Vijay Deverakonda and Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s crackling chemistry is the best thing about Kushi, which otherwise has a deliberate Mani Ratnam hangover. Director Shiva Nirvana churns out a somewhat feel-good romantic drama around the conflict between two families with contrasting ideologies coming between two people in love, and with that you can start counting the hat-tips to Mani Ratnam films.
Kushi stars Vijay Deverakonda as a BSNL employee, Viplav, who gets a job posting in Kashmir. A die-hard Mani Ratnam fan, Viplav dreams of a Roja-style romance in the valley. When he meets Aradhya, played by Samantha Ruth Prabhu, there’s instant attraction. He tries to woo her — the way Shah Rukh Khan serenaded Manisha Koirala in Dil Se — and Aradhya begins to like him too.
Trouble starts when they decide to marry as Viplav’s atheist family and Aradhya’s deeply-religious household are daggers drawn, just like it was in Mani Ratnam’s Bombay. The stage is set for a high-decibel television debate between the two fathers, played by Sachin Khedekar and Murali Sharma. Viplav and Aradhya of course have their way and get married.
Post-intermission, Shiva Nirvana shifts the focus on reality slowly biting the first flush of love. The newly-weds struggle with the everyday challenges of married life, the little niggles sometimes leaving a sour aftertaste — a common theme in Mani Ratnam’s films, most notably Alaipayuthey. You also have an elderly neighbour couple (played by Rohini and Jayaram) who encourage Viplav and Aradhya to see the big picture beyond their everyday conflicts — a throwback to OK Kanmani.
But unlike Mani Ratnam’s films, Kushi only scratches the surface of marital conflicts. Every emotional scene is immediately followed up by a comedic twist or a musical number to keep the frothy vibe going, and it becomes quite a tedious watch towards the end.
What holds Kushi together is its lead pair. Deverakonda makes his guy-next-door character flawed but relatable. Samantha’s Aradhya starts out as an enigmatic girl irked at being pursued by a lovestruck man but effortlessly transitions into a woman stuck in an unhappy marriage, seeking happiness and respect. The film stumbles when it comes to the parents taking potshots at each other, as the father characters are one-dimensional and caricaturish. The resolution of the conflict in the climax also feels rushed and patchy.
Apart from Deverakonda and Samantha’s team-up, Kushi benefits from Murali G’s cinematography and the music scored by Hesham Abdul Wahab.
