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Love movie review: Malayalam thriller on Netflix is a twisted visual take on domestic violence

Khalid Rahman’s brisk, 91-minute, genre-bending film, now on Netflix is a cerebral Malayalam thriller that will keep you curious about what’s going to happen next.

The air is still thick with the suspense of Jeetu Joseph’s follow up to Drishyam , so if you’ve not caught it yet, you’re probably missing out. But if you have watched it, and you’re craving something else along those lines - a cerebral Malayalam thriller that will keep you curious about what’s going to happen next - Khalid Rahman’s brisk, 91-minute, genre-bending film, now on Netflix, might just be a good way to go.

The film is, ironically, about the breakdown of a marriage that began with love. And with this simple premise, come two seemingly mundane central characters, in a familiar situation, mouthing innocuous, almost basic dialogue. Deepthi (Rajisha Vijayan) comes home in the middle of the day to her husband Anoop (Shine Tom Chacko); he’s day-drinking, down a peg or two, playing video games on the telly, and the kitchen sink has unwashed plates that have begun to shelter other life forms. Obviously, there is an argument between them.

Yet, the film doesn’t waste too much time in shifting gears, the plot starting to turn one after another. The visual craft in the film begins to play its part, as Love transforms into a psychological game of ‘what!’ and ‘what next?’ Despite being set within one house for almost the entirety of its runtime, Khalid Rahman uses carefully composed extreme close shots, slow motion set pieces, sharp production design and dark humour to make a point or two about toxic relationships. 

The film’s treatment doesn’t just offer visual relief in its confined setting but is integral for the plot to play out the way it does. Why are we shown a close-up reflection of one man in the eyes of another? Why is one character replaced by another with that sharp cut? Why does that bedroom door have a large smiley on it? These are questions of craft that speak directly to what exactly is happening with the characters. 

Make no mistake, Love is a violent film, the kind that perhaps needs trigger warnings at the outset; and it isn’t merely the few scenes showing graphic domestic violence that I’m talking about. The film is relentless in showing you the cruel ways in which relationships can pan out, relentless with its casual dialogue that plainly reveals dark human impulses (through humour that is grotesque only in retrospect), and relentless in throwing one twist after another, right until the very final scene.

You can always sense there’s something lurking there beneath the surface, much like what the film is really about – the darkest corners of the incredible human mind.While it primarily revolves around Anoop and Deepthi, a motley bunch of characters keep cropping up, saying and doing bizarre things that may not always make sense, but as the plot unfolds, all of those weird moments that confused you earlier begin to reveal their relevance. In fact, while it’s a film that will obviously make the most impact after the first viewing, a second viewing is likely to reveal a lot more about the telltale signs leading to the big pre-climactic twist.

There is, perhaps, a larger conversation to be had about the very idea of making a thoroughly entertaining movie on a sensitive, graphic issue. But it’s not one you can have or even think about while Love is playing out. Every character who comes in brings a new set of ‘thrills’ to the thriller, and to be sure, every one of the actors in the film has done a commendable job – with special props to Gokulan, who plays one of Anoop’s friends.  Advertisement

His character is the primary humour element in the film. No one else appears to be kidding around. The film is infused with humour only when he enters, and loses its humour the moment he’s out. Still, it leaves you with the feeling that it was among other things, a darkly funny film. That’s the kind of impact Gokulan has in its proceedings. Add to that a minor detail that his character is, perhaps, the deepest of the various shades of grey in the film. Without this friend and the way he has been portrayed, the film could have been dull, despite the twists.

But yes, the raison d’être of the film is those twists. Even the most seasoned connoisseur of thrillers may struggle to predict where the plot is headed. Eventually, though, there is a sense of satisfaction you may feel at the end of the film, because everyone who deserves their comeuppance gets it. Love is, after all, a zero-sum game. 

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‘Love’ Malayalam movie review: Everything that comes after (the emotion)

Rajisha vijayan and shine tom chacko star in this film about the inner workings of a couple whose marriage is on the rocks.

