Modern Love Hyderabad makes you fall in love again

The boundaries of love and by extension, love stories, have extended to such an extent that in present times, love long ago ceased to be a man-woman thing on screen. In that sense, the newest freshest edition of the Modern Love franchise from Amazon Prime video, set in the city of pearls Hyderabad, is the most democratic and wide-angled interpretation of love seen in the franchise. Several stories are more about the aftermath of love, the lingering pain of indelible hurt wedged in ineradicable memories that love leaves behind. The very first story a two-hander grandmom-grandson tale Why Did She Leave Me There, a quintessential three-hankie sentimental swipe at the tearjerker genre that had me sobbing, is about the intolerable thresholds of self-sacrifice that love demands. In the story directed by the redoubtable Nagesh Kukunoor , Suhasini Mani Ratnam (besides being a brilliant actress she is Mani Ratnam ’s wife and Kamal Haasan ’s niece) is exceptionally emotive as an impoverished but unvanquished woman trying to keep her little grandson happy with stories of kings feasting on dosas. The story is exceptionally and unabashedly sentimental in a comforting old-fashioned way.

Nagesh Kukunoor gives us yet another gem set in this anthology. But before getting there we have to sit through a story called Finding Your Penguin where Komalee Prasad, playing a variation on the annoyingly self-centred Hyderabadi youngsters, checks out various dates picked from dating sites, as representatives of the animal kingdom. The men are objectified, ‘animalized’ and largely ridiculed so that the heroine and her self-consciously cool friends can feel good about being single and not so desperate to mingle. Director Venkatesh Maha fails to generate any warmth or humour in this parable on eligibility. Nice try, but sorry. Nagesh Kukunoor’s My Unlikely Pandemic Dream Partner is by far the most appealing story in the anthology. With the two resplendent actresses, Revathi and Nithya Menen playing an estranged mother and daughter pair who are compelled to stay together during the first lockdown (this is the only story where the pandemic plays a pivotal part) the director would have to be exceptionally incompetent to mess up things. Kukunoor is in his element blending motherly grief and wisdom in equal proportions, into the most delicious Hyderabadi cuisine we get to see on screen in recent times. This brings me to the ongoing flaw in the anthology. Apart from My Unlikely Pandemic Dream Partner none of the stories in the anthology bring alive the multi-cultural environment of Hyderabad. Kukunoor and his two brilliant actresses Revathi and Nithya Menen make Hyderabadi and its cuisine the pivotal characters. Even the flashy sarees that Revathi wears represent a certain Muslim ethos of the city. Brilliant, Mr Kukunoor.. That apart attempts at projecting a Hyderabadi ethos is largely missing in the stories. In one of the stories Fuzzy Purple & Full Of Thorns (again directed by Nagesh Kukunoor) the heroine’s best friend sports the most obnoxious Hyderabadi accent on this side of Mehmood in Kunwara Baap. Still the story of a headstrong girl Renu(played well by Ritu Verma) who can’t get over her boyfriend’s ex’s purple shoes left behind in the closet, survives the obnoxious accented assault. It is a quirky story told in a reasonably balanced tone. Also amiable though over-stretched and uneven in tone is the story entitled About The Rustle In The Bushes directed by Devika Bahudhanam where an over-protective father (played by Naresh) follows his single daughter(Ulka Gupta) to every date that she goes to, snooping into her evenings in a way that would be creepy if it wasn’t so innocent. The ‘joke’ about a detective-daddy wears thin after a while specially when the story does somersault for a schmaltzy finale. Finally, watch out for the story WHAT CLOWN WROTE THIS SCRIPT! directed by Uday Gurrala. It is set in the world television entertainment where a young jaded content provider Ashwin (Abijeet Duddala) discovers a sparkling standup comedian Vinnie (Malavika Nair,charming) and then before we can say that a star is born, faces a moral professional dilemma that is very identifiable. The storytelling is packed with humour and, dare I say, intelligence. References to the Telugu comic genius Jandhyala from the 1980s are woven smartly into the contemporary story of commitment and ethics. This one also has a very funny morning-after sex moment, and an overweening understanding of contemporary relationships. All in all, Modern Love Hyderabad gives us a sense of contemporary relationships without going too deep into them. Nagesh Kukunooor’s stories rule the roost, probably because he is billed as overall show-runner. The anthology conveys a feeling of being a clutter-breaker without really bending backwards to be unconventional. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .