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'24x7': Love bytes Arya

Love in the time of new media is the theme of Dileep-starrer Love 24x7, writes Deepa Gauri.

WRITER SREEBALA MENON, who has earlier assisted veteran director Sathyan Anthikadu, turns independent with the Dileep starrer Love 24x7, now playing at theatres in the UAE. While the film hasn't set the box office on fire, it has earned its director a fair share of appreciation for the effortless ease with which the movie flows and for handling romance in a more mature fashion than is seen in cinemas now.
For Sreebala, the film was about observing love blossom within a workplace. That the setting she chose for the movie is the newsroom makes it even more delightful.
So we have Dileep rising to the occasion, mimicking a number of television presenters and presenting a television studio's inside jokes.
The film traverses through the relationship between an eminent newsman Roopesh Nambiar (Dileep) and the camaraderie he develops with Kabani (Nikhila Vimal, who marks her debut as a lead actress after notable roles in film and serials), a newcomer to the maddening world of 24x7 news.
Love 24x7 also takes viewers on another journey - of mature romance - that involves notable television personality and actor Sashi Kumar and actress Suhasini.
While reviewers observed that the film tends to lag when it focuses on the older couple, it is an integral part of Sreebala's vision to make a film "not only about ourselves but also those who walked before us," as she observed in an interview.
Sreebala attempts to bring diverse perspectives to the narrative, portraying different cultural and social milieus within Kerala.
Coming to life from a short story that she had written, Love 24x7 also has an impressive cast of accomplished actors such as Sreenivasan, Lena and Shankar Ramakrishnan.
The focus of the film, according to the director, is to go behind the scenes into the lives of TV reporters and presenters - an aspect that is seldom tackled with honesty in films.
To date, television journalism, despite its deep impact on society, has been treated with indifference on screen.
If you are up for a breezy tale of romance in many avatars, enveloped in dollops of good-natured humour, Love 24x7 is an entertaining watch.