LOVE ON THE SLOW LANE

Modern Love Chennai lacks the passion that its central theme seems to demand

- ANJULY MATHAI

Love, as portrayed onscreen, usually falls into two categories. Either it is the loud, bombastic, over-the-top variety, drenched in glamour and customised for that "warm, fuzzy feeling". Or it is the subdued kind, usually steeped in the drudgery of everyday life. Both types are susceptible to opposing dangers. In the first, the danger is of excess-too much of bubble-wrapped fantasy and song-and-dance escapism. In the second, the danger is of sparseness-too little of melodrama and whimsy. Modern Love Chennai firmly falls in the second category. It is most comfortable in its own ordinariness. It tells gentle, slice-of-life stories set in houses with peeling walls, dark alleyways, crowded metros and grubby street corners. Its heroes are pani puri sellers, biscuit makers, construction workers and college professors. No shining Lotharios or tower-trapped princesses in this show.