Love Matteru Movie Review – The heart is in the right place, but the execution keeps tripping

'Love matteru, maga', a phrase often overheard on campuses or in small-town hangouts, tossed around with ease, a casual shrug that explains everything from awkward silences to reckless choices. Virata Bilwa seizes on this colloquialism and stretches it into a full-length narrative, searching for drama in the casualness with which we treat broken hearts.

Director: Virata Bilwa

Cast: Virata Bilwa, Sonal Monteiro, Achyuth Kumar, Suman Ranganathan, Anitha Bhat, and Sushmitha Gopinath

The film opens on a cheeky note with King Ramanna (Lokesh Achar) performing a morning pooja at a liquor shop. It is the kind of scene that tells you right away this is not a polished fairytale, but a story rooted in small-town oddities where liquor shops, heartbreak advice, and failed romances sit side by side.

Dilip, or Dil (Virata Bilwa) as he insists on being called, carries himself with the arrogance of a man who believes emotions can be outrun on a motorbike. Yet, like most 'love matter' veterans, he soon realises swagger does not shield him from betrayal. His instant attraction to Shalini (Sushmitha Gopinath) collapses when he discovers she loves someone else, and in that quiet defeat, he stumbles into Varsha (Sonal Monteiro), another bruised heart nursing her own wounds. Their romance is not fireworks, but two people awkwardly testing if broken pieces can fit together again.

The real surprise of the film is not the young romance, but the track involving Athmaram (Achyuth Kumar) and Shyamala (Suman Ranganathan), played with aching simplicity. Watching them circle back into each other’s lives feels like stumbling upon an old song you once loved and forgot. The way they negotiate age, regret, and leftover tenderness is perhaps the film’s most honest stretch.

Virata Bilwa wears two hats here, as lead actor and debut director, and the weight of that ambition is felt. He wants to please everyone: the college crowd that craves bike rides and bar banter, the family audience that expects sentiment, and the multiplex-goer who enjoys layered emotions. As a result, Love Matteru is bursting with ingredients—betrayal, action, songs, comedy—but like a curry with too many spices, the flavour is not always consistent.

The screenplay sways unevenly. Some scenes linger unnecessarily, while crucial moments such as the climax rush past without giving us time to breathe. There is an old-world charm in its attempt to say, “Don’t jump to conclusions after heartbreak, think before you act,” but the telling of that message feels patchy.

Still, the film offers scattered pleasures. Shadrach Solomon’s music finds moments of lift, especially when paired with lyrics that carry weight. Achyuth Kumar and Suman Ranganathan shine in roles that deserve a film of their own. Sonal Monteiro lends Varsha the right measure of gentleness, while Anitha Bhat makes for a sharp foil as the antagonist. Virata Bilwa himself is confident, though less convincing when the mask of bravado slips.

So, what is Love Matteru finally? It serves as a reminder of how casually we use that phrase, as though heartbreak were a mere inconvenience. The film insists that love matters, even in its failures. However, while the heart of the film is in the right place, the craft keeps tripping up. You walk out, not dismissing it entirely, but wishing the narrative had matched the rawness of the title itself.