Modern Love Hyderabad review: Cheerful stories about different shades of love

Nagesh Kukunoor’s adaptation of Modern Love is a heartfelt tribute to Hyderabad, a city known for its rich culture, Irani chai, biriyani, haleem, nawabi Hindi and love for cinema. Six different stories, set against the beautiful backdrop of the city, explore different shades of love. We get an interesting mix of love-laced narratives with mostly happing endings, some predictable, some moving, but every one works to a large extent. Overall, it’s a show that showcases Hyderabad like never before and the presentation makes us laugh and also tugs at the heartstrings.

Why Did She Leave Me There...? featuring Suhasini Mani Ratnam and Naresh Agastya, explores an interesting facet of love, the kind that results in letting go to help someone understand the relationship better. Directed by Kukunoor himself, this story, though it is about love at its heart, also touches upon themes like loss, grief and forgiveness. Centred on the relationship between a grandmother and grandson, the story cuts back and forth to the slums of Hyderabad and the posh IT corridors.

It talks about a grandmother’s unconditional love for her grandson. She loves him so much that she lets him go (in an orphanage), only to make him realize many years later that she left him only because he could be at a better place. As the grandmother, Suhasini turns in a realistic performance. She is ably complemented by Naresh Agastya.

Finding Your Penguin, from Venkatesh Maha, has to be the gutsiest short of the lot. It is unafraid to tread unexplored territory. Centred on microbiologist Indu (played by Komalee Prasad), this short talks about her desperation to find the right match. Indu compares the men she dates with animals and birds, because she is a microbiologist. The idea is so bizarre that it takes a while for someone to even warm up to, let alone criticize.

The short makes an interesting point about finding one’s soulmate, and that there is no set pattern for anyone to follow to find their match. Sometimes, it could happen in the most unexpected ways or it might not happen at all.

My Unlikely Pandemic Dream Partner is a love story set in the narrow lanes of Hyderabad’s old city area which is densely populated by Muslims. Directed by Kukunoor, it explores the estranged relationship (due to an interfaith marriage) between a mother and her daughter who earn back their mutual love and respect when they are stuck during the lockdown under the same roof.

As the mother-daughter pair, Revathy and Nithya Menen are terrific in this segment and bring the best out of each other, producing seemingly effortless performances.

Without making it too obvious, this short also talks about how caste and community pride has soured relationships. Thankfully, this aspect of the short is not forced upon the viewer and is merely touched upon to leave the desired impact. The nod to Hyderabad’s nawabi delicacies leaves you craving a quick visit to the Telangana capital.

About That Rustle In The Bushes, by Devika Bahadhunam, is about an overprotective father, played by the ever reliable VK Naresh to the T. With a good dose of humour, here is a short that talks about familial ties and about why fathers can get very protective of their daughters. This is a simple short about a man who would do anything to see his daughter happy.

What Clown Wrote This Script, by Uday Gurrala, is a modern-day story of love that pays rich tribute to the city’s love for cinema. It features Malvika Nair as a stand-up comic and Abijeet Duddala as a producer who wants to take the OTT route. Using cinema as a backdrop, this is a light-hearted take on how young men and women see relationships today. It has its moments but doesn’t quite work wholesomely.

Fuzzy, Purple And Full Of Thorns is the third short in the series directed by Kukunoor. It’s an entertaining look at live-in relationships and centred on a couple played by Aadi Pinisetty and Ritu Varma who are madly in love but unsure of getting married. It also talks about what really defines a modern-day perspective of love and marriage. It has two lovely scenes featuring modern-day parents and what really brews in their heads when it comes to the marriage of their kids.

Modern Love Hyderabad is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.