Updated - February 20, 2021 08:26 pm IST

Published - February 20, 2021 05:35 pm IST

Rajisha Vijayan and Shine Tom Chacko in ‘Love’

After painting a warm, fuzzy, slice of life picture of ‘love’ in his debut film Anuraga Karikkin Vellam , Director Khalid Rahman delves into its murkier side with his third outing – Love . Rajisha Vijayan, who won a State Award for her performance in that film, plays one half of a pair whose marriage is on the rocks. Shine Tom Chacko, reuniting with Rahman after Unda , forms the other half.

Together, they play Anoop and Deepthi, a couple who once were in love; today, there is room for anything but that emotion. Deepthi realises she is pregnant and tries to get in touch with Anoop. He receives a message on his phone about a pregnancy, but that of another woman. They are at a stage where love, a feeling where respect is grossly overlooked for affection, has been drained from their lives.

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Shot during the lockdown, the narrative of Love is confined to the four walls of an apartment, resembling a domestic drama. Though domestic dramas — like Revolutionary Road or the recent Portrait of a Lady on Fire — normally trace the lives of its protagonists over a period of time, Love does not concern itself with the long haul.

• Director: Khalid Rahman
• Cast: Shine Tom Chacko, Rajisha Vijayan, Sudhi Koppa, Gokulan, Johny Antony, Veena Nandakumar
• Storyline: The inner workings of a couple whose marriage is on the rocks

If not for a brief montage (lasting barely a minute) about the couple fighting madly and making up with equal passion later on, Anoop and Deepthi’s backstory is relegated to photographs that adorn the walls of their apartment.

This is because the narrative is guised in the cloak of a thriller. Structured as an incident and its aftermath that unfurl inside an apartment, the proceedings are cleverly designed so as to mask the shortcomings posed by the pandemic.

And unlike C U Soon (another film shot during pandemic restrictions), which unravels through mobile phones and laptop screens, Love doesn’t feel contrived, aesthetically or technically. Khalid Rahman succeeds partially in his attempt to lend an air of authenticity.

Only partially because, for a movie shot with so many challenges in place, an area where it surprisingly falls short is its writing, This is despite the dark humour that adorns the narrative occasionally and a plot technique reminiscent of Inside Out.

But these aspects ultimately serve as embellishments to a story that nosedives towards the fag end. Hurting the movie’s cause is the final act that comes across as a stroke of convenience, making the entire plot look like an extrapolated short film.

Even Shine Tom Chacko, who shoulders the film along with the supporting cast of Sudheesh Koppa and Gokulan, fail to sustain the momentum. Love has a brisk runtime of 91 minutes. For once, maybe a few more minutes would have gone a long way towards adding plausibility and helping a film realise its potential.

Love is currently streaming on Netflix

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Malayalam cinema / reviews

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• Binge Reviews

'Love' Malayalam Movie Review: This Netflix Film Starring Rajisha Vijayan, Shine Tom Chacko Is About Anything But Love; Too Clever For Its Own Good

Check out the review of netflix's malayalam film love starring rajisha vijayan, and shine tom chacko.

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Review Of Khalid Rahman’s Love on Netflix: Shine Tom Chacko And Rajisha Vijayan Subvert The ‘Form’ Of The Domestic-Abuse Drama

Director: Khalid Rahman

Cast: Shine Tom Chacko, Rajisha Vijayan

It starts innocently enough. A woman gets an ultrasound. A man (who's at home) gets an "I am pregnant" message. But like everything else in this film, Things. Are. Not. What. They. Seem. Spare a moment to look at this home. It has smiley-happy pictures of the couple all over the walls. So why does she have a bruise on her cheek? What is his thing with violent video games? Just talking about the title, Khalid Rahman's Love is like Anuraj Manohar's Ishq . It's a decoy. You listen to a word like "love" or " ishq ", and it makes you think the movie is about smiley-happy scenarios. By the end, we realise that these words are used ironically, as though to suggest that dictionary definitions are not what relationships are like in real life. There's a reason Facebook has a status that says "It's complicated."

