Modern Love: Hyderabad

Modern Love: Hyderabad (2022)

I really enjoyed this show. Although some stories seemed totally Western, they incorporated these stories into the Telugu world pretty well. We usually don’t have a lot of films in Telugu which talk about feelings, nuances within relationships and conversation driven dramas with this tone and nuance. So it was very interesting to watch. Though I really enjoyed all the episodes, I was expecting to see these stories being set in the context of romantic relationships. Only 3 out of 6 stories deal with romantic relationships. That was my only setback, but having said that the episodes that made me feel the most was not about a romantic relationship. 

Episode 1: My unlikely pandemic partner, starring: Revathy, Nithya Menen

It’s a beautiful story. I was deeply moved by it. Relationships with parents is always complicated. There is tons of love, but there are a lot of issues hiding under them too. Sometimes they come out in unexpected times and create some discomfort for a while, and they again go away or go under the rug and it again gets back to being good. This is exactly how the episode is. We know there’s a conflict between them, it comes in between once in a while, but otherwise there’s a lot of love. 

I loved the scene where the both of them sleep beside each other and talk about their relationships. The writing of the scene and the tone, and the style in which it was shot was beautiful. Reminded me of some conversations in one of my favorite shows, Little Things. The ending of this episode was absolutely heart-warming. It beautifully talks about the situation of a person after their spouse passes away in the most bittersweet way. This ending is a nice tribute to Hyderabad, and anyone who loves the city cannot help but be charmed by this ending. 

Episode 2: Fuzzy, purple and full of thorns, starring: Ritu Verma, Aadi Pinishetty

I really enjoyed this episode. I like how it takes off and jumps ahead in their relationship. The moment Ritu opens the cupboard and finds the purple sandal, my mind paused for a second and imagined what the film would be about. I thought, Ritu’s lost sandal at the temple is this purple one, and Aadi was the one who stole it so that he can find an excuse to talk to her, and that’s what happened. So their entire relationship is based on a lie, and now she wants to talk about it. But no, this story wasn’t that. 

This was about how she’s insecure about him keeping his ex’s things. And they both are on different pages about this. I always see Ritu in this calm, composed manner and in this film, she has this side, but she also brought out a neurotic side along with it, which was very interesting. Although I enjoyed the premise and the tone, and where the film goes, I would’ve liked to see more justifications from each side for their arguments, or maybe explore more problems in their relationship starting with this.

Episode 3: Why did she leave me there? Starring: Suhasini, Naresh Agastya

This episode deals with abandonment issues – which is very relevant in the context of romantic relationships. But this story explores it through the roots of abandonment, when a kid feels abandoned when he’s left at a hostel by his grandmother who he deeply loved. I felt that the episode was middling, till the point where we realize that she’s going to leave him in the hostel and from the point where the kid realizes it, the episodes takes off beautifully and ends in a heart-wrenching place.

The issue with this episode for me was that, throughout the episode in the present, it doesn’t deal with the core point of the episode – abandonment. The setting in the present story has nothing to do with his issues. We just see that he’s doing well in his career. I wish I could draw more parallels from the present to the past in terms of where he is emotionally. That would’ve been really interesting. 

Episode 4: What clown wrote this script! Starring: Abijeet Duddala, Malavika Nair

I enjoyed this episode. I love how it was shot and performed. Both the actors were good. Abijeet had a heavy, glum face which spoke a lot and Malavika is this mysterious, charming girl who seems very deceptive, in a nice way. And I particularly liked the tone of the conversations in the episode. Although the stand-up bits didn’t land for me, I don’t know if they were meant to, but I feel like doing a stand up set in a film is the toughest thing, unless the actor writes the set and performs it by themselves. Because when you write jokes and ask someone else to perform them, it’s very challenging. 

I like the whole concept of the ‘telugu abbayi’ and how it was used as a running joke throughout the episode, and I liked the love story too. Although I wish I could feel a little more than what I did. I definitely enjoyed where the episode left me, it left me a bit hanging to see them together, it left me bittersweet to see them split and it left me smiling when there was hope in the ending. 

Episode 5: The rustle in the bushes. Starring: Ulka Gupta, Anirudh Pavithran, Naresh

This is the episode that moved me the most in this season. It’s a beautiful story, it works even on a story level and the actors just made it so better. The story is about a controlling father, who keeps an eye on his daughter all the time, and I feel like a lot of Asian people would relate to this on some level. Ulka Gupta was so good, her innocence added a beautiful layer to the character. Anirudh fits very well in his role. But there were a lot of jumps in their love story. I couldn’t figure why a seemingly traditional girl like her is interested in someone like him. 

Although I didn’t mind the incompletions because at the end of day, it’s a father-daughter love story. The ending broke my heart, because to me a controlling father is a villain. Prakash Raj in Bommarillu is not a character, he’s a villain to me. That’s how I’ve seen controlling fathers all my life. And here comes a film that suddenly makes me see the other side, and in the most heart-breaking way. I can easily say that this episode changed me as a person. 

Episode 6: Finding your penguin. Starring: Komalee Prasad

I really enjoyed this episode, because it talks about finding a mate from an evolutionary perspective. Since I’ve been reading about evolutionary psychology, mating strategies of people, inherent mate value that all of us have, this episode was quite fun to watch. It talks about how different animals find their mates and what mating strategies they have, and the character keeps trying to find love by the strategies taken by different animals. 

This episode stood out the most to me, in terms of the creative voice. It was very solid, especially with the cut-aways to the sequences where she’s dancing with weird costumes and set pieces. I really liked the casting too, the girl looks very Telugu and yet she brings out a beautiful modern-ness to the character and this makes the character urban as well as grounded and I thought that was a very interesting space to put the film in. I like the girl’s confusion and how her heart is all over the place.