Vrusshabha

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.

In simple words, Vrusshabha, has a very good chance to be in the ‘Top Three Worst Films of The Year’, across film industries in India. Vrusshabha, strictly by going with the people associated with it, is a literal PAN India film. It was directed by a Kannada film director with a Malayalam star hero in the lead role along with multiple actors from Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi film industries. And, the producers of the film are three corporate companies based out of Mumbai & Dubai. When you have Mohanlal as a hero and so many notable names in the crew, the bare minimum the audience expects is a bearable movie. But, what we get to see is a mess of a film in the name of ‘past life residue’, AI-generated laughable visuals and terrible and uninterested performances from almost every actor.

As the writing suffers, Vrusshabha also fails to impress in terms of production value. The action sequences appear caricaturish due to poor set design and unimpressive costume choices. Moreover, the visuals and editing leave much to be desired, making the film feel stale and boring.

Haven’t we seen how the success of certain films leads to a flood of similar projects, all created to jump on the bandwagon and milk the cash cow as much as possible until its udder goes dry? Well, Vrusshabha comes across as one such movie. But what’s fascinating is that it feels like an idea that sparked in the minds of its makers after watching SS Rajamouli’s Magadheera (2009), released 16 years ago, but they couldn’t bring it to life until now. While sticking to certain aspects of that same template, writer-director Nanda Kishore has also freely lifted from — oh, my bad, “got inspired by” — far too many pan-Indian films. Sadly, though, team Vrusshabha has even failed at basic copy-pasting.