Jai Lava Kusa Telugu Movie Review

A tale of 3 brothers – not separated at birth but when young. So you have triplets aiming at giving the audience three times the confusion of a general double-role movie (a la Ramudu Bheemudu from the distant past and Hello Brother of not so distant present. KS Ravindra tries something new with a triple role rather than the tested success formula of a double role.
The movie starts with the uncle of the three brothers Dibbala Rao (Posani) ridiculing a younger Jai for his stammer. The family earns a living by conducting the famous Lava Kusa play and while Lava and Kusa get all the accolades Jai feels neglected and is ill-treated everywhere. During a rendition of a play Jai has had enough causing a fire and an explosion.
Kusa (NTR) is a thief with dreams of settling in the USA. Asked what he would do there, “ikkada enta dochina rupayalu. Akkadaite dollars”, he says. His dreams crash in the midst of a fight when PM Narendra Modi announces ‘demonetisation’. Frustrated and driving in anger, he crashes into a car driven by his look alike twin Lava (NTR – again!!).
Lava is a naïve trusting bank manager in search of a traditional life partner. Helping him in the task is Priya (Raashi Khanna). She finds one and during the engagement, Lava proposes to Priya. Rejected and depressed at the rejection he is on the road heading to the car crash.
Kusa now traps liquor baron (Pradeep Rawant) and makes him believe that the new 2,000/- currency notes would be banned within a day and takes Rs 5 crores from him and flees. Time for the law to step in with the tale of mistaken identity. So, the police come knocking on Lava’s doorstep with Priya’s father alleging that Lava has kidnapped his daughter. Lava gets call from his colleague Rajini (Hamsa Nandini) that the CBI have footage of Lava changing the amount in the bank locker. He is arrested by the CI (Sai Kumar) who later reveals that he is not a CI but Kaka, the right-hand man of Ravana Maharaj aka Jai (the third and final NTR). Kaka informs Lava and Kusa that it was their elder brother who has kidnapped their respective loves (Lava’s Priya and Kusa’s money) and takes them to meet Jai.
Jai (after the blast that separates the brothers) ends up in Bhairampur and saves Kaka as a child. He grows up becoming a Don of sorts, joins hands with the MP of the area Sarkar (Ronit Roy). A leader of the opposition party (played by Nasser) approaches Ravan. Ravan also finds his romantic interest in Simran (Nivedita Thomas).
Jobs assigned: Lava to convince the people to vote for Ravan, Kusa to make Simran fall in love with Ravan without anyone knowing. Will Ravan succeed in his mission of recognition or will Lava and Kusa turn Ravan into their loving elder brother is what remains to be seen.
NTR as Ravan (antagonist and not the protagonist as Lava or Kusa that he has played in his earlier movie) carries the movie on his shoulders. Raashi Khanna and Nivedita Thomas are added to the cast to give colour and not meaty roles. Sai Kumar is always reliable and plays the role of the right-hand man well. If you are a NTR fan, love lots of fights with bodies flying around and nothing much to do this festive season, this is worth an outing. This time NTR did something more than just cater to the perceived expectations of his fans.

L. Ravichander.