is love at first sight for Viplav when he bumps into Aradhya in Kashmir. He relentlessly pursues Aradhya, which is borderline stalking and harassment. But, let’s come to that later!

When Aradhya is convinced about him, he gets to know about her religion and her family’s preferences. Both parents do not agree on their wedding, which pushes them to get married and live separately. After several happy months, relationship woes plague their relationship. How their religious preferences affect their relationship and how they come out of it forms the story.

Director Shiva Nirvana has created a brand for himself by doing back-to-back romantic films. ‘Kushi’ is no different from his previous ventures. The film deals with a sensitive subject, i.e., religion. The film shows the troubles that crop up between newly-married couples who have different preferences. The concept of one sacrificing for the other and who has sacrificed the most creeps in. ‘Kushi’ shows how Viplav and Aradhya fall into the same trap.

Here's the trailer:

The film is confusing in its messaging. In fact, it looks like Shiva Nirvana is confused about whether to show a progressive or regressive love story. In one scene, we hear Viplav calling himself a feminist, but he goes around relentlessly pursuing her without her consent. Similarly, Aradhya shows herself as a self-made woman but wants to wait for her guy to be her saviour.

On the contrary, ‘Kushi’ also has a solid message about people having different religious preferences yet co-existing in peace. There are some stretches in ‘Kushi’ that show some brilliance. It addresses how society puts pressure on newly-married couples to have a baby. Shiva Nirvana also does total justice to showing how couples, these days, take the easy way out when troubles come up.

Vijay Deverakonda goes into ‘Geetha Govindam’ mode and perfectly portrays the boy-next-door role with ease. Samantha, too, aces this role with equal grace. But, it is Zoya and Thomas (Rohini and Jayaram), who play the roles of their neighbours that make this rom-com special. Zoya and Thomas’ love story had so much potential to be developed into a full-fledged story. But, they become pawns in Shiva Nirvana’s world. And, there's a call back to 'Arjun Reddy', which left everyone in splits.

That said, ‘Kushi’ barely scratches the surface and it’s the few stretches of brilliance that make this film a watchable affair. If ‘Kushi’ is breezy and feel-good, the main credit should go to Hesham Abdul Wahab’s soul-stirring music.

Director Murali G’s cinematography showed Kashmir and Hyderabad (Chennai in Tamil version) in full glory. The Tamil dubbing, however, watered down the film’s experience.

2.5 out of 5 stars for ‘Kushi’.