Matti Kusthi, a Telugu dubbed film featuring Vishnu Vishal and Aishwarya Lekshmi in the lead roles hit the theaters today. Here's our review of the film. 

Story: 

Veera (Vishnu) is a heavy-headed lad from a rural household. His parents get him married to Keerthy(Aishwarya) who had unfulfilled dreams of becoming a professional boxer. How does the couple cope with their contrasting mindsets? 

How did the actors perform?

Vishnu Vishal is good in the role of a rural lad. It isn't a challenging character or anything but needs some finesse, which Vishnu manages to exhibit. Aishwarya is good in her role as well. She fits the bill as an aspiring boxer well. Her tomboy-esque looks and appearance gel with the theme of the character. There isn't much to talk about the support cast as there isn't too much scope on this front. 

What about the technical finesse?

The director Chella Ayyavu pens an interesting story with a decent premise in a rural backdrop. There's some freshness when it comes to the core plot. The narration, though is passive at times. The film takes its own sweet time to get into the groove. 

Justin Prabhakaran's soundtrack is on point. It doesn't bring out the nuanced technician in him and instead taps into the commercial side and he has managed the same well. A couple of songs are catchy and the background score is adequate. The cinematography is of adequate quality. The production values are very good. 

Analysis:

A key topic like women empowerment and equal emphasis for men and women is explored in the film and the director manages to extract the same to a decent extent. The sports drama theme packs a punch. 

Things go awry in the second half with Vishnu Vishal training episodes taking the enter stage and this seriously tarnishes the tempo of the narrative. More tightly packed screenplay in the second half could've worked really well for the film. 

The opening half is dedicated entirely for entertainment while the latter half has more of a serious take on the social aspect of women empowerment. The presentation needed more depth to make for a more compelling watch.

Verdict: 

Matti Kusthi is an okayish entertainer at best. It offers decent entertainment in the opening half and touches a key point in current social fabric - women empowerment. But the narration is patchy at times. Better narration could've worked really well for the film. 

Rating: 2.25/5