This is a review of the Malayalam Feature Film, “Love”.
This review has been written and edited by Anoop Prathapan.
This review contains spoilers, so reader discretion is advised.
Malayalam Language Feature Film “Love”
Written and Directed by Khalid Rahman
Produced by Ashiq Usman
Release on Netflix – 19th February 2021
Theatrical Running Time 91 minutes (approx.)
Category – Entertainment/Movie Review
As the air is thick with superlatives about the sequel to “Drishyam”, I happened to watch a supposedly low-profile Malayalam movie released on Netflix on the same day when the Drishyam sequel was released elsewhere. The film is titled “Love” and is directed by Khalid Rahman after the critically acclaimed “anuraga karikkin vellam” and “unda”. Award winning actor Rajisha Vijayan and Shine Tom Chacko plays the lead characters Deepthi and Anoop. The story is about them as a couple who had all the love between them when they started off, but presently has anything but love.
The narration of this 91 minute thriller is so complex that the writer in Khalid does not let you settle down so easily with it. It is a kind of movie that churns out more layers of meaning in each new viewing - something similar to the experience offered by "oru njayarazhcha" by Shyamaprasad (though not a thriller).
Complete story and its analysis in the next two paragraphs
Reader discretion is advised.
Deepthi finds out that she is pregnant and comes home mid-day to her husband who sits boozing and playing video games at home. She gets into an altercation with Anoop (the audio of which is muted for us) and finally Deepthi gets killed. In utter despair, as Anoop tries to cover up the murder, arrives his friend who blabbers a lot about his marital problems, including that of his wife being hooked up to his partner, Shelby (voice only, voiced by Sunny Wayne). As Anoop struggles to curb this friend, comes another friend with his girlfriend. We get to know from their conversations that this friend and the girl Haritha, who came with him are both married to other people. Anoop, who is otherwise struggling to find a means to impunity gets frustrated not knowing how to shun these two motley friends (both, unnamed in the film). Eventually he ends up discussing the murder that he just committed. As the friends and Anoop start having an argument on how to cover up the murder, the doorbell rings and we see Deepthi walking in. We do not further see the two friends in that apartment who were there until a moment before. Confused to the core at this point, we continue watching to see Deepthi and Anoop having an argument about an extra marital affair that Anoop has, with a married lady named Haritha. The shout-out leads to violence and in a few moments we see on screen, Anoop hitting Deepthi hard, with an iron. The final sequence of the movie that follows next shows Deepthi surrendering to the Police for having murdered her husband.
The first viewing leaves you totally confused on what the whole plot meant, who the two friends are and who killed whom at the end. But the dark-thriller exposes more layers on a more comprehensive and careful viewing the second or third time. As much as I could comprehend, the two friends were reflections of Anoop’s own self – one who was the inimical one, who was struggling from within to find an unlawful affair in Deepthi with his colleague Shelby, just to fair-skin himself from the darkness of his own fling. The other was another reflection of his own self, a guilty one, an oppressed one, going through the extramarital affair with Haritha, the one which he is scared that Deepthi might dig out at anytime. The former was his violent side and the latter was his conflicted side. Rarely do we see such stuff in an Indian movie where we get to detail the conscience of the central character through someone else’s views. Those two characters were projections of Anoop’s emotional battle. Anoop motivating his friends to patch up their broken marriages is actually his own self attempting to do it with Deepthi. The speculations with his first friend (played convincingly by Gokulan) is his self, exhorting him to kill his wife when she accosts him with his extra marital affair. The first killing is definitely Anoop’s violent soul trying to finish off Deepthi when confronted with the truth and the second might be the thought of his conflicted side as he lies dead in Deepthi’s car.
All these might sound too complex even to the reader reading this review. But trust me, the movie is way too more complex than this humble interpretation that I made.
The entire movie except for its last scene was shot in an apartment during Covid times.
Shine Tom Chacko, Sudeep, Gokulan, Johny Antony and Veena Nandakumar (as Haritha) plays their part intelligently, as is expected by the script. But the one woman that steals the show is Rajisha Vijayan who played Deepthi to perfection. I have not seen a flexible Malayali actor as her, with as much natural acting and dialogue delivery as the versatile Urvashi. She performs in such a way that the viewer gets transported to every scene where she is in. Her first movie fetched her the Kerala State Award for the best female actor in 2016. She has demonstrated in this one, directed by her mentor, that that was not a fluke.
Technical aspects are top notch, for we get glued to the screen for those 91 odd minutes, without a moment of lag or boredom. Music by Yashkin Gary Pereira and Neha Nair are good and aptly compliments the mystery mood of the film.
In my point of view, this is the movie that Malayalis missed the theatre experience of, much much more than the Drishyam sequel. This movie was released in theatres but had a bad theatrical run, apparently due to Covid, In that regard, I feel this movie should have gone the Drishyam way, as a straight release on Netflix with ample over-the-top promotions.
Before I wrap up, let me extol the OTT platform as well – Netflix has a far more quality of video and audio reproduction than any other OTT platform online right now. We have experienced that in umpteen series' and shows, both international and Indian – so is the video and audio quality of this Malayalam movie on Netflix. However Malayalam movie makers seem to be less fond of Netflix, presumably because of its high monthly subscription rates.
Altogether a great movie. Watch it for the craft of Khalid Rahman and for the performance of a near perfect actor Rajisha Vijayan.
My rating 8.75/10
Anoop Prathapan
