#Love series story:
Tara (Aishwarya Lekshmi) is the founder of Found dating app, as she firmly believes that it is compatibility that drives foremost couples in love and find each other. Matthew (Arjun Das) is an investor in Found’s rival app Find My Bae that matches people based on their chemistry. But when Tara and Matthew meet and find their moments, while challenging each other to try out the other app, to find their love, they indeed find more about themselves and what is the romance they are looking for.
#Love series review:
When a strong entrepreneur like Tara compares couples to jigsaw puzzles, with compatibility being the little crevices that make them fit perfectly, Matthew replaces puzzles with magnets that simply attract each other with a strong pull. There is physics and math in both magnets and puzzles, but #Love’s Matthew and Tara seem keen to skip those lessons and head straight to art class, instead of the intended chemistry lesson. Netflix’s latest Tamil offering is all sugar and spice, but the combination does not quite result in everything nice.
Watching #Love, directed by Balaji Mohan, is a reminder of his 2017 rom-com series As I’m Suffering From Kadhal, which featured three couples at different stages of life finding their way through romance. While the earlier series had enough to keep audiences intrigued, invested and, more importantly, engaged with its characters, #Love, as its modern counterpart, feels comparatively plain, with little solid for its premise to build on.
The basic one-liner of the series, compatibility versus chemistry, sounds interesting on paper. So, when the first episode ends on this hook, with the obvious suggestion that Tara and Matthew are likely to be drawn to each other, the anticipation is established early. However, the episodes stretch this premise farther than necessary, leaving the central conflict feeling thinner with each passing episode.
The series is also weighed down by one-dimensional characters. The CEO of Find My Bae, who can go to any extent to pull Tara down, feels more like a convenient antagonist than a fully realised character. Matthew’s friends, meanwhile, add a vanilla presence to the proceedings without bringing enough weight to the story.
There is, however, something that #Love gets right, particularly in the casting of its leads. Aishwarya Lekshmi as Tara is a perfect fit, and the actor brings out the human side of a woman who has had her fair share of wounds. Arjun Das is equally effective as Matthew, a man of few words whose adrenaline rush keeps pushing him forward despite carrying a heavier past.
But beyond the performances, the writing lacks the depth required to move the story forward. Despite the advantage of episodic storytelling, and the fact that some of the supporting characters get their own arcs that could have potentially developed into fleshed-out subplots, #Love merely breezes over them. A man willing to open up about himself, a married woman who finds a platonic safe space in another man, the endearing relationship between a step-sister and brother, and the way a celebrity’s quick shoutout can make a business boom in today’s digitally hooked era all work in limited fashion, even as they show the potential for something more.
#Love series verdict:
With its modern setup, decent production values and notable performances, #Love aims for the stars but settles for a few drizzles. The compatibility-versus-chemistry premise has enough potential, and Aishwarya Lekshmi and Arjun Das give the central relationship the required warmth, but the writing rarely digs deep enough into what makes the idea compelling. The result is a passable rom-com that has its moments but can feel stretched and underwhelming along the way.
*#Love is streaming now on Netflix*