Khalid Rahman seems to like these deceptive titles. His last film, the terrific Unda , came with a macho name: the word means "bullet". It practically needs a bucket under it to catch all the dripping testosterone. But the film, for the most part, subverted the action-adventure machismo we know from the movies. Love , similarly, subverts the romance inherent in the word. It's about the murderous feeling when you come home to unwashed dishes that the husband has left for you to clean up. It's about another murderous feeling that is actually voiced in words: Is there a husband who hasn't felt like killing his wife at some point? It's about smashing a dinner plate because, at that point, it's easier to vent your rage on chinaware than enter into the 693rd confrontation with your husband.

At first, watching the lush, slo-mo, music-video treatment, I was a little confused. Why not complement this raw story with spare filmmaking? Why these "arty" flourishes, like the one where a crumbling building appears to mirror a crumbling psyche? But soon we see that the form (not just the making, but also the writing) is as misleading as the title. Love is tricky, and therefore, Love is tricky, too. It flips around genres like mad: it's a narcissistic murder mystery like Alfred Hitchcock's Rope mixed with a psychological black comedy like David Fincher's Fight Club mixed with a domestic-abuse drama like Anubhav Sinha 's Thappad . The latter is probably the easiest reference point, but it was more direct in its appeal. And in terms of form, it was more traditional. Here, we have a director saying: I'm going to play mind games with you that kinda-sorta reflect the mind games inherent in unhappy relationships (and oh, even in some happy ones). The form, therefore, becomes the content.

Khalid Rahman co-wrote the film with Noufal Abdullah, and the screenplay builds up to a brilliant twist that involves all the characters (superbly played by Rajisha Vijayan, Veena Nandakumar, Gokulan, Sudhi Koppa and especially Shine Tom Chacko ). This twist is not just a haha-gotcha "stunt" but deeply rooted in psychology. If you feel the first hour or so is "going nowhere", it's deliberate. When you watch the film a second time, you won't feel that at all. And the second time will probably make you linger on a razor blade that hints at suicidal tendencies, or the reason someone doesn't seem to care about shattered glass on a floor. There's a very "male" line, one that's been repeated down the centuries, that says we can never understand women. But Love says that men cannot understand themselves, either. We can have contradictory impulses that almost make us feel we are a different person altogether.

I wanted some more flavour in the dialogues, but I think the "drabness" may be intentional. It may be a mirror of lines that have been said (Him: "Why are you still in touch with your male friends?") and arguments that have been had (Her: "I know you are lying to me and sleeping around.") so often — with others, with ourselves — that they've become as flavourless as gum that's been chewed for too long. It may even be a mirror of scenarios we have played so often in our heads that when that event actually occurs, we don't react at all. Love is very contained. It doesn't give us the whole arc of a relationship (we get a few fleeting moments). It simply zooms in on one stretch of time. Like life, it begins with birth (that ultrasound) and ends with death (a relationship). Is that a spoiler? I don't think so. Let's just say love and Love have come full circle.

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• Movie Reviews

Love Malayalam Movie Review : An exciting and a compelling thriller, will LOVE it

Review for LOVE:  Language: MALAYALAM •Duration: 01 Hour 32 Minutes. •Genre: DARK THRILLER.  • REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.

•POSITIVES: 1: Direction.  2: Story, Screenplay and Dialogues.  3: Performance of actors.  4: Cinematography  5: Editing. 

•NEGATIVE:  Nothing to mention. 

• ONE WORD : An exciting and a compelling thriller, will LOVE it. 

•DETAIL REVIEW:  Love revolves around Anoop (Shine Tom Chacko) and Deepti (Rajisha Vijayan) lives in a flat. Deepti gets pregnant and Anoop was not happy with the news, later in a conflict between them some unexpected incidents happens which focuses on how love can turn into hate. 

Love is directed by Khalid Rahman who is well know know for his previous work such as Unda and Anuraga Karikkin Vellam. In Love he handles the story and screenplay, along Noufal Abdullah joins in the writing. The movie is produced by Ashiq Usman which comes under the Ashiq Usman Productions. 

