Lately, streaming platforms have shown more interest in creating romantic anthologies. This is meant to include all classes, genders and ages through different love stories. Little Hearts could’ve been one of those anthologies with its three love stories ticking a few boxes in the representation list. However, does the movie have anything else to offer beyond being progressive? Let’s find out.
Set in Pushpakandam, a village in Idukki, Little Hearts revolves around two neighborly families primarily. Sibi (Shane Nigam) and Baby (Baburaj) are a cool father-son duo who work together at a cardamom plantation owned by Baby’s friend Johnson (Renji Panicker). Amongst these three love stories is 55 year old Baby’s relationship with Sicily, his teenage sweetheart who is now separated from her husband. Then we have Sibi secretly loving Shosha, his childhood friend and Johnson’s daughter. The third story features Sharon (Shine Tom Chacko), Shosha’s brother, and his foreign partner.
Little Hearts’ screenplay penned by Rajesh Pinnadan along with the two directors follows quite a simple approach of spacing out the three love tracks one after another but it backfires when only one couple gets focused on leaving the rest completely sidelined. For example, though Baburaj and Ramya Suvi share beautiful chemistry as seen from their performances here this doesn’t change anything since even emotional weight was not put into their story which still remains very interesting especially for Ramya who delivers such dignified performance playing someone whose desires are tied down by societal expectations while acting alongside opposite sex actors like Baburaj portraying characters similar to him such as Salt N’ Pepper’s Baby however less successful.
Among the three Shane Nigam-Mahima Nambiar romance seems weakest too because except for few montage shots set against some melodious tunes there’re hardly any scenes showing closeness between them as lovers and this may have been due to over-reliance on their RDX fame by makers. The third story touches upon rarely dealt with subjects in Malayalam cinema but it still only scratches surface without going deeper into those areas.
(Spoilers ahead)
Sharon’s coming with his gay partner brings about a nice change from Little Hearts’ routine. Sibi initially not accepting the couple is played for laughs, though this could’ve been done better if they hadn’t repeatedly used derogatory words like ‘Kundan ’. While not delving into complexities of being queer or identity crisis faced by such individuals within Kerala society deeply enough, movie does try to depict some suppressed feelings exhibited by them instead. Shine Tom who has always played loud caricaturish roles before impresses with how he handles conflicted state which is symptomatic more than overtly feminine behaviour shown here; there are other stereotypical traits associated with these kinds of characters either displayed throughout script or performed physically during acting process itself because Sharon never speaks much nor opens up much while also dressing fully covered clothes most times probably not wanting others see him through completely thus shine does justice internally towards role yet again delivering good performance compared to recent times.
(End of spoiler)
The film would have been more substantial if it had spent longer on Sharon and Baby’s stories, rather than trying too hard with Siby’s character. Shane Nigam, who is often said to only play Kochikaaran roles, is inconsistent and not as much of a do-gooder Idukkikaaran type. Another thing, the actor normally known for being effortless looks a bit fake this time round.
Little Hearts could have been a good entertainer with competent actors and an interesting premise but it opts for the bare minimum instead. Little Hearts is not wholehearted though its heart is in right place.
For More Movies Visit Putlocker.