Modern Love Hyderabad review: 6 heartfelt stories about different shades of love | Web Series
Nagesh Kukunoor’s adaptation of Modern Love is a heartfelt tribute to Hyderabad, a city known for its rich culture, Irani chai, Biriyani, Haleem, Nawabi Hindi and its love for cinema. Six different stories, set against the beautiful backdrop of Hyderabad, explore different shades of love. We get an interesting mix of love-laced narratives – mostly happy endings, some predictable and some moving, but every one of them works to a large extent. Overall, it’s a show that showcases Hyderabad like never seen before, and the presentation makes us laugh and tug at the heartstrings. Read more: Modern Love Hyderabad director Nagesh Kukunoor says ‘Telugu is my mother tongue, doesn’t mean one language is better than other’
Why did she leave me there…? featuring Suhasini Mani Ratnam and Naresh Agastya explores an interesting facet of love. The kind of love that results in letting go to help someone understand the relationship better. Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, this story is about love, but also touches upon themes like loss, grief and forgiveness. Centred on the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson, the story cuts back and forth to the slums of Hyderabad and the posh IT corridors. It talks about a grandmother’s unconditional love for her grandson. She loves him so much that she lets him go (in an orphanage), only to make him realise many years later that she left him only because he could be at a better place. As the grandmother, Suhasini turns in a very realistic performance and she’s ably complemented by Rahul Agastya.
Finding Your Penguin from Venkatesh Maha has to be the gutsiest short of the lot. It is unafraid to tread an unexplored territory. Centered on a microbiologist Indu (played by Komalee Prasad), it talks about her desperation to find the right match. Indu compares the men she dates to animals and birds, just because she is a microbiologist. The idea is so bizarre that it takes a while for someone to even warm up to it. The short makes an interesting point about finding one’s soulmate, and that there’s no set pattern for anyone to follow to find their perfect match. Sometimes, it could happen in the most unexpected ways or it might not happen at all.
My Unlikely Pandemic Dream Partner is a love story that’s set in the narrow lanes of Hyderabad’s old city area, which is densely populated by Muslims. Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, it explores the estranged relationship (due to an interfaith marriage) between a mother and her daughter. They earn back their love and respect for each other, when they’re stuck together during the lockdown under the same roof. As the mother-daughter pair, Revathy and Nithya Menen are terrific in this segment, and they bring out the best out of each other, producing effortless performances. Without making it too obvious, this short also talks about how caste and community pride can sour relationships. Thankfully, this aspect of the short is not forced upon the viewer and is merely touched to leave the desired impact. The nod to Hyderabad’s Nawabi delicacies leaves you craving for a quick visit to Hyderabad.
About That Rustle in the Bushes by Devika Bahadhunam is about an overprotective father, played by the ever reliable VK Naresh to a tee. With a good dose of humour, here’s a shot that talks about familial ties, and it talks about how fathers can get very protective about their daughters. It is about a father, who’d do anything to see his daughter happy.
What Clown Wrote This Script by Uday Gurrala is a modern-day story of love that pays rich tributes to the city’s love for cinema. It features Malvika Nair as a stand-up comic and Abijeet Duddala as a producer who wants to take the OTT route. Using cinema as a backdrop, this is a light-hearted take on how young men and women see relationships today. It definitely has its moment, but doesn’t quite work wholesomely.
Fuzzy, Purple and Full of Thorns is the third short film of the series directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. It’s an entertaining look at live-in relationships and centred on a couple – Aadi Pinisetty and Ritu Varma – who is madly in love, but unsure about marriage. It also talks about what really defines a modern-day perspective of love and marriage. It has two lovely scenes featuring modern-day parents and what really brews in their head, when it comes to the marriage of their kids.
