If there is one thing I learned about myself from Modern Love Chennai, it is that I unequivocally find autobiographical voiceover — even that of a woman — as ear-piercing as fingernails scratching a chalkboard. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Produced by Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Tyler Durden and Kino Fist, Modern Love Chennai is a potpourri of tenderness, warmth, rebellion, acceptance, uncomfortable realities and discomfiting imagination. Each story adapted from articles published in the New York Times deliberately sidesteps what is commonly seen in Tamil cinema as ‘love.’ For starters, each story is a woman’s, but that’s surprisingly besides the point here.
Raju Murugan’s Lalagunda Bommaigal is hilariously cynical. It begins with an abortion, a doctor making judgmental and snarky comments, yet going on about her job rather matter-of-factly. From there, we see love and faith go up and down throughout the film. Shoba, the fierce and determined protagonist (played exceptionally by Sri Gouri Priya) falls in and out of love, cock-sure of surviving it all. She’s not the only one, though. Nearly every woman has a love story — each funny, dark and introspective in its own way.