Vrusshabha movie review: Mohanlal’s biggest mess in recent years, fails to work even as a spoof

The movie begins centuries ago in the kingdom of Trilinga, ruled by Vijayendra Vrusshabha (Mohanlal). A rare Shiva linga is believed to be the source of the kingdom’s prosperity, and Vrusshabha, along with his clan, is dedicated to protecting it and serving the people. However, during a battle, Vrusshabha makes a grave mistake, which results in a curse that he will suffer the woes inflicted by his own son. Shaken but resolved, the king carries on with his duties. He and Queen Trilochan Devi (Ragini Dwivedi) are eventually blessed with a baby boy. However, in an unfortunate incident, they end up losing him, scarring Vrusshabha forever.

Don’t Miss | Sarvam Maya movie review: Nivin Pauly’s horror comedy is more a miss than hit

Cut to: Mumbai, 2025. Aadideva Varma (Mohanlal) is one of the city’s top business moguls, and his son, Tej (Samarjit Lankesh), is his trusted right-hand man. They also share an extremely friendly bond. Despite their success, Aadi begins experiencing chilling nightmares. Concerned, Tej sets out to uncover the truth. In an attempt, he travels to Aadi’s native village of Devanagari with his girlfriend Dhamini (Nayan Sarika). There, he uncovers shocking revelations that connect them to a past life, revealing that both Aadi and Tej are reincarnations of Vrusshabha and his son, Hayagreeva. Worse still, then, Hayagreeva had vowed to kill his father if they met again.

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.

Watch Vrusshabha trailer here:

Have you watched Magadheera? How about Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017)? Kantara (2022) and Kantara: Chapter 1 (2025) as well? If not, go watch them. And if you don’t have enough time to watch all of them and want to watch a single movie that captures their essence and narrative… I still suggest you make the time to do so one by one, because watching Vrusshabha instead may only contribute to you hating cinema. Or even skip everything altogether; that’s a wise choice. Thus, everybody wins!

Vrusshabha is basically the amalgamation of the various ingredients found in the pan-India formula, but cooked in the most unimpressive manner. Here too, there are empires, righteous kings, a Shiva idol, reincarnation, an idiotic love angle, Appa paasam, Amma paasam, a random villain and his gang who have little connection to the main plot — and, as is common these days, KGF’s Garuda Ram appears in this role — sword fights, lectures on right-wrong, and, to top it all, far too many references to Hindu mythology and beliefs. While directors Rajamouli and Rishab Shetty created widely impressive works with these elements, Nanda Kishore’s film ultimately appears as an amateurish attempt at emulating that success, but without realising that ingredients alone don’t make good movies.

Had Vrusshabha been planned as a pan-India spoof, it might have worked far better. (Credit: Facebook/@ActorMohanlal)

Had Vrusshabha been planned as a pan-India spoof, it might have worked far better. I could actually see myself laughing and thinking how cool it would have been if actor Shiva had played the lead role here, made as a new instalment of the Tamizh Padam franchise. However, the unfortunate reality is that one can’t even watch Vrusshabha as a parody, as you can evidently see the seriousness in the moments, which turned out comical only because the makers had zero clue what they were doing.

The biggest failure of Vrusshabha is its extremely poor writing, which never rises to even a decent level. From obsolete moments and pointless conflicts to disastrous character arcs and cringeworthy dialogues, the movie’s script is a masterclass in what not to do. For instance, although Aadi and Tej keep saying that they are each other’s most favourite person, we never get to understand the depth of their bond beyond superficial dialogues. Then Dhamini appears at one point, and a few scenes later, Tej is in love with her because her affection reminds him of his deceased mother. But how? Vrusshabha is like, “Trust me, bro…”

Also Read | Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri movie review: Kartik Aaryan, Ananya Panday as lovers who can’t be apart? Nah!

Then we see Tej acting ultra-creepy, attempting to secretly kiss Dhamini while she sleeps — before confessing his love — only to suddenly play the “true love” card when she wakes up and calls him out. However, a few scenes later, she also falls for him after he gaslights her with just two very poorly written lines. How did she fall in love? Vrusshabha is again like, “Trust me, bro…” By the way, Aadi and Tej aren’t the only reincarnations in town. There’s Aadi’s ex-girlfriend Leela Devi (Ragini), who was Queen Trilochan in a past life, as well. However, even this angle merely exists and is never explored further.

There’s the quintessential “widely renowned psychiatrist” character who believes in pseudoscience here as well. This is always hilarious to see because, although filmmakers keep making such movies blending myths and fantasy — here, even an AI-generated Shiva makes an appearance in the end — they still need a scholar character to say that such things could be true with their outdated dialogue: “There are things that even science hasn’t figured out yet.” Overall, Vrusshabha’s writing is as bad as it can get.

But fret not — the making is far worse. Vrusshabha is marred by extremely poor production design and visual effects. To understand how bad it is, listen to this: Although Aadi keeps claiming that Tej is his world and the movie makes it clear that he loved his wife too, on his nightstand, there’s only a framed photo of a young Aadi (Mohanlal). Not of his son or a family photo, but himself. The minds that approved this detail deserve a special award.

Also, if you are making a bilingual movie, either shoot the entire film in the second language as well or don’t do it at all and dub the whole thing instead. There are quite a few moments in Vrusshabha where one can see the characters moving their lips to the Malayalam lines, but in many scenes, they follow the Telugu script. This only underscores the makers’ laziness. Although Kanguva (2024) was a colossal disaster, it at least had some technical prowess. But that too is missing in Vrusshabha.

Alongside all these issues, the performances also deserve special mention for their deplorable quality. Samarjit Lankesh has delivered one of the worst performances I have seen in recent times, and not just in movies. While most actors are equally bad, Nayan Sarika is the only person who offers a tiny bit of respite amidst all this. To Mohanlal, I just have one question: WHY?

Watching Vrusshabha renewed my respect for director RT Neason’s Jilla (2014). Although Jilla was strictly average, I don’t think any other non-Malayalam movie has captured the essence of Mohanlal as a star and actor the way Jilla did. It is that same Sivan-Shakthi magic that Nanda Kishore has tried to recreate here at places, but failed spectacularly. The unnecessary slip-in of ‘Mohanlal in mundu’ shots here and there to pander to Malayali audiences underscores how hollow Vrusshabha is.

Vrusshabha movie cast: Mohanlal, Samarjit Lankesh, Nayan Sarika, Ragini Dwivedi, Ajay
Vrusshabha movie director: Nanda Kishore
Vrusshabha movie rating: 1 star