Vijay Deverakonda, Samantha and Shiva Nirvana is a combination that created a lot of interest among movie lovers. All three of them faced failures with their last films and they came together for a romantic drama titled ‘Khushi’. The songs were a big hit and the promotional content like teaser and trailer too impressed the audience. The expectations are quite high on the movie and let us see how it turned out to be. Story: Viplav (Vijay) gets a job in BSNL and makes sure that his first posting is in Kashmir. After facing a lot of problems there, he decided to return back to Hyderabad. But he instantly falls in love with Aradhya (Samantha) and follows her everywhere. After a few days, Aaradhya reveals that she is not a Muslim and comes from an orthodox Brahmin family. Though Aradhya loves Viplav, their parents don’t support their marriage. While Viplav’s father is the president of Atheist society, Aradhya’s father is an ardent devotee of god. Despite the differences between their families, Aradhya and Viplav get married and start a family separately. What experiences did they face and how they go forward together form the rest of the story. Analysis: Love stories are eternal and this genre never gets old. Filmmakers make a lot of love stories and its strong connection with the youth is the main reason for it. Though one cannot show freshness in this genre, it is very important for the love stories to be relatable. A lot of directors and writers have showcased love from different angles. The story of a boy and girl loving each other and their parents opposing their love which leads to them living separately but issues coming in between them and finally coming back together is something that has been beaten to death in world cinema. We have seen hundreds of films in the same format and Mani Ratnam’s ‘Sakhi’ can be termed as the classic example of it. Shiva Nirvana who considers himself as Ekalavya Sishya of Mani Ratnam has decided to pay tribute to his favourite director by making ‘Sakhi’ once again with some changes. Though the story is old, he made Vijay Deverakonda and Samantha as the lead pair and extracted good music for Hesham and made it a good entertainer with a lot of fun moments. There are no surprise elements in this movie but ‘Khushi’ doesn’t bore you at all. It has everything that you expect from a romantic entertainer. The key elements for a love story are good visuals, great lead pair and wonderful music. Even though the film is weak in other departments, the movie will pass with flying colors if it has these three ingredients. ‘Khushi’ belongs to this category as the story doesn’t excite you at all. It runs on a routine note without a lot of twists. The plotline of an atheist and an ardent Hindu devotee facing each other is a good conflict point. The fight between the families has been showcased well. Expect this, there is nothing novel in the movie. The boy leaving everything behind and running after the girl at the first sight, the girl not looking at him but eventually falling for him is the basic story of the first half. The scenes are entertaining and pleasant to watch. The duo of Vijay and Vennela Kishore entertained the audience a lot but there is no movement in the story. The movie takes a turn when the conflict point between the parents of the hero and the heroine are showcased. This leads to interval and people get excited about the second half but the routine misunderstandings between husband and wife spoil the mood of the film. Shiva Nirvana tried his best to make them as entertaining as possible. The last half and hour completely runs on an emotional note and it is the biggest plus point of ‘Khushi’. The track between Rohini and Jayaram which happens in Kerala touches your heart and the emotion carries till the end. The emotional turmoil of a husband who is away from his wife, the changes in him and the dialogues during these scenes have all worked out well. Shiva scored major marks during the climax portions which overshadows all his mistakes till then. Had Shiva Nirvana showed some freshness in the first half and made the film a bit pacier, ‘Khushi’ would have been a special film. The minuses limited it into an ‘Okay’ film. Performances: Even though his films fail at times, Vijay Deverakonda doesn’t fail when it comes to his performances. ‘Khushi’ shows us how he can carry the film on his shoulders if the character and story are strong enough. Youth gets connected a lot with Viplav’s character and Vijay’s acting. He entertains you a lot and even performs exceedingly well in emotional sequences too. His work in the climax is applause-worthy. Samantha is no match to Vijay in terms of looks but her acting is decent. The charm of Samantha which we love is missing in this film. She did quite well in key scenes of the movie. Sachin Khedkar and Murali Sharma showcased their experience in the movie. They are one of the plus points of this film. Vennela Kishore and Rahul Ramakrishna took the comedy duty in the first half and second half respectively. Saranya, Pradeep, Lakshmi, Shatru, Rohini, Jayaram and others were perfect in their respective roles. Technicians: Hesham Abdul Wahab’s music is the major strength of this movie. The audio turned out to be a big hit before the film’s release which helped the proceedings a lot. The enthusiasm of the audience is doubled when the songs arrived. Though their placement is a bit odd, they energize the audience whenever the film goes into dull mode. Hesham’s background score is equally good. Murali G did a fantastic job. His camera work is impeccable and visuals are a delight to watch. The production values from Mythri Movie Makers are top-notch. After a disappointing flick like ‘Tuck Jagadish’, Shiva Nirvana is back in his element. Though ‘Khushi’ is not as strong as ‘Majili’ or ‘Ninnu Kori’, he made sure that he didn’t bore the audience. He extracted terrific output from technicians and actors. His taking is quite pleasing and his dialogues worked well too. Verdict: ‘Khushi’ – Chalta…Chalta…

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