Modern Love Chennai review: Shatters cliches, shows true love & its complexities

Showrunner: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Directors: Rajumurugan, Balaji Shakthivel, Krishnakumar Ramakumar, Akshay Sundher, Bharathiraja, and Thiagarajan Kumararaja.

Cast: Vasundhara Kashyap, TJ Bhanu, Wamiqa Gabbi, Ritu Varma, Ashok Selvan, Sanjula Sarathi, Kishore, Sri Gouri Priya, Remya Nambeesan, Vijayalakshmi Ahathian, and others.

Synopsis: Six unique love stories about characters in different age groups, different walks of life, living in different parts of Chennai.

Modern Love Chennai is very much different from the American version. The John Carney's Amazon Prime Original's first season had stories told with depth, but the second season fumbled out. Kumararaja's anthology hits it out of the park by delivering six beautifully layered and crafted stories that leave you with thoughts reverberating in your mind. The stories are told in a slow-paced manner, except for Kumararaja's Ninaivo Oru Paravai, which is a culmination of the creator's unique thoughts into one.

The anthology also is centered around its strong women characters, which is very praise-worthy and depicts romantic love in its moods and musings. Each segment of this anthology has a closure which is a rare thing for anthologies in Tamil and that works wonders with fresh writing and treatment. Each segment has its own mood, tone, and the director's signature style in it, but on the whole sticks to the theme.

None of the segments feels out of place and dives deep into the complex layers of love and romance as each director brings their best and develops scripts adapted from the New York Times articles given to them. Kumararaja's segment is the longest and the most creative one.

Lalagunda Bommaigal

Sri Gouri Priya in Modern Love Chennai (2023).

Rajumurugan's segment is the most political one. Set in North Madras, the segment is filled with witty humor and is centered around a butter-biscuit maker Shoba (Sri Gouri Priya), who is coping with the pain caused by heartbreak as she underwent an abortion and tries to move on. She falls in love again leading to consequences.

The segment bases itself on the proverb ‘Never judge a book by its cover’ and dialogues are written with social context in mind. We get to familiarise ourselves with Lalagunda and its people like migrant Nathuram (Vasudevan Murali) does.

Lalagunda Bommaigal also breaks bigoted notions about migrants from North India and explores not just what Shoba goes through, but also what Vaijayanthi (a stellar Vasundhara Kashyap) had gone through. Sean Roldan's ‘Jingrudha Dhanga’ and 'Uravu' is so soothing with Nirav Shah's colorful cinematography.

Imaigal (Adapted and written by Balaji Tharaneetharan)

TJ Bhanu and Ashok Selvan in Modern Love Chennai (2023).

Balaji Sakthivel’s Imaigal focuses on Devi, suffering from a rare eye condition (Degenerative ocular disease aka macular degeneration) that will leave her completely blind in a decade or so. The segment opens with a scene where Devi (TJ Bhanu aka Parvati Murty) reveals her condition to her boyfriend Nithyanandham (Ashok Selvan) and tells him that life with her isn’t going to be as with the rest. After they get married and a few years pass by with the arrival of their daughter Tharani (Baby Aazhiya), the issues kick in with respect to Devi’s eye condition. Both the lead actors -- TJ Bhanu and Ashok Selvan perform exceptionally well and hold each scene together.

Imaigal also captures issues in a middle-class marriage with nuance. The shot of Devi crying at a bus stop alone and seeing Nithiya through her blur eye-sight his toes is so impactful and touching.

Cinematographer Jeeva Shankar has to be praised for the way he captures her struggles through her eyesight (Point-of-view aka POV). The last shot just speaks volumes. Yuvan Shankar Raja's music adds warmth to the story. You can also see Balaji Tharaneetharan's writing in this segment, which balances both lighter and hard-hitting movements in a smooth manner.

Kaadhal Enbadhu Kannula Heart Irukkura Emoji (Adapted and written by Reshma Ghatala)

Ritu Varma in Modern Love Chennai (2023).

Krishnakumar Ramakumar's Kaadhal Enbadhu Kannula Heart Irukkara Emoji is cut from the same cloth as Gautham Vasudev Menon's idea of romance and is an ode to such romantics, who think films are real-life portraits but gets subverted. It follows Mallika (Ritu Varma), who believes GVM's Alaipayuthey’s Madhavan and Vaaranam Aayiram's Krishnan are in real life too. This is the only segment that is light-hearted but stays charming.

