Lover Tamil Movie Review - Fairly Watchable!

Ashwin Ram 

Premise:  Manikandan doesn't believe in breakups. He wants his 6-year relationship to stay on with Gouri Priya, who is doubtful of a future in their love-life as she finds him toxic. What happens after a breaking-point situation forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction

The base of the two lead characters are well-thought. The triggering points of the male front will instantly connect to many men, however it revolves around the same possessiveness and the drunkard trope. Gouri Priya’s role is sure to resonate with many, the credible elements in writing this particular character arc does the trick. The interval block gives the theatrical punch, and the climax is beautiful that it gives a perfect closure. The issue is with the content being limited, the director keeps on re-establishing the same stuff in different circumstances which doesn’t really move the story forward. The development of the characters needed more layers, for us to relate better with the characters and value their relationship. The approach is realistic but the impact is flat at most places. Despite the middling storytelling, on the whole it is decently engaging, because of those small moments and supporting roles, the subject being very relevant is also the main reason. The creative confusion in presenting Manikandan character’s senseless behavior is evident, trial and error in trying to find a balance between serious and comic mood. Many messages are spoon fed through dialogues, rather than skillfully conveying them through visuals.

Performances

Manikandan portrays every character of his with a conviction, he plays it very believable here too, looking like next-door boy adds so much value. Gouri Priya is the show-stealer, not an easy role to play, a character that is carrying a lot of emotional baggage with a plenty of heavily expressive sequences, she does it all with ease. The friends of the leads have their share of screen-space and involvement in the story, maintaining it subtly without making much noise.

Technicalities

Sean Roldan’s songs are soothing and the montages match the music well. Background score isn’t bad, but it is routine and the film demands a peculiar mood which hasn’t been created. A dark color tone is maintained throughout which is quite strange for a romantic genre flick, maybe it is due to the toxic topic the story deals with, however it works on-screen. Editing is kind of dud, needless cross-narration for certain scenes and many repetitive sequences could have been chopped off and made it as a crisp 2-hours movie. The whole technical crew has treated this as a run-of-the-mill movie instead of incorporating unique music and visual style.

Bottomline

The opening, mid and closing is done well, but the rest of the portions deserved better. More depth in characterizations rather than repeating the same content would have helped us to invest more on the drama.

Rating - 2.5/ 5