Chennai Love Story

Love can’t possibly be that bad. Though every time someone proposes in Chennai Love Story—twice, really, but it feels like two times too much—the characters weep as though handed a diagnosis of terminal illness. Their bodies heave, struck by anxiety. They turn away from the lover proclaiming love. They can’t stop crying. Love, really, must be that bad.

It is unfair to analyse a film as two halves. In the case of debut director Ravi Namburii’s Telugu film Chennai Love Story, however, it becomes inevitable. Sai Rajesh, who has written the story, screenplay and produced the film, introduces a twist at the mid-point that changes how the audience is likely to perceive the film. Everything from this point depends on whether one gives in to an idea that defies logic and what it entails, even if the story thankfully ends on a pragmatic note.