Kushi 2023

Viplav is a BSNL employee and the son of Lenin Sathyam. Frustrated with living in the same city since birth, he accepts a transfer to Kashmir to seek some peace and a closer connection with nature. But the moment he lands, he discovers a landscape scarred by conflict along the line of control, with curfews that shutter shops and restaurants. He shares a room with a colleague and must navigate the tense reality as he clings to a dream of a calmer life, yearning for quiet moments that seem just out of reach.

Unable to bear the present conditions, he pushes for a transfer back, this time hoping for Hyderabad. There, he meets Aara Begum and immediately falls for her. She is at the Mamaleshwar Temple with a friend to help ease her grandmother’s knee pain. Following them, her friend spins a false tale that they’re from Pakistan, claiming they’re searching for Aara’s younger brother Feroz who was lost amid the conflicts. Honest and helpful by nature, Viplav helps Aara reach the temple and, along the way, helps uncover Feroz, rescuing the siblings from attackers. The encounter sparks a romance that feels both brave and impossible.

Aaradhya falls for him as well, but she chooses to return to Pakistan without revealing her feelings. Viplav races to the railway station, where he learns her true identity as Chadarangam Aaradhya, a revelation that deepens their bond. The two confess their love and discover that their fathers are bitter rivals who stand in the way of their happiness.

Viplav’s father, Lenin Sathyam, is an atheist, while Aaradhya’s father, Srinivasa Rao, is a spiritual, orthodox Brahmin from Kakinada. Their clash plays out in a televised debate, and the two men even scheme to meet in the Hyderabad Metro. Sathyam is open to the idea of the marriage, but Srinivasa Rao remains skeptical, doubting whether the couple’s horoscopes can truly allow a peaceful life. Yet the couple marry against their parents’ wishes, even as Srinivasa Rao predicts hardship and a lack of children unless both families perform a homam together. The pair move into an apartment, and their life together slowly begins to take shape.

They become good friends with Zoya and her husband Thomas, and a year later, Aaradhya discovers she is pregnant. At the hospital, however, they are heartbroken to learn she has suffered a miscarriage.

The marriage faces new strains — insecurity, jealousy, and behavioral changes test their bond. During Zoya and Thomas’s daughter’s birthday, they learn that the child did not survive as a premature birth. Zoya explains that Thomas has stood by her through difficult times and urges the couple to hold on to each other in their own moments of trial.

After a period of distance, Aaradhya returns to her father’s home in Kakinada. Realizing he cannot live without her, Viplav resolves to pursue the homam Srinivasa Rao recommended and asks his own father to join him. Sathyam, though sympathetic, hesitates because it clashes with his beliefs.

On the day of the homam, Sathyam arrives at the temple and says he is ready to do the ritual with Viplav, having realized how deeply he loves Aaradhya. As the ceremony nears its end, heavy rain briefly halts the proceedings. Sathyam tells Srinivasa Rao that he will not leave the temple until the homam is finished, whatever happens. Srinivasa Rao answers that it is not necessary anymore, acknowledging that in their zeal to prove a point they forgot their humanity. He admits that if it had rained, he would still have stopped; what matters most is their children’s happiness and the love between Viplav and Aaradhya. The two fathers finally put aside their feud and bless the couple.

In the post-credits scene, it’s shown that Viplav and Aaradhya have been blessed with a baby daughter, whom they name “Kushi.”