Ritu Varma is aptly cast here and brings her charming screen presence with GV Prakash's Kukunnu. Nirav Shah's cinematography is praise-worthy, but the editing of Prasanna GK is what stands out. The last shot is so metaphorical and the segment is filled with cameos and callbacks to Tamil Cinema.

Margazhi (Adapted and written by Balaji Tharaneetharan)

Sanjula Sarathi in Modern Love Chennai (2023).

Akshay Sundher’s Margazhi is a heartwarming tale of teenage romance and the tenderness of the first kiss. It's bittersweet and the mood of the segment stays true to its title. It follows Jazmine (Sanjula Sarathi) a depressed teenager, living in a small town, who is trying to make sense of her parent’s divorce. She is a devout Christian who falls in love with Milton (Chu Khoy Sheng), a Delhiite spending his winter holidays with his grandmother. When she gets into a void, she turns on Ilaiyaraaja's music but soon finds an alternative. The segment is very moving and tugs at your heartstrings.

Vikas Vasudevan shoots the segment with the same gentleness the writing of Balaji Tharaneetharan has. Some shots are not framed in a template fashion purposefully showing how Sanjula's mind is -- confused and on a quest for love. Plenty of overhead shots show us the real Jazmine and how she feels about the ongoing situation.

Both Sanjula and Chu are perfect as teenagers falling in love and their performances with minimal expressions are underplayed and realistic. Ilaiyaraaja's music amps up the segment and set the tone right from the beginning. It is neither too modern nor too indie and stays truly original with its craft and what it wants to say.

Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal (Adapted and written by Pratheep Kumar S)

Vijayalakshmi, Ramya Nambessan and Kishore in Modern Love Chennai (2023).

Bharathiraja’s Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal is simply brilliant. It's a fresh take on a love triangle with a lot of maturity. Ramya Nambeesan truly becomes one of Bharathiraj's new-age heroines, who aces every single scene here. It is based on divorce, but its treatment is so original and fresh. It is about a wife Revathi (Ramya Nambessan) meeting with her husband Ravi's (Kishore) new lover Rohini (Vijayalakshmi Ahathian) to discuss how they are going to swap their worlds.

The segment is an ode to the late filmmaker Balu Mahendra and is extremely nuanced. Like, we get to know that there was an argument between Revathi and Ravi through a broken mirror even before Revathi tells it to Rohini.

The title is also metaphorical in how all of them are deers living in a bird’s nest (marriage). The long shot scene on the terrace is written by Pratheep Kumar so well and the segment never moves over to a dramatic tone, which is refreshing. Ilaiyaraaja again adds his magic in this one too but goes subtle.

Ninaivo Oru Paravai

Wamiqa Gabbi and PB in Modern Love Chennai (2023).

Thiagarajan Kumararaja's Ninaivo Oru Paravai is an unimaginably original piece that is centered on a young filmmaker K (PB) and his girlfriend Sam (Wamiqa Gabbi) laying its importance on physical love in a modern-day relationship.

The segment has no start or end in particular and has the most creative and unique visuals (brilliantly shot by Nirav Shah and Jeeva Shankar). All about Ninaivo Oru Paravai is like memory and delves deep into the human psyche - our thoughts, feelings, and ideologies and what we keep as a secret and what we don't. What slips with the rain and what does'nt.

Wamiqa Gabbi and PB are exceptional in this segment. The film has a stylised colour palette of scarlet and blue and that speaks metaphorically too. The segment is also feels like something filmmaker Charlie Kaufman would do. The staging, visual aesthetic, dialogues, Ilaiyaraaja’s background score everything makes this the best in the slot. Art director Shanmugaraja deserves equal praise for making the house look unique from the rest.

On the whole, Thiagarajan Kumararaja's anthology takes you by surprise as all six stories have the storytellers' own signature style and is deep and nuanced. You can see why Kumararaja and his core team has been roped in as the show-runner as he makes every story impactful and share some sort of connection all together either through colour palette or the climate of rain. Even the episodic format put out in the OTT has a effect on you -- kind off like a progression in moods with the way you watch it.

Modern Love Chennai is certainly a memorable anthology that leaves you wanting more as all of them have unique takes on love and romance with Ilaiyaraaja's magic on glory.