Gatta Kusthi movie review: Vishnu Vishal’s film is a lighthearted family drama

Vishnu Vishal is making interesting choices both as actor as well as producer. After delivering two back-to-back plot-driven thrillers, he returns with a lighthearted rural entertainer Gatta Kusthi, which is packed with some neat messages about modern-day marriages and the need for women empowerment. The film definitely qualifies as one of the most entertaining family dramas from Tamil cinema in recent years. It takes a very predictable plot of a dominating husband who eventually wins his wife over following a transformation. What makes the film refreshing is the comical treatment and letting Aishwarya Lekshmi steal most of the limelight. Vishnu literally plays second fiddle to Aishwarya for most part of the film. (Also read: Ammu movie review: Aishwarya Lekshmi-starrer is a chilling thriller about a woman’s fight against domestic violence)

Keerthi (Aishwarya) plays a local wrestling champion but her parents are against her ambition as they want to get her married soon. Veera (Vishnu), on the other hand, lives off his ancestral inheritance and wishes to get married to a girl who’d make a good homemaker and doesn’t boss around. Basically, he looks for a wife with low expectations. When he marries her without knowing the actual truth, the events that unfold between them and in their marriage form the crux of the story.

It’s the silliness of the plot that really makes Gatta Kusthi, a largely predictable film, entertaining to watch. This is the kind of film that simply works when you don’t take it seriously, and that’s the only way to enjoy the film’s intent to the fullest. Throughout the first half, the film does come across like a film that strongly encourages rules laid down by patriarchy for women, but it takes an interesting detour by talking about women empowerment in the second half. The film has a very interesting core idea about the modern-day expectations between married couples and how men evade basic responsibilities in a household.

Even though Vishnu Vishal plays the hero, this film actually belongs to Aishwarya Lekshmi, who’s effortless in a role that gives her so much scope to showcase her full acting potential. She also gets a well-choreographed action sequence which is nothing short of one of the best whistle-worthy moments of the film. Karunas gets a solid comic character after a long time and he’s brilliant in some of the key scenes of the movie.

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