Lover Movie Synopsis
A couple, dating for six years, find themselves at the crossroads of their relationship as insecurity and possessiveness threatens to split them apart.
Lover Movie Review
Lover by Prabhuram Vyas tells the story of Divya (Sri Gouri Priya), an IT employee who shares with her office colleagues a day by the beach where she met Arun (Manikandan) and fell in love with him. She smiles at the memory but then something happens. Arun calls her. Her smile turns into a frown. She picks up hesitantly, lies that she’s at a function when he asks what she’s doing because she knows if she tells him the truth he’ll lose it. He doesn’t believe her, starts probing has caught on to her lie from a pic that her friend has shared on social media. Furious, he confronts her later at her apartment. They fight. She pleads with him, berates him for drinking, threatens to walk out. He screams, gaslights her, says sorry a lot later. They make up.
Throughout Lover, what Prabhuram Vyas does is this opening scene fighting; drinking; gaslighting; warning, apologising, patching up and these variations keep us engaged in the push-pull of this relationship that’s at crossroads after six years together, can two lovers be independent (a young woman wants to be independent; her boyfriend is insecure and possessive)? they both care about each other so where is breaking point?
It’s this sort of no-frills (and glorification) storytelling that works well for Prabhuram Vyas here with his understated visuals courtesy cinematographer Shreyaas Krishna which lend authenticity plus composer Sean Roldan’s evocative songs deliver mood effectively alongside realistic segues between scenes while actors Manikandan and Sri Gouri Priya bring life into their roles as lead characters something lacking in many films these days.
The writing tries to be truthful, reflecting the mindset of contemporary 20-somethings when it comes to relationships. We see this in Divya, who, as much as she loves Arun, has to make decisions that preserve her identity, even if they have to be done at great cost. We see this in her friends, who want to protect her and be there for her but also let her make her own decisions. We see this in Madan (Kanna Ravi), Divya’s new teammate, who finds himself drawn into a clash between two lovers. We also see this in Arun, who realizes the error of his ways and turns over a new leaf having grown up in a broken family which contributes heavily towards his flaws.
The subplot involving Saravanan and Geetha Kailasam (Arun’s parents) humanizes him more while showing that even older adults aren’t any better equipped than young people are at dealing with relationship issues.
In the second half, things do get a bit slow after such an engaging first half. But even in those moments, there are peaks like Divya’s heartbreaking apology to Arun’s mom, or her friend Suhail’s (Harish Kumar) throwaway line when Arun tells him he loves her fiercely, or the scene where Divya finally figures out what needs to be done. We can tell that she knows saying this could make Arun change his life on the spot, but she’s also been putting it off because she doesn’t want to hurt him; once she says that, there’s no going back for either of them. The writer and director should get credit for making this moment at once sad, sweet and quietly devastating.
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