What’s life like behind the camera as a news presenter of a popular television channel?
Sreebala K Menon, the Sahithya Akademi-award winning writer-turned-director, explores this in Love 24x7.
Roopesh Nambiar (Dileep) is a news presenter at a television channel and is much admired. When a young trainee journalist, Kabani (Nikhila Vimal), joins the office, Nambiar is initially put off by her Trivandrum slang, but it does not take long for Cupid to strike an arrow into their hearts.
While this is the main love story, Menon also narrates the story of Dr Sarayu (Suhasini Maniratnam), a widow who now juggles between baby-sitting her grandchild in the US and spending time alone in Kerala. Sarayu is taken by surprise when her old college mate and lover, Satheesh (Sasi Kumar), visits her. Do the old sparks fly again?
Menon’s story is about the choices women have to make, be it Kabani, who wants to scale great professional heights but whose lover insists that she quit work and move abroad with him. Or the newsroom head (played by Lena) who has to make a choice between work and staying at home with her little daughter. Menon also talks about the hypocrisy prevalent in the media world and the drive to sensationalise news.
What lingers in the mind long after the curtains go down is the story of the elderly couple. Warm and tender, their love story is mature yet fresh in Malayalam cinema.
Menon could have worked more on the relationship between the young pair, Nambiar and Kabani.
It’s a completely new Dileep and you will love him. As Roopesh he not only looks cool and stylish, his character is convincing, without the lowbrow humour that one has seen in some of his films.
This is Vimal’s first role as a heroine and she is promising as she turns Kabani, a simple and diffident trainee, into a hip and a confident news presenter. Lena is good, as always, playing the understanding boss of Kabani. Sreenivasan as the bureau chief is great. Sashi Kumar fits in well as Sarayu’s college mate.
Sreebala makes a good opening with ‘Love 24x7,’ a film that is worth a watch.
