Love review: "Interesting thought but doubtful whether many will warm up to it!!!

Even as the COVID crisis forced the theatres to remain shut in Kerala for the major part of 2020,  Khalid Rahman's "Love" was released in UAE last October. However, with the restrictions in place; it didn't create a buzz at the box office. It eventually released in our movie halls & on Netflix a couple of weeks back. Apparently, it was a movie that seemed to garner mixed responses with the critics mostly praising the effort while many of the people that I interacted with wasn't necessarily impressed by what they saw. Hmm...so what was my take on it???

The marriage of Deepti (Rajisha Vijayan) & Anoop (Shine Tom) was on the rocks as they lost the love from their lives which had bound them together in the first place. The only semblance of their once happy relationship was the numerous photos that adorned their apartment. Their relation had become so toxic that the news that she was pregnant barely brought a smile on their faces. As always they got into a fight but it was a day that panned out in a manner that neither the protagonists nor the audience expected.

Among the new wave of directors, Khalid Rahman is one of my personal favourites as his movies are both endearing and has a distinct style of its own be it "Anuraga Karikkin Vellam" or "Unda". In his latest venture, he has come up with an interesting script but the execution didn't feel as crisp and that is likely to create a sense of lagging. The dark humour that is sprinkled liberally works at times & while the location is restricted to within the apartment, it was effective in conveying the claustrophobic feel of the characters. As in other Khalid flicks, the technical aspects were impressive such as Jimshi Khalid's visuals & Noufal Abdullah's editing. 

There are only a handful of characters in the movie & all of them have done their parts aptly. The pick among them was undoubtedly Gokulan, who rocks with his fickle minded state and unpredictable nature. Another person who was equally awesome was Johny Antony, who has a limited screen space but makes us sit up & take notice. As for the rest, Rajisha & Sudhi Koppa were fine while Shine Tom could have been better.

Verdict: Despite a run time of just 91 minutes, it didnt feel like a breeze & could turn out to be a dampener atleast for a few. I really liked the core subject & felt like it had scope for a much more impactful conclusion. In short, give it a try though it might feel a tad slow!!!

Rating; 2.5/5

Regards...Ben