Official Trailer:

Modern Love Chennai is a fine example of how an anthology series need to be made. In previous Tamil anthology series (Amazon Prime and Netflix), few episodes worked well and overall, the episodes didn’t come together. In Modern Love Chennai, we see a common theme with colors, sets linking the six episodes on love in modern Chennai. And we have characters from Super Deluxe popping up here. Stories are selected from Modern Love series from NYT and adopted for local culture and Chennai location. Across all the episodes cinematography, sets, color scheme, and music (Sean Rolden, Yuvan Sankar Raja, G.V.Prakash, Ilayaraja) stand out. Excellent performances from all actors but with strong women characters in all episodes, female actors stand few notches higher than their male counterparts 👏

Lalagunda Bommaigal

What is the anti-dote if you are bitten by a love breakup? When the breakup resulted in an abortion? How do you judge a person? Can you judge a book by its cover? These are the questions Lalagunda Bommaigal tries to study. The protagonist struggles with post-breakup symptoms and her friend is trying to get her out of it. The story starts seriously but gradually turns humorous as it progresses with the mx of godmen, fraud, sharp dialogues, and interesting characters. Credit goes to director Raju Murugan for taking a sensitive approach hitting upon key emotions and nuances of love breakup and pain. The conversations between Shoba and Vaijayanthi brings in a naturalness to the narration and women’s point of view (you can’t live with men…and you can’t live without them). A love failure can be fixed only by another love says the godman here and similar message your love will not last and end in a break-up pops up in the last episode Ninaivo Oru Paravai from an astrologer. Sri Gouri Priya and Vasundhara have given their best performances. North Chennai background and Sean Rolden’s music elevates the mood. Final twist makes us smile – good and bad swap places and an arranged marriage can be an anti-dote to love breakup too 😀

Imaigal

It is one thing to make a long-term commitment before marriage. Adhering to it on a daily basis is easier said than done though. Nithya falls in love with Devi. He chooses to marry Devi knowing fully that she will gradually lose her eyesight due to a degenerative eye disorder in ten years or so. He promises her to show the world until she can no longer see. Life starts beautifully for them. Both work in the beginning. But as the years pass, Devi has to quit the job to take care of the baby, motherhood and household duties takeover and her world shrinks. With her losing eyesight, Devi struggles with domestic chores which comes easily for us. Imaigal explores how even true love is a prisoner of patriarchy and rigid gender roles. Thanks to the director Balaji Sakthivel, Imaigal is full of stunning moments. Few nothing moments add flavor to the flow. Focusing on micro details makes us realize how even wearing a saree and makeup is an ordeal for a person like Devi. Or getting the child ready for school (you literally want to scream at Nithya ‘dude switch off the phone and help’). An excellent performance from T.J.Bhanu as Devi. Ashok Selvan as Nithya does a great job too. The opening shot where Devi stares directly into the camera and then closes her eyes, and the final shot narrowing in on Nithya’s face are a work of beauty.

Kaadhal Enbadhu Kannula Heart Irukkura Emoji

Alaipayuthey’s Madhavan, Titanic’s Leonardo, do we have their counterparts in real world? Do they exist in our midst? Is the real-world love life similar to the love we see in the movies? Full of fun, dancing in the rain, slow-mos? Mallika lives her life in movies. Looking for a heartthrob like Karthik and Jack. Whatever she does there is a movie reference. After a breakup, she locks herself up in a room like Padayappa’s Neelambari. How does she get through her depression? Watching love failure movies, soup songs, and food 😀 She makes an interesting observation, why there are no soup songs for women in movies? Mallika gets disillusioned in her quest for kindred spirit. Even a national award winning and Godard quoting film critic could convince her. Director Krishnakumar Ramkumar gives a light-hearted humorous touch to Kaadhal Enbadhu highlighting the discrepancy between the reel and real life. Kaadhal Enbadhu is a fun watch and comes as a breather after 2 serious episodes. Mutta Puffs from Super Deluxe makes an appearance here.

