'Love Storiyaan' review: A heart-warming collection of real-life tales
Love knows no boundaries, for it transcends cast, religion, region, and even gender. Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta's anthology series Love Storiyaan brings you such six tales. While each story is compelling enough, the anthology starts on a great story and loses traction in between only to pick up pace again. It premiered on Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday and is backed by Dharmatic Entertainment.
Hardik Mehta's 'An Unsuitable Girl'
Hardik Mehta's directorial is the first and warmest story in this anthology. Aekta Kapoor is in her early 30s, divorced, and a mother of two when she comes across Ullekh NP, her love. There have been numerous roadblocks in their journey - divorce stigma and cultural differences being just a few. But the biggest challenge for them was to gain Kapoor's young daughters' acceptance.
Defying taboos and stigmas
It's the perfect starter for the series where you meet a couple who defied all societal norms and stigmas to be together. Apart from their own, it's their daughters' accounts that give you a brief idea of the tsunami of troubles they have been through, not only before their marriage but also after. It's a love story that's filled with hope, positivity, and persistence.
Vivek Soni's 'Love on Air'
Vivek Soni's story is of two Radio Jockeys (RJs)—Rajani and Nicholas—in Shillong, Meghalaya. They meet through a common admirer, Mandira, who paves the way for their friendship. A timid Rajani falls in love with a flamboyant Nick. Their story hits a hurdle when Rajani's parents oppose their relationship over his religion, but mostly his marital status as a divorcee and a father.
'Love on Air' is straight out of a movie!
My second favorite pick from the anthology is Love on Air which is helmed by Soni and co-written by him along with Aarsh Vora. Hands down, my favorite moment from this tale was when Rajani, unknowingly, plays a prank on his rival RJ, Nick. Mandira's first meeting with their son was heartwarming, too. Trust the writers to give you many emotional and funny moments.
Shazia Iqbal's 'Homecoming' and Akshay Indikar's 'Raah Sangharsh Ki'
The third and fourth episodes in this series are Homecoming and Raah Sangharsh Ki, respectively. Homecoming is about a Bangladeshi inter-faith couple who moved to India during the Liberation War since their families wouldn't accept their alliance. Raah Sangharsh Ki tells the story of an IIT Kharagpur graduate-turned-tribal activist who falls in love with a Dalit woman, who's also an activist.
This is where it gets slow
The first two stories raise the bar so high that Homecoming and Raah Sangharsh Ki don't appeal much. Are these stories any less compelling? No; they're very inspiring. Yet, they don't build a connection. While the rest of the stories were fairly young, these two are from much older times. These were extraordinary tales but lacked narration and direction like the rest.
Archana Phadke's 'Faasley'
This story grabs your undivided attention once again with Dhanya Ravindran and Homayon Khoram's relationship. It is an international love story between an Indian girl and an Afghani boy that blossomed in Russia. If religion and nationality weren't enough to create trouble in their paradise, the Taliban's control over Afghanistan in the year 1997, hit them hard.
Love that braced the Taliban's regime in the late '90s
Long-distance relationships are difficult but what Ravindran and Khorum had to go through was beyond that. It's one of the most moving stories and a compelling one. When Ravindran recalls the first time she landed in Kabul, Khorum asked her to "look down and not smile," giving us a glimpse of how horrifying it must have been for their marriage under the Taliban regime.
Collin D'Cunha's 'Love Beyond Labels'
Director Colling D'Cunha, in his section, has narrated the story of West Bengal's first married trans couple - Tista Das and Dipan Chakraborty. Das underwent a sex change operation to become a woman while Chakraborty also underwent surgery to become a man. Das, a transgender rights activist, met Chakraborty through her organization and eventually married him in 2019.
It focuses more on their individual struggles
Unfortunately, the weakest story in the Valentine's Day collection is D'Cunha's Love Beyond Labels, which has been co-written by him and Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar. Though it does move you by showing the hardships they individually went through, there was very little shown about their love story. The writers focused more on their journeys of becoming a transwoman and a transman.
Watch to celebrate these inspiring real-life stories
The main factor why it mostly worked for me was because these aren't fictional tales but real stories that strengthen one's belief in love. On the technical aspect, each story has been set for around 30-35 minutes; it could've been cropped by 15-20 minutes in totality. Jonita Gandhi's track Aashiyaan, composed by Shantanu Dutta, has my heart! Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars.
