Krishna Vrinda Vihari Movie Review: Krishna Vrinda Vihari needed better writing and direction for it to work

Review: The tone of the Anish Krishna’s Krishna Vrinda Vihari wavers between comedy, drama and sentiment, with the narrative so jagged, you wonder why a dialogue is making you laugh or a fight is breaking out in the middle of a serious scene. But that’s not the only issue the film suffers from because the familiarities with Ante Sundaraniki are also hard to miss.

Krishna (Naga Shaurya) has come to Hyderabad with big dreams in his eyes. Not of pursuing his dream job and making big money, but of finding a girl he can call his. He finds that girl in his boss Vrinda (Shirley Setia), who’s the complete opposite of him and his family. You see, Krishna hails from a small village in West Godavari and has the kind of family that still follows madi acharam and talks in an odd accent that filmmakers think is how Brahmin people talk. 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 the Sivagami of her village in one scene, because anything she says goes. 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.

The way the love track between Krishna and Vrinda unfolds is so outdated and stilted; it’s really hard to feign interest in the scenes that unfold in the first half of the film. It’s not for lack of trying though because Anish seems to follow familiar beats but also do just enough to ensure the scenes don’t look fully similar to what you’ve seen before. A whole track involving a cleaning staff at their office and a misunderstanding just seems to buy for time. Minus the homophobic and problematic jokes, some scenes involving Shaurya, Satya, Vennela Kishore and Rahul Ramakrishna manage to make you laugh. Even the ‘villain’ of this tale is so silly; you never take him seriously and burst out laughing when his lackeys try to stand up for him. Krishna Vrinda Vihari truly gets into the thick of things only in the second half when Krishna tells a lie to placate his sentimental mother. The scenes that unfold later on will be relatable to many.

Set in a world that is patriarchal, the leads seem to be the only people living in the present. But don’t get your hopes up too high. Krishna gets numerous chances to morally police Vrinda, maybe even bend her to his will, but he doesn’t. Vrinda finds herself in a tough situation and manages to do the unthinkable – stand up for herself and prioritise her sanity. These two characters even have chemistry given the right circumstances; they just needed a well-built world to exist in. And that's about where the good parts of this film end because beyond that, everything else about their characters is plain cliché. He's the typical momma's boy and she's reduced to the woman who just want her husband's attention . There's even a karva chauth scene thrown in for good measure.

Core plot point of Krishna Vrinda Vihari will remind you of Ante Sundaraniki, it’s just that Vivek Athreya managed to pull it off better. Where the film could've 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's a token 'woke' scene thrown at the end but it's too little too late by then.

Naga Shaurya does a good job of playing Krishna. Shirley Setia does a decent job but the writing doesn’t really give her enough scope to perform. Radhika, Satya, Vennela Kishore, Brahmaji and rest of the cast do their jobs well. Swara Sagar Mahati’s music is okay but fits well with the film.

Krishna Vrinda Vihari needed better writing and direction for it to work, because it relies a little too much on the shoddily written light-hearted moments to pull it through.