LOVE SHARE SUBSCRIBE (LSS) MOVIE REVIEW
Cast: Aadhav Krishna, Simran Advani, Badava Gopi, Vinodhini, Jawa Sundaresan
Director: R. Mahalakshmi Murugan
The first half of LSS writes a cheque the second half can’t cash. What starts as a passable college romance between studious Shiva (Aadhav Krishna) and wealthy North Indian transplant Pooja (Simran Advani) eventually wanders into Kashi and forgets why it went there.
The setup is straightforward. Pooja falls for Shiva’s sincerity and discipline. He warms up. She wins over his parents, played by Badava Gopi and Vinodhini, the latter getting a few enjoyable scenes as a serial-obsessed mother. There’s a younger brother who lands some cute moments. The college stretch isn’t inventive, but it moves at a reasonable pace and keeps things civilized. Director R. Mahalakshmi Murugan shows she can handle warm domestic texture. The problem is that she builds a house in the first half and burns it down in the second.
Pooja’s absent mother lives in Kashi. Pooja wants to introduce Shiva before they marry, so off they go. The mother gets an elaborate buildup, appearing shrouded in mystery. You’d expect her to be central to whatever conflict follows. She isn’t. After a brief meeting where she offers some vague advice about choices, Pooja heads back to the lodge, gets chased by unknown men, meets with an accident, and ends up comatose in a hospital. From here, the film becomes a thriller it has no idea how to execute. An organ trafficking subplot materializes out of nowhere. Shiva gets arrested. Pooja’s rich father shows up to glare at everyone. A police investigation plods along. None of it generates tension because the writing treats every development as a surprise without doing the groundwork to earn one.
Aadhav Krishna tries hard but doesn’t command the screen. When Shiva needs to fight for Pooja, the urgency feels performed rather than felt. Simran Advani is more convincing in the romantic portions, but the script benches her for most of the second half, leaving her with little beyond a climax appearance. Jawa Sundaresan, playing a comic sidekick named Chamms who keeps stumbling into the investigation, provides the only genuine laughs. The rest of the supporting cast functions as furniture.
N.S. Sathish Kumar’s camera makes Kashi look gorgeous. That’s about the only department that delivers in the back half. Ashwamithra’s songs and score pass without leaving a mark. The editing needed to be sharper by a good fifteen minutes, particularly in the hospital stretch, which circles the same beats until you stop caring.
LSS has a first half that’s pleasant enough to sit through and a second half that tests your willingness to. The gap between what it sets up and what it delivers is wide enough to drive an auto-rickshaw through.