Anish Krishna’s film, Krishna Vrinda Vihari, is a mediocre rom-com that tries to be different but fails by staying…basic. The film’s tone shifts constantly between comedy, drama, and sentiment, with the narrative so jagged that you can’t tell if a dialogue is supposed to make you laugh or a fight is breaking out in the middle of a serious scene. But this isn’t the only problem the film suffers from because there are also many similarities with Ante Sundaraniki.
Krishna (Naga Shaurya) has come to Hyderabad with the ambition of finding a wife. He meets his boss Vrinda (Shirley Setia), who is completely different from him and his family. Krishna’s family is from a small village in West Godavari and has old-fashioned traditions that filmmakers assume all Brahmin people adhere to. Instead of coming across as relatable, his family manages to come across as plain annoying. The big matriarch of his family is Amritavalli (Radhika), who’s called Sivagami because anything she says goes in one scene. As for Vrinda’s Punjabi family, we don’t spend too much time on them apart from when Amritavalli decides to judge them for drinking on a happy occasion; however, this detour shouldn’t take away from the storyline.
Krishna Vrinda Vihari – Movie Review
The love story between Krishna and Vrinda is so old-fashioned and awkward; it’s really hard to care about the scenes in the first half of the film. Even though Anish tries hard to make them innovative, they end up looking too similar to other movies. There’s even a whole plot line involving a cleaning staff at their office that just seems like a time filler. Some scenes in the movie, minus the offensive jokes about homosexuality, manage to be amusing. Even the supposed villain of Shaurya’s tale is so foolish that you can’t help but laugh when his helpers try to stick up for him. Krishna Vrinda Vihari only gets truly involved later on in the film when Krishna tells a lie to spare his mother’s feelings. What follows will be familiar to many viewers, even though it doesn’t make for great cinema.
Set in a world that is male-dominated, the leads are among the few people living presently. However, don’t get too excited. Krishna has several opportunities to control Vrinda and maybe even make her do his bidding, but he doesn’t capitalize on them. Vrinda finds herself stuck in tough circumstances and manages to do what many would consider impossible she stands up for herself and puts her mental health first. In the right circumstances, even these two characters have sparks of chemistry. They just needed a well-built world to exist in. Unfortunately, that’s where the good parts of this film end. Everything else about their character is painfully clichéd. The man is reduced to a Mommy’s boy and the woman becomes nothing more than someone craving her husband’s attention with an added karva Chauth scene thrown into the mix for good measure.
It’s worth mentioning that the core plot point of Krishna Vrinda Vihari will remind you of Ante Sundaraniki, however, Vivek Athreya managed to execute it better. Where the film could have been a commentary on how patriarchy, foolish sentiments, and even lies manage to ruin lives, Anish never delves deep enough for us to care. There is one ‘woke’ scene thrown at the end but by then it’s too little too late.
Although Naga Shaurya does a good job of playing Krishna, it’s really nothing he hasn’t done before. Shirley Setia does a decent job but the writing doesn’t really give her enough scope to perform. Radhika, Satya, Vennela Kishore, Brahmaji and the rest of the cast do their jobs well; however, there is still nothing new to see here. Swara Sagar Mahati’s music is okay but fits well with the film.
Had the movie accurately depicted the familial differences between the couple and Radhika’s character, it would have been excellent. Unfortunately, we only get a few juvenile jokes and unbelievable situations.
Action scenes are unnecessary and distracting in a film like this. If you can’t resist the temptation to make your hero tear off his shirt (to show how ripped he is), then go ahead and have a fight scene. But there is an impossibly asinine situation when you can’t have a fighting scene, which Krishna Vrinda Vihari misses altogether.
Trailer
Director
Aneesh Krishna
Writer
Aneesh Krishna
Stars
Imam Hossain Saju, Satya Akkala, Brahmaji, Vennela Kishore
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Movie Rating: 4.1/5
