Karan Johar and Somen Mishra’s ‘Love Storiyaan’ web series review

Cast: Aekta Kapoor, Ullekh NP, Nicholas Jonathan Kharnami, Rajani Karki Chhetri, Farida Saha, Sunit Kumar Saha, Rahul Banerjee, Subhadra Khaperde, Dhanya Ravindran, Homayon Khoram, Tista Das and Dipan Chakraborty

Directors: Hardik Mehta, Vivek Soni, Shazia Iqbal, Rahul Badwelkar, Akshay Indikar, Archana Phadke and Collin D’Cunha

Language: Hindi

There’s a saying that goes like this- Love has no language. There’s another saying that goes like- Love knows no boundaries. And both the adages have made their way into the Hindi film landscape and birthed all sorts of love stories, from charming to cliched to cacophonous, exactly how love should be. And Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment has made a series callled Love Storiyaan, created by Somen Mishra. The writers involved in this creation are Mirat Trivedi, Hardik Mehta, Aarsh Vora, Vivek Soni, Rahul Badwelkar, Shazia Iqbal, Akshay Indikar, Tejashri Akshay, Arya Rothe, Archana Phadke, Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar and Collin D’Cunha.

Love in confinement and landscapes

The series chronicles the journey of six real-life couples, how the twain met, the conflicts they faced, and all their moments of passion and tinges of grief through recorded interviews, anecdotes, and actual footages. The first story unfolds in a confined office space where two people fall for each other through messages and mails. ‘Shall I block him,’ is one of the first responses of the woman who eventually ends up being the man’s wife. The second story begins with some sprawling shots of the mountains and is a saga that unravels in the landscapes of our country. And then we get to see Kolkata, bursting with busyness and beauty. There’s a sense of chaos and charm the city of joy exudes, and in that city is a couple that’s celebrating 46 years of love and madness. Before we get a sense of the people whose love stories we witness, we get to witness the world they inhabit and occupy, and how it played a role in uniting them. For instance, the people in the mountains have to be prepared for the clouds storming into their homes, and Kolkata is described as a city that doesn’t question someone’s cast or creed.

Love and War, and Tragedy

But the fourth and the fifth stories are the most important and interesting. In story number four, a man is charged of sedition and his only glimmer of hope is his wife. There are discomforting conversations and dangerous consequences as the lady Subhadra Khaperde belongs to a family of Dalit villagers. And the fifth one takes us to the horrors of Afghanistan, where war takes over and love survives and conquers. The couple of this story struggles to recollect what is anything but a memory, and the one word they utter is ‘helplessness’.

The series does a convincing job of combining different facets and conflicts of love and affection, and amalgamating them into one series about passion. But don’t be fooled by the title of the series, it’s just as fearful take on love as its frothy. Oh yes, Happy Valentine’s Day too!

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

Love Storiyaan is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video IN