It’s a thriller, an engaging thriller that has many gripping moments to cherish. Here making is the head and story is the tail which is connected and balanced perfectly and equally. The execution needs special mention, the direction held by Khalid Rahman was simply brilliant, the making was adequate and vivid variations in the whole making was pleasing to watch. A simple story was made amazingly with the perfect blend of all thrilling components which makes the complete movie engaging till the end. What I liked in the direction of Khalid Rahman is, as a movie which was shot on a Lockdown period that too on a closed flat, many challenges will come across the path and here Khalid Rahman proves his skills, he had honestly overcome every obstacle and purely accomplished to formulate a different kind of thriller. 

The totality of the movie is all about an incident and the rest of the movie swirls around the various happenings associated to the incident. So the movie has many aspects and numerous happening related to the earlier mentioned occurrence gives the audience to get thrilled, and none of the various events in the film looks unrealistic. The portrayal method in the making is the highlight, the whole making was different and a feel of a something new was seen in the direction. The powerful use of actors is another plus point, the director had authentically used the talents of every single actor and throughout on every frame, it’s evident. 

The surprising element I liked in the writing of Khalid Rahman and Noufal Abdullah is the plot gives many various kinds of aspects to think, after watching the film the makers had given many sorts of inner thoughts to get more into the plot, to realise what was the real happenings and to recognize who is good and to know what is bad. I liked the writing style, every incident was written without creating any sort of confusions. Also, the well-written screenplay was engraved neatly into the right format, the structure and formation of the whole movie were packed luminously without losing its actual brightness. The several portrayals of different emotions such as love, struggle, betrayals, lust, and friendship were jotted down as per the plot without getting any diversion from the actual targeted path. Therefore liked I said the ideal making of Khalid Rahman is something different to watch and the way of thinking of the writers is something unique to assume.   

Looking into the performance, Shine Tom Chacko scores amazingly well. His emotions were legitimate from the beginning, the ongoing different kinds of emotions and feelings were undertaken beautifully. The dialogue delivery was crisp especially at the anger scenes, loved the way he handled the character. Seeing his previous performance Shine had drastically improved a lot, am sure he can score well again. Rajisha Vijayan as Deepti had done yet another staggering performance. In the first half, she doesn’t have much to do but when the movie tracks to the central part she got the real task to do and delivered a classy performance. Her realistic way of expression and originality in telling the dialogue delivery was once again happy to watch also her acting skills at the climax was delightful. Gokulan M.S as the friend of the central character did a spectacular job throughout the film, I didn’t expect a performance like that. His various sensible way of expressions in each kind of mood was terrific, also few situational humours were taken out accordingly to the alley. Sudhi Koppa was also remarkable, the combination scenes with Shine and Gokulan was pragmatic and the sensible way of handling the character and it’s different enthusiasms was amazing. Veena Nandakumar also did a small cameo and did a notable performance also Johnny Antony’s cameo father character was powerful and he did it well enough. 

The music and background score tuned by Neha Nair and Yakzan Gary Pereira was good, only a single track that too for few minutes but the background score had a prominent role in the film and both Neha and Yakzan had given some influential and dominant tunes to set the path. The background score was excellent, the movie had different scenarios and way of angles and for each of these aspects, the BGM was sinking genuinely to form the right mood. The cinematography of Jimshi Khalid was fantastic, especially the close up frames on showing different emotions of characters. There are some unique impressive shots and the lighting techniques was masterly done, shocked to see the way of arrangements, all the indoor shots were favourable to the premise. The crisp and clear editing of Noufal Abdullah (the writer) also deserves special thumbs-up, none of the scenes had given any mismatched feel. So overall the technical department had done their best because the movie was shot on lockdown and with 20 days of total time, the efforts of teamwork are truly evident in the film, huge applause for the entire team. 

Therefore to conclude I loved and enjoyed watching ‘LOVE’, it’s a compelling thriller that leaves multiple thoughts for thinking. If you are a kind of person who likes to witness a different kind of thriller LOVE will be a perfect choice also couples can try this, won’t disappoint anyone, just go and watch it. 

VERDICT: BRILLIANT EXPERIMENTATION. 

RATING: 4/5. 

