Picking a movie from a list of Netflix is like opening a box of chocolates. "You never know what you gonna get!..." I was pleasantly surprised by my choice. Sometimes it is the movie unheard of with an equally unfamiliar cast may be the one with the most exciting storyline.
This movie is an anthology of four unrelated stories with love being the common theme. Its four stories try to show that the emotion that releases butterflies in the tummy, the special feeling called love, at different age groups. Love needs are different at various times of one's life, and it carries a different meaning at other periods of their lifetimes.
The first story revolves around teens and love blossoms in the most unromantic place of all, the city dumpster. A slum-boy who scavenges the trash comes across some greeting cards, memorabilia and a photograph of a young girl. Curious how the girl would be in real life, he follows the garbage trump to get a peek at the owner. In summary, it is puppy love. Looking at the apparent disparity in social class and education levels of both, the viewers can guess the relationship would go nowhere.
The next one is the love of the contemporary kind, involving all modalities considered modern. There is the current Chennai landscape complete with spanking new highways and clean Hyundai cars, Ole call cab service, modern private medical centres and social media. Here a young man in his early 30s, who is all excited in anticipation of tying the nuptial knots with his gal that he found on an online matrimonial page, is diagnosed with testicular cancer. His beau bolts and he has to deal with the ailment on his own. Love is found again in strange places; this time in the form of a fellow occupant of a shared cab. Love blossoms by being an anchor weathering the storm.
The third story is about love in the twilight years. The traditional way of Indian life would dictate that those senior years of experience is the opportune time to prepare for the ethereal world. Not so in the modern world, it seems. Loneliness and fairly robust health necessitate romantic liaisons, especially when the offsprings are nowhere around to be seen.
The final clip is about love in contemporary times. After years of marriage, the spark that drew the couple together is somewhat missing. Husband and wife just carry on life doing their society-sanctioned duties without giving second thoughts to the amorous need of the other. Life, as each knew it, was the repetitive action of working at home or office, caring for the needs of kids and being trapped in the quagmire of the cycle of repetition. Remedy comes through the cupid work of a modern AI device.
Love, as they say, makes the world to stay relevant. At the spring of adolescence, with the raging of hormones, the youths think with their impulse. Nature needs them to be amorous. Progeny has to happen. The young cannot be wasting time in critical thinking and analysing. Continuity of the species is of paramount importance.
It used to be a time when society, which used to be patriarchal, dictated how the female species were left with no choice but conform to assume their role in society. With female empowerment came reduced fertility and threat of extinction. Nature fought back. Love had to bloom somehow, and it does.
It is love that holds a family and a society together. Left to their own devices, Man can be self-centred with their 'selfish gene' taking charge. The weak and the old would be left to rot. Hence, love manifest as compassion to care for the ones left behind in the race of time. Even the participants at the twilight stage of their years need someone to ride into the sunset...
