Oru Adaar Love Review: Incompetent, relentlessly repulsive filmmaking on display

Oru Adaar Love is the kind of film that you take your girlfriend to if you want her to break up with you. All you have to do is tell her that you liked it even if you didn't. She is going to dump you faster than you can say Adaar, because your taste in movies is so horrible. I watched this alone, and I'm glad I did.

Whoever thought this would make an ideal Valentine's Day release? I can't recall such a terribly unromantic, unimaginatively plotted film in recent memory. It's a big cinematic middle finger to anyone who dared to buy a ticket to this. I tried hard to look for at least one redeeming feature in the film, but failed to find any. Just when you think you've found one, out of nowhere comes an atrocious, tonally inconsistent situation that completely ruins the mood.

Director: Omar Lulu
Cast: Roshan Abdul Rahoof, Priya Prakash Varrier, Noorin Shereef

Anyone who has been closely following movie updates for the past year would know that the film's release got pushed several months in order to cash in on Priya Prakash Varrier's overnight popularity. I was one of those people who wasn't charmed by the 'iconic' wink, and after having seen the film on the big screen, I can say that there is nothing extraordinary about her performance. In fact, I found to my surprise that the other actors in the film have given relatively superior performances, despite the kind of script they've had to work with. Roshan Abdul Rahoof shares much better chemistry with Noorin Shereef than he does with Priya. And all their companions seem to be having much fun regardless of the quality of lines they have to deliver.

It's the same old story with the same old tropes we've seen a million times before. A group of teenagers, for some odd reason, are in the mood for love on their first day in high school. Let me ask you this: When you were in high school, have you seen all your classmates experiencing the urge to find their true love at the same time? Maybe it's the specialty of this particular school, because everyone is after somebody, irrespective of age.

In a film like this, you're not surprised when you see a female student getting emotional over her male teacher's cheesy speech, or a male student dreaming of pursuing a serious relationship with his female teacher, whose subject is...wait for it...biology. Oh, and if you're patient enough to not leave midway, you'll get to meet this boy's supportive father who tells him, "It's obvious from her anatomy that she is a biology teacher." And this happens just minutes after he informs the son's scornful principal that it's uneducated fishermen like him who emerged as heroes in the recent Kerala floods. This should suffice to give you a clear picture of what the entire film is like.

Oru Adaar Love is a classic example of lazy, incompetent and relentlessly repulsive filmmaking. It's one man's twisted teenage fantasy unleashed upon thousands of unsuspecting viewers. It's akin to going to a masseur who promises to make you feel good but then ends up twisting your neck.