Vrusshabha movie review:
Nanda Kishore’s Vrusshabha is not an outright disaster, but it is an utterly unimaginative film that never quite justifies its own existence beyond its scale. Large portions of it seem content with simply functioning, going through the motions without urgency or conviction, and that complacency becomes its biggest weakness. Even an actor like Mohanlal can only take it so far.
The film opens with a prologue set in the ancient kingdom of Devanagiri. The Vrusshabha clan is introduced as the sworn protectors of a mystical Shiva linga, said to be the source of the land’s prosperity. The narration is heavy with proclamations about divine duty and sacred legacy, but the world it describes never truly comes alive. A war sequence follows, with Raja Vijayendra Vrusshabha mowing down enemies with ease. The turning point arrives when one of his arrows accidentally kills an innocent child, leading the grieving mother to curse him with the loss of his own son. This should have been a moment that shook the film to its core. Instead, it plays out like a box being ticked, rushed and emotionally hollow.
The story then shifts to the present day, where the same soul exists as Aadi Deva Varma, a powerful businessman surrounded by rivals and constant threats. His son is written less as a character and more as an extension of that power, functioning as both heir and enforcer. A clumsily written romantic conflict sends the son to their ancestral village of Devanagiri, a track that resolves itself just as conveniently when the female lead forgives him with little resistance and accompanies him there. By then, Aadi has already been experiencing unexplained visions for a long time, even without returning to the village. Once they reach Devanagiri, it is the son who begins to see flashes from the past, while Aadi slowly starts piecing together his former life as the king.
Director: Nanda Kishore
Cast: Mohanlal, Samarjit Lankesh, Ragini Dwivedi, Nayan Sarika
This is where the film should have found its emotional anchor. Instead, it keeps circling the same ideas without digging any deeper. Reincarnation and karmic cycles are invoked repeatedly, but never explored with any real insight. The supposed emotional tension between father and son remains empty, leaving their relationship hollow.
Mohanlal does what he can, and it helps that his dialogue is delivered in Malayalam in the dubbed version, unlike the rest of the cast whose Telugu voices have been retained. Even so, the writing lets him down. The dialogue is tacky, overly literal and awkwardly phrased, constantly undermining the seriousness the film seems to be aiming for. It may not be as painfully amateurish as Barroz, but that comparison offers little comfort. The supporting cast makes little impact. Samarjit Lankesh, as the son, leaves barely a trace, while his romantic track with Nayan Sarika feels like filler stretched across an already thin narrative. Ragini Dwivedi, cast as Mohanlal’s romantic counterpart, is similarly short-changed, given no real space to register.
On the whole, Vrusshabha feels like a potent idea drained of life by lazy writing and lifeless execution. It is not aggressively bad, but its flatness and emotional emptiness make it a largely soulless experience. After last year’s Barroz, Mohanlal’s forgettable directorial debut, Vrusshabha at least avoids sinking to those depths. Still, it is hardly reassuring that yet another Mohanlal film released for Christmas vacation arrives with so little to celebrate.