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Love (2021) Malayalam Movie Review – Veeyen

‘Love’ attempts a horrific vivisection of a dysfunctional marriage and deftly works on the seeds of depressive confusion that it sows. Confronting their primal fears, the couple in ‘Love’ has a go at each other desperately, almost hysterically, letting us take a sneak peek at the monsters that lurk within them, that would stop at nothing until they have struck down their adversary dead. Another triumph from Khalid Rahman, this one!

How is it possible to hate with as much ferocity as one had once loved with? What is the decisive moment when one realizes that one has moved far beyond the juncture of no return? When does truth dawn on a mind that has been ravished in turns by adoration and abhorrence?  Why is it that our wicked selves are so frightfully capable of such appalling transformations?

Khalid Rahman’s ‘Love’ has fresh blood stains all over it, and tells a sordid tale of a sad marriage that sinks deeper by the minute. With pretty much little left to salvage it back to normalcy, the couple – Anoop (Shine Tom Chacko) and Deepthi (Rajisha Vijayan) – struggle to find one reason that would convince them to hold on to their terribly tattered relationship. Even worse, one reason that would keep them from killing each other.

‘Love’, as must have for anyone else who has watched the film, works for me in reverse, and I find it tremendously fascinating to dissect it from the climax backwards. Goes without saying that the final twenty minutes of the film is confrontational cinema at its best, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it leaves you gasping for breath.

A thoughtless instant, where Anoop lurches forward in fury and bangs his wife’s head against the wall is the starting point. As she lies dead in the washroom with a bag of beans almost flooding her, a friend of his (Gokulan) walks in with a lament of his own, wherein he admits his suspicion that his previous business associate is having a torrid affair with his wife.

Not much later, another friend (Sudhi Koppa) rings the bell with a woman (Veena Nandakumar) in tow, and the two retire to the bedroom where they settle down and analyse how they have been efficiently cheating on their respective spouses. Across the wall, Anoop vainly tries hard to fit his wife’s corpse into a bean bag and flops down in exhaustion beneath her lifeless stare and unflinching body.

Ironically ‘Love’ has just a handful of shots of the couple in love – three or four, to be precise – and the joy that that had once pervaded their selves has been relegated to the portraits that hang on the walls. A gloomy reminder of a not-so-distant past, their smiles that seem choked behind the frames finally find a way out as a fist rams into it and crushes the glass and leaves behind a red, sodden streak in memory of the joyful days that had once been.

The bruises that ‘Love’ leaves in its wake are notably not just emotional. The rage that the couple experiences spirals way beyond control and their loathing towards each other threatens to overwhelm their very physical selves. The fear, the mistrust and the devastating sense of resentment that boil within alter them into distorted apparitions that bear little resemblance to the jubilant beings that they originally were.

There is an unimaginable brutality that seeps in through the film’s finale, and the plot twists that await you are impressive. I couldn’t see either of them – the climactic and the pre-climactic twists – coming, and they make up for some (rare though) unconvincing writing that precedes them. This is a marriage that has gone fatalistically wrong, and the provocative strategies that the film maker adopts to essay it across are absolutely justifiable.

I should have thought twice when I felt like an actor like Rajisha deserved a better deal than being knocked out in the initial frame and spending the rest of the narrative clogged up in a corner of the washroom. The final few minutes of ‘Love’ underline what a terrific performer this woman is and she easily steals the show from everyone who has been there before her. Or after, for that matter. The three key male performers -Shine  Tom Chacko, Gokulan and Sudhi Koppa – are all good, but Johny Antony in a whacky cameo is way too good.

Verdict: Good

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• Feb 25, 2021

Love, Malayalam Movie Review

Updated: Nov 9, 2022

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

[email protected]

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'Love' movie review: A clever Hitchcockian puzzle

Khalid Rahman's Love is the kind of film that should be carefully handled during social media discussions because even a minute detail could be a potential spoiler. Given the twisty nature of the narrative, I've kept this review as spoiler-free as possible.

Love is mainstream Malayalam cinema's answer to chamber drama classics such as Sleuth (1972) or Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. The film is propelled by a dark incident which becomes a jumping-off point to explore its characters' psyche. We get minimal characters interacting inside a closed space, and the discussions have a layer of dark humour.

