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Cast: Gouri Kishan, Ramzan Muhammed, V Jayaprakash, Jayasudha, Maya Krishnan
Creator: Madhumitha
Streaming On: JioHotstar
Language: Tamil
Runtime: 8 Episodes of 40 mins each.
What if life gives you a chance to redo it and fulfil your unfulfilled dreams? Maybe this is a question you have been asked during those Saturday night games. But what if it magically comes true? You have the mind of a 60-year-old, but your body ages backwards by 40 years. This means no more diabetes, bad backs or aching knees. You get a chance to be what you always wanted to be. Sounds exciting, right? Love Always explores exactly that.
Love Always Review: What’s It About:
The Tamil series is the Indian adaptation of the popular Korean webtoon Here We Go Again. The original series was released a decade ago and garnered over 200 million views. Filmmaker Madhumitha has adapted the wildly popular Korean story into Tamil for JioHotstar.
It has a fun premise where a couple in their fifties, who have grandchildren, get a chance to relive their youth. Through magic, they get to go back 40 years. But it is not that they actually travel back in time. Instead, they physically turn into their 20-year-old selves while remaining in the present day. Initially confused by this magical turn of events, they are forced to navigate life as 20-year-olds. They eventually find the positives in it and enjoy things they might have missed out on, either in their current lives or when they were actually 20.
Surprisingly, this magic takes place just when their family is preparing for their vow renewal. In certain Tamil cultures, couples renew their vows when the husband turns 60. At this moment, Manjula (Jayasudha) announces that she wants a divorce from her husband, Kannan (V Jayaprakash).
The family is stunned and decides to make their parents realise that they should stay together. During a trip, the couple accidentally falls into a cave and gets affected by magical powers that turn them into 20-year-olds. However, their minds are still those of 60-year-olds. There is also one more person in Manjula and Kannan’s life who undergoes the same transformation. How they navigate this new phase of their lives forms the crux of the show.
Love Always Review: What Works:
Love Always has a great theme, even if it comes with a generic title. It is an adaptation of a Korean series, but the themes and values of the story are very much in sync with Indian society. It speaks about families, the need to strengthen family ties and the importance of staying together even in the face of adversity. The core of the series is family and how most problems can be resolved through proper communication. It also addresses common family obstacles, including generational trauma that keeps getting passed down.
Even with the older couple going back 40 years in time, we see them being themselves with each other. Gouri Kishan and Ramzan play the young Manjula and Kannan in the series, and their chemistry is a highlight when it comes to performances. They bring a certain joy to an otherwise dull and dragged-out narrative.
Love Always Review: Star Performance:
Jayasudha, V Jayaprakash, Ramzan and Gouri Kishan play the primary couple. Jayaprakash and Jayasudha play their parts to perfection and are honestly limited by the script and the expectations of their characters. Their characters don’t have a great arc and more or less remain where they started.
Gouri Kishan and Ramza bring some respite to the borderline tragic family drama. The college scenes, especially, are interesting and could have occupied more screen time.
Maya Krishnan seems to be the only one who gets an appropriate role. She, too, ages backwards physically but retains a personality that is 40 years older. She channels a vamp-like character that you might truly associate with the kind of antagonists we saw over 20 years ago.
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Love Always Review: What Doesn’t Work:
The biggest letdown of the show lies in its treatment. The series takes a very TV-serial-esque approach. This feels dated in an age when series are constantly attempting to outdo each other. With an eight-episode series, one needs episodes to end at interesting junctures to drive audience curiosity. However, barring the penultimate episode, the series fails to keep you hooked. Most of the subplots are quite predictable, and the little conflicts in the story get resolved way too conveniently.
At the beginning of the series, when Manjula and Kannan are quite confused about the turn of events, Kannan makes a reference to a popular movie. He immediately connects his situation to Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s Oh Baby, which was a hit. Alas, what Love Always misses out on is the opportunity to reflect on how a 20-year-old body with a 60-year-old mind behaves in society. The series could have explored their observations when they find themselves in a community dominated by the youth.
The climax is also quite underwhelming despite its potential. It tries to make a point about loyalty and love, but more or less falls flat. With vague dialogue about logic and magic, the series eventually does a disservice to both and truly tests the audience’s patience.
Love Always Review: Last Words:
The series not only has a generic and uninteresting title, but its storytelling also remains pretty generic. Despite having an interesting mix of characters, it never explores any of their equations in depth. With each episode spanning 30–40 minutes, the series had enough time to explore multiple characters but never does justice to them or their problems. The primary couple has children and grandchildren with strong individual personalities, yet their stories go nowhere.
1.5 stars!
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