#Love review: Netflix Tamil series is a breezy watch on compatibility vs chemistry in relationships
Produced by Soundarya Rajnikanth and directed by Balaji Mohan, #Love with Aishwarya Lekshmi and Arjun Das in the lead, is set against the backdrop of the competitive world of dating apps.
Unlike the many modern-day Indian love stories set in metros, #Love doesn’t come across as something trying too hard to make a statement.
The world has moved a long way from the time when young people would thumb through pages of Linda Goodman’s Love Signs to understand the compatibility quotient between partners, or ask astrologers to predict the success of their romance.
At a time when love, like everything else, is just a swipe on a dating app away, with the right match increasingly being determined by an app and its AI algorithm, has romance been reduced to just debugging the code and rebooting the features?
Netflix’s Tamil original series #Love, produced by Soundarya Rajnikanth and directed by Balaji Mohan, is set against the backdrop of the competitive world of dating apps.
Tara (Aishwaya Lekshmi), is pragmatic and an idealist, whose app Found is built around the core philosophy of personal compatibility being the basis of any relationship. On the other hand, adrenaline junkie and flamboyant Matthew Jebaraj (Arjun Das), the investor behind the popular dating app Find My Bae, believes chemistry is the key to a successful and fulfilling bond, with instant attraction and vibe determining the course of any relationship.
Neither is right or wrong, but given their own lacklustre love life, the two may well have to update their own approach towards relationships.
A tale of two loves
Tara’s Found, which is in dire need of funds, has been nominated along with Matthew’s Find My Bae for an award. Though Tara and her team hope the recognition would open up investment opportunities for them, the award is picked up by Find My Bae.
Matthew sees Tara’s disappointment and follows her out. The two get chatting and strike a deal — for two months, both will enlist on the other’s app; if Matthew finds his match, he will invest in Tara’s company, and if she finds relationship success on his app, she will have to go on a date with Mathew.
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Over the course of the next few days, the two spar over their own choices, debating whether love is spontaneous and sex an icebreaker in relationships. For Tara, relationships are like a puzzle where differing pieces come to make a complete whole, while Mathew feels the pieces are magnets which seek their own corresponding parts.
The two develop an easy-going friendship, with both gaining some insight from the other on their respective apps.
It isn’t long before Tara and Matthew realise they have been at their most unguarded, real selves with the other, though Found rates their compatibility to be below average.
The human angle
#Love, though set against the backdrop of start-ups and high-tech and modern dating, never once loses sight of its core human angle.
Tara and Matthew both carry emotional baggage and are complex and layered individuals. While Tara seeks perfection in everything, including relationships, Matthew doesn’t want to reveal his brokenness to anyone, masking it under a cool, laidback exterior.
Credit goes to both actors, who incidentally make their web series debut with the show, playing the characters naturally and giving them a lived-in vibe.
Aishwarya Leksmi’s Tara, as a woman trying to make her way into the cut-throat world of tech, where every investor she meets is a man who asks her to either to rebrand or rejig her app or drop it, stands her ground, refusing to compromise on her ethics. Lekshmi, who has moved easily between Malayalam and Tamil cinema, brings that same versatility to the show.
Arjun Das’s Matthew is the son of a rich father whose interference bothers him and who wants to free himself from the hold of a traumatic childhood. The actor’s deep, resonant baritone lends him an immediate screen presence. Das, who first made an impression as the menacing antagonist in the 2019 Tamil film Kaithi, trades menace for a laid-back charm here.
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The easy-going chemistry between the couple and the matter-of-fact interactions lend pace to the narrative.
Unlike the many modern-day Indian love stories set in metros, #Love doesn’t come across as something trying too hard to make a statement. Whether it is in the predictability of Tara and Mathew’s relationship or the queer love stories blossoming around the two, or in the narrative of Found’s most successful couple as they grapple with the responsibilities of new parents, work and life is seamlessly woven into the romance.
The streamer shifting focus to originals in regional storytelling comes as a welcome change and also showcases the rich reservoir of talent in the country.
#Love is a breezy, pacy watch and wins its quiet argument: between compatibility and chemistry, love is less a matter of algorithms than of showing up as you are, glitches and all.