Margazhi

A ray of lightning can bring joy to our life. There is no need of assurance for long lasting commitment. A timely recognition is all it takes to bring about a change. Jazmine’s parents have divorced. Mother has relinquished the rights on the daughter and Jazmine stays with her father. She is going through the pain of rejection and void. Her only solace is listening to tunes of Ilayaraja on her iPod. Her father enrolls her in a church choir class where she encounters Milton, a Delhiite who has come to his grandma’s house to spend his winter holidays. His parents are also divorced. Margazhi unravels a tale of love blooming amid personal turmoil. Director Akshay Sunder gives Margazhi a slow poetic treatment. Music plays a key role in elevating the mood. Uravugal Thodarkathai Unarvugal Sirukathai song is aptly used in a scene that plays like a prelude to the climax. It is great to hear Ilayaraja’s voice in Thendral puthithu and Nenjil Oru Minnal songs. Beautiful compositions too. Sanjula Sarathi as Jazmine and Chu Khoy Sheng as Milton fits their roles effortlessly and bring back our teenage memories. When a relationship ends another relationship blossoms – Uravugal thodarkathai 💐

Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal

Divorce brought pain to the protagonists in Margazhi. For our modern days, separation getting common, how do we make divorce palatable for the children? That is the question Paravai Kootil try to explore. In the happy home of Revathy and Ravi with two children, enter Rohini. How Ravi and Rohini bump into each other in a metro is a haiku. They fall in love. Ravi wants to live with Rohini. Is it possible for Revathy and Rohini to work out a solution that doesn’t take away the children’s home safety net? I left out Ravi in the previous sentence because Ravi is not shown to be part of the discussion and solution Revathy and Rohini work out. Is the solution viable? Yes. Is it believable? Little hard to believe…may be sometime in the future. Bharathiraja has directed the movie in the style of the late Balu Mahendra. Paravai Kootil is a homage to the BM. Story is similar to BM’s Marupadiyum. Revathy, Rohini, and Ravi are the names of the actors who played the respective roles in Marupadiyum. En Iniya Pon Nilave that plays in the background to show the progress of Ravi and Rohini’s love is the song from BM’s Moodupani. We get engaged because no character comes across as bad or one dimensional. Ravi makes a good argument for his side. Rohini is portrayed as an individual seeking happiness in her life rather than a stereotypical other woman. Ramya Nambeeshan, Vijayalakshmi, and Kishore have given their best as Revathy, Rohini, and Ravi. Movie is bookended with two selfie shots that convey the story of Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal.

Ninaivo Oru Paravai

We enter the universe of Thiagarajan Kumararaja (TK) in Ninaivo Oru Paravai (NOP). NOP is visually stunning with a great music from Ilayaraja. We get the feel we are entering the colorful memory corridors of Sam and K. NOP is also one of the hard one to crack, it leaves with you more questions than you started with. Continuing his trademark (do 2 movies make a trademark?) TK opens NOP with bedroom scene. Sam and K decide to separate asking the question, is that all there is in love (love-ngarathu Ivvalavuthana)? Sam is not able to handle the separation. Her psychiatrist tells her she needs to let go of K. In the meantime, K meets with an accident and ends up with short term memory loss. He remembers being in love with Sam but doesn’t recollect they have separated. Also, his memories are jumbled. Sam is the only person who can help K to recover his memories and put them in a linear order. Sam agrees and we enter the memory lanes from their past. How they met, becoming friends, moving-in together. They are shown in a non-linear fashion. Sam also refers to K’s personal journal which has the first draft of his movie script. Script reflects their life and starts with their separation scene first. When NOP ends, we are left hanging with the questions, are we in Sam’s hallucination or K’s, or it is Sam and K performing the first draft of the script? It is a loopy script. What makes NOP engaging are the cinematography, vibrant colors, performances, and music. Chit-chat between Sam and K are close to reality, TK uses the freedom of OTT platforms. Message in the tissue roll is another haiku. Thanks to TK, he has brought back the mischievous and funny side of Ilayaraja. TK’s visually gorgeous scenes get a huge uplift by the use of spot-on music. Listening to Kaamaththup-Paal I could guess what the scene would be, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. From the initial dance floor disco beats to the final crescendo – it is an experience. It is a windfall of tracks from Ilayaraja (Goodbye, Paavi Nenjae, Thee Inbamae, Aanaal, Thaen Mazhaiyo, Kaala Visai, …). With its references to Super Deluxe, it is highly possible we are watching the act of TK’s unfinished script – Mallu Uncut, The Secret of Life, Sam is Vembu, and K is the guy who ends up dead on bed 😀