Shine Tom Chacko gets the ball rolling, as a man trying hard to contain an explosive situation. But things get increasingly challenging when more characters show up, and he scrambles to protect his secret at all costs. They, too, have secrets.

Slowly, they reveal themselves as kindred spirits and look to him as though he is a shrink who can get them out of their mess. But he doesn't want them there. He hopes to get rid of them as soon as possible, but it seems the only way to achieve this is by being their therapist for a brief period.

But then, it gradually evolves into a group therapy session. Now we sense our anxiety increasing too. Since the characters discuss anxiety, suicide, and infidelity, I would be remiss if I did not include a trigger warning.

A clash of varying ideas and thoughts occur as the men - Shine Tom Chacko, Gokulan, Sudhi Koppa - pour their hearts out to each other. The women - Rajisha Vijayan and Veena Nandakumar - are at the heart of these discussions. Everyone seems to be troubled by marital discord.

Beneath its various twists and turns, and the overall mystery thriller vibe, Love essentially explores the male thought process. The skillful blending of the mystery and relationship drama evokes the best of Asghar Farhadi.

Last year, CU Soon became the first Malayalam film to be shot and completed during the pandemic. Love followed later.  Having seen both, I can safely say these two films show us that sometimes limitations can give birth to smarter films.

Like CU Soon, Love makes the best use of a single location. But the advantage here is the characters are interacting face to face, and never once do we feel the constraints as the actors ensure they are doing enough to keep us occupied.

Cinematographer Jimishi Khalid and editor Noufal Abdullah (also co-writer) use inventive angles to capture the characters' actions and reactions. The music of Neha Nair and Yakzan Gary Pereira (of Driving Licence fame) combined with the ambient sounds by Rajakrishnan and Vignesh Kishan Rajeesh effectively crank up the tension and, in the process, our discomfort.

Though I was impressed by the cleverness of the whole idea, the abruptness of the final twist caught me a bit off guard despite its completeness. But the preceding moments are staged in such a way that they make you see the story from a wholly new perspective, and could give you the urge to see the film again to gain a better understanding of what you just witnessed.

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Love movie review: Dark humour, exciting climax mark Shine, Rajisha-starrer

Khalid Rahman, the director of critically-acclaimed Unda (that presented mega star Mammootty in a complete makeover) and Anuraga Karikkin Vellam (that fetched Rajisha Vijayan her state film award on debut), has come up with another flick - Love – that delves into complicated family issues.

Shot during the lockdown in a flat in Kochi in 20-days, the movie was released in the Gulf countries in October 2020. It thus set a record of sorts for being the first Malayalam film to be released during the Covid-19 pandemic outside India.

The early trends had back then suggested that the Malayali diaspora in the Gulf gave the record-setter' a miss because of the lingering fear of the pandemic. 

COVID-landmark: Rajisha Vijayan, Shine Tom starrer 'Love' to romance the theatres

Khalid Rahman ropes in Shine Tom Chacko and Rajisha Vijayan for his next

As the first Malayalam movie after a tense lockdown, I expected that it will soothe the nerves of people who have been going through a harrowing time. The title too suggested that it surely will have a romantic twist.

However, the movie begins with a 'murder'. It is followed by a slew of incidents in the lives of Anoop (Shine Tom Chacko ) and Deepti (Rajisha Vijayan).

Deepti knows that she is pregnant with Anoop but is unhappy. There are layers to the relationships in the film and director Khalid Rahman, with his lockdown experimentation within the four walls of an aprtment focuses on how love can turn to hate in a marriage. 

The film offers many thrilling moments throughout while narrating the complications arising out of extra-marital affairs. It tells about the agonies of Anoop's friends, taking the movie into an exciting climax. What makes the movie quite interesting is the portrayal of dark shades of all the characters.

Love  touches upon many social issues too with a tinge of black humour.

All the actors have done exceptionally well. Sudhi Koppa, who acts as Anoop's friend, needs a special mention.

(Hash Javad is a UAE-based digital content creator, PR strategist and media manager and watched the movie at the Novo Mega Mall in UAE when the film had a GCC release )

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Oru Adaar Love ( U/A ) 14/Feb/2019 Love, Romance 2hrs 25mins

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