Cast: Naga Chaitanya, Sai Pallavi, Uttej,
Rajeev Kanakala, Eeshwari Rao, Devayani and others.
Music: Pawan Ch
Cinematography: Vijay C Kumar
Producers: Ram Mohan Rao and Narayan Das Narang
Writer & Director: Sekhar Kammula
Post the second wave of Corona, Love Story' which has been the most-awaited
film in 2021 has finally hit the screens today. The film garnered a huge buzz
with its cute posters, teasers, trailers and songs. The pre-release event was
also a huge boost to the audience. After a lot of excitement, 'Love Story' is
in theatres now. Let us dive into the complete review to know more about the
movie.
Story:
Revanth (Naga Chaitanya) is a lower middle-class man who hails from Armoor. His
father dies during his childhood and Revanth is brought up by his mother. He
aims to start a big fitness and dance center of his own and settle well in
life. Mounika (Sai Pallavi) who is from Revanth's village completes her studies
and arrives where Revanth lives in order to find a job. She faces a lot of
problems due to her lack of confidence. After getting to know Revanth, Mounika
joins his fitness & dance school as a dance master. Their bond slowly gets
stronger and they end up falling in love. The major hurdle for their love is
'Caste' and we have to watch the film to know whether they finally win in the
battle of love or not.
Analysis:
It is not easy to showcase the everyday happenings in our life, regular common
people and situations in life in the most beautiful manner without taking the
reality away. Sekhar Kammula has a knack for taking normal moments in our daily
life and making them magical on the screen. His characters don't come from a
parallel universe but often resemble the people next door. His hero doesn't get
a lot of elevation shots and his heroine doesn't exist for songs and glamour
sake. There are no villains in his films but only difficult circumstances
instead. This is his filmmaking style right from the beginning and 'Love Story'
is no exception. Sekhar Kammula designed the lead pair's characters in such a
way that they are quite relatable and we get emotionally attached to them very
easily. The normal day-to-day happenings have been presented in a beautiful way
during the course of this movie. The friendship, love and the journey of the
lead pair are very natural yet magical. Though there is nothing new in their
love story, the typical 'Sekhar Kammula moments' make it worth a watch. But the
film falls into a routine trap once the 'caste' problem comes into the
foreground. We expect Kammula to deal with it in a unique manner but you are
going to get disappointed as the movie becomes like any other average film.
With nothing new to present, Sekhar turns the story towards a new problem at
the end and hurries up the climax which restricted 'Love Story' to a huge
extent.
The first half runs in the typical style of director. Those 'beautiful moments'
are plenty in the first half. Hero thinking that the heroine is beyond his
reach and tears rolling down his eyes when she kisses him publicly and the
heroine questioning him, all these scenes make your heart fill with happiness
and an unknown satisfaction. There are a lot of such scenes which make us
identify with the characters of Revanth and Mounika. At no point in the film do
we see Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi. We only see them as the characters and
Sekhar Kammula's heroines are always special and 'Love Story' also falls under
the same category. The light-hearted moments, songs, emotions and chemistry
helps the film in running smoothly till the interval.
Sekhar Kammula always had a problem with dealing with second halves and it is
evident in 'Love Story' too. He fills the first half with wonderful scenes and
fails to continue the second half at the same tempo. While 'Fidaa' was a
romantic comedy which revolved around the conflict between two personalities,
people managed to enjoy it but he decided to discuss serious problems like
caste in 'Love Story'. This forces the film to land in a regular template where
a character becomes a villain for their love. The second half feels a bit heavy
as the light-hearted moments disappear and they are replaced by hard-hitting
emotional sequences. Superhit songs like 'Saranga Dariya' and 'Nee Chitram
Choosi' were not placed rightly. After a certain point, you expect a typical
Tamil film climax which deals with serious subjects in a bold way. But Kammula
moves onto another issue that looks a bit forced. Though these topics should be
discussed, the dark theme may not go well with everyone. The film ends with a
routine climax and these flaws stop 'Love Story' from becoming a memorable
film. There are a lot of scenes that makes your ticket worth but it is better
to keep your expectations in check.
Performances:
As said earlier, we don't see the actors but only characters in this film. Naga
Chaitanya as Revanth did a fantastic job. He kept his image on the side and
made sure that the 'Star' in him doesn't come in the way of this character. He
gave his best for this film and aced the Telangana accent. There is nothing to
say about Sai Pallavi at this point. She is just amazing and emoted
exceptionally through her eyes in key scenes. She stole the show in songs and
Sai Pallavi gave everything her fans would expect. Eeshwari Rao was great as
hero's mother and rest of the actors like Rajeev Kanakala, Uttej and Devayani
were perfect in their assigned roles.
Technicians:
Music is the soul of 'Love Story'. Songs were already a big hit but it is his
background scores that lifted the proceedings massively. But a few songs were
misplaced. Vijay C Kumar's cinematography is artistic. He managed to showcase
every ordinary premise in an extraordinary way. The visuals stand as one of the
main pillars. The productions values are very good and Sekhar Kammula showed
his mark during the first half. He should be appreciated for trying to discuss
such sensitive issues but his execution left a lot to be desired. The climax
should've been dealt more convincingly and Sekhar Kammula's narration became
way too serious in the second half which caused a lot of problems for this
'Love Story'. The routine storytelling too played the spoilsport to a certain
extent.
Verdict:
Love Story - A Mix Of Light Hearted Moments & Heavy Emotions
Rating: 2.5/5