Love Story - A deceiving title given to a zestful story of more than just love!

D Meera Chithirappaavai

Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi starrer Love Story is a tale that talks more than just love but uses love as the canvass to paint the larger picture. Director Shekar Kammula is known for making films that have succeeded in giving birth to a new “Shekar Kammula” genre that packages a film with gripping incidents, characters, and nativity. Love Story is no exception and uses the genre well to address societal parasites like child sexual abuse and caste discrimination.

For the major part of the narrative, the viewer will be reminded of the classic “Romeo Julliet” like story advancement. However, some well-thought-out sequences, dialogues, and performances offer freshness to the old goods. The visual contrast showing life in the city vs life in a village holds clarity. This clarity in thought makes all the other contrasting elements in the story exist coherently.

Sai Pallavi as Mounika shows how some stories and some characters are just meant only for that particular actor. It seems like the role was written for Sai Pallavi and not the other way round. She hand-holds the audience into her character and its struggles.

On the other hand, Naga Chaitanya as Revanth doesn’t overindulge in any heroic gimmicks but complements the story by being a controlled performer who does what the story/role demands. Special mention to all the supporting actors who aid the process of bringing an audience closer to the story making the overall experience a pleasant one.

The film exposes the dancer side of Sai Pallavi to the fullest which might make one wonder what she would do in the next Shekar Kammula movie? Including the popular number Saranga Dhariya, debut musician Pawan Ch has given the film an augmented experience that a romantic drama deserves.

Lately, it has become a rarity to see simple, slice-of-life films that effortlessly show the ultimate reality of social existence. Love Story attempts to do that against clean narration and accomplishes the task without complaints.

Love Story is Shekar Kammula’s take on a socially responsible topic that uses the crowd-favorite “love” as a tool.

2.75/5