Review : Matti Kusthi – Partly Engaging

Vishnu Vishal, who is a noted face among the Telugu audience, has now come up with an entertainer titled Matti Kusthi. Mass Maharaja Ravi Teja co-produced the film with the actor. Aishwarya Lekshmi is the heroine. The film hit the screens today, and let’s see how it is.

Story:

Veera (Vishnu Vishal), a wealthy and carefree person in his village, thinks of marrying a submissive and uneducated girl. On the other hand, Keerthi (Aishwarya Lekshmi) is a professional wrestler and a graduate. Keerthi’s parents convince her to get married to Veera, which leaves her wrestling dreams unfulfilled. Post-married life Veera shows his authority towards Keerthi, and in a vital scenario, he learns the facts about Keerthi. What did Veera do then? How did his life change after that? This forms part of the story.

Plus Points:

Aishwarya Lekshmi is the heart and soul of the film, and she performed Keerthi’s role with aplomb. Her role has more prominence in the film’s plot, and the actress excelled in it. Aishwarya was very graceful in the action sequences, and she was equally good at emotional scenes. This surely is her finest performance.

Vishnu Vishal, as Veera, a narrow-minded person, gave a natural performance. The actor has a good screen presence, and his comedy portions with his friends’ gang evoked decent laughs. All his scenes with Aishwarya came out well, and the chemistry between the lead pair is neat. His acting is quite good in the scene where he realizes his biggest mistake.

The first half of the film is engaging and fast-paced, with a nice amount of entertainment. Chal Chakkani song, which comes in the first hour, is good and is nicely shot. The climax fight sequence is well-composed and gives a nice finishing touch to the film.

Minus Points:

From the minute the second half starts, things go off track, and the film squanders around without any proper flow. The story is routine, and the treatment is no different. As the point taken is extensively used in many recent films, the execution should have been different. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen, and a few scenes seem completely identical to other films.

A few good topics, like equality between men and women and female empowerment, are discussed, but the manner in which they are presented doesn’t look convincing. The depth was missing, and instead of focussing on these aspects, the film goes haywire with a training episode of Vishnu Vishal adding to the length.

We would know what’s going to happen towards the end from a long way, and the sports element doesn’t have much prominence. Shatru and Ajay’s characters lack significance and are just commercial villains positioned to fill the screen time. Also, a few logics go for a toss.

Technical Aspects:

The background score by Justin Prabhakaran is good, and he elevates a few scenes with his nice composition. The cinematography by Richard M Nathan is neat. The editing is below-par, as a few scenes in the second hour could have been chopped off. The production values are great.

Coming to director Chella Ayyavu, he has done a passable job with the film. The first half was nicely handled with delightful humor. But the narration in the second half derails the social issues taken, and hence the completeness is missing. A solid screenplay with more focus on these topics would have placed the movie a level higher.

Verdict:

On the whole, Matti Kusthi is a film that has a few enjoyable moments. The lead pair’s performance and the entertainment at places are good, but the below-par second hour and not having enough emphasis on important issues bring down the overall impact. Thus it ends up as a passable watch this weekend.

123telugu.com Rating: 2.75/5

Reviewed by 123telugu Team

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