Kousalya Supraja Rama

Shashank's new directorial narrates the story of Rama (Darling Krishna) who is brought up to be a toxic male, following his father Siddegowda's (Rangayana Raghu) footprints while his innocent mom Kousalya (Sudha Belawadi) compromises her entire life for their sake. His love story with Shivani (Brinda Acharya) ends on an obvious note owing to his behavior and he ends up marrying Muthulakshmi (Milana Nagaraj), a raging alcoholic. How Rama learns his mistakes and saves his marriage forms rest of the story.

Amidst all the newcomers, Shashank has come up with a solid film to prove the old timers still have the right charm to deliver good films. The screenplay is the winner here as the key emotion involved delivers big time. The first half has a decent pace establishing Rama's character and his predicament due to toxic masculinity. There is enough humor too mainly provided by Santhu played by Nagabhushan. Pre-interval portions are heavy on sentiment as the pace drops to ensure the right impact.

It is the second half with the introduction of Milana Nagaraj's character that brings in non-stop entertainment with Nagabhushan too contributing through his counters. The humor is elevated here with few hilariously delivered lines. Here too, the emotional angle works well and the third act is handled very sensibly, hitting it hard. Barring the one Sonu Nigam song and probably the title track in the end, remaining songs fail to leave any impact and the film definitely deserved better songs.

With good performances and a terrific screenplay, Shashank has hit it out of the park making Kousalya Supraja Rama as one of the best films to release this year and a must watch. Highly recommended.