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Forbidden Love Zee5 Review – Onerous fate of “forbidden” love in Indian context, explored through four vicarious stories.
Forbidden Love is an anthology of 4 love stories, directed by 4 accomplished and well-known directors. Pradeep Sarkar, Priyadarshan, Anniruddha Roy Chaudhary and Mahesh Manjrekar go all out to direct compelling stories which exemplify the outlawed.
So far, Zee5 has released two stories ‘ Arranged Marriage’ ( Directed by Pradeep Sarkar) and ‘Anamika’ (Directed by Priyadarshan). The rest two are slated to release on September 24,2020. The stories ‘Rules of the Game’ and ‘Diagnosis of Love’
Arranged Marriage
This story details the social tribulations and internal dilemma faced by a homosexual couple. While the struggle for social acceptance is real and rather uphill, the story takes it way too far when even a medical practitioner claims the phenomena of Homosexuality to be a disease. That it can be cured with, wait for it, ‘electric shocks’ is a page from a rotten book.
Dev (Ali Fazal) and Neil (Omkar Kapoor) are lovers. Under pressure from his family, Neil gets married to Dev’s cousin Kiya (Patralekha). Unable to fathom the reason for the physical distancing that Neil adheres to, Kiya resorts to taking help from the occult as well as psychiatry to understand her husband’s reason for lack of interest in physical intimacy. To her utter shock, she discovers that her husband is a homosexual and having an affair with own cousin , Dev, whom she is aware is a homosexual.
Thus ensues her vain and lame efforts to change the sexual interest of her husband, supported by an ill informed psychiatrist. How the trio in this complicated situation live out “their own right” is the rest of the story.
Anamika
The Forbidden Love Anamika story is yet another dilemma depicting infidelity in a loveless marriage. The husband Vijendra (Harsh Chhaya) being too involved in work, has no value or respect for wife Anamika’s (Pooja Kumar) feelings. She falls in love with a man much younger than herself (Aditya Seal).
Escape, Emancipation, seek, all lead to intimacy and a feeling of fulfilment. The exact feeling that is missing in her marriage.
On the day that she plans to elope with her boyfriend, Anamika discovers an ugly truth. Director Priyadarshan has allowed the subject to be handled with transparency and without judgement.
Review
The veracity of story telling in both the released stories ( Arranged Marriage and Anamika ) is the highlight. Social Truth being told is said for what it is, for how it gets propagated into a prejudice and has poor consequences.
The very fact that no character is wrong , as when driven by emotions so strong, each does what is right as per them. This makes the anthology unpredictable and worth watching till the end. Social prejudice, hypocrisy , lack of correct scientific guidance, vulnerability, loneliness in a marriage, self destructive behavior, jealousy, love, anticipation, lust and hate are some of the strong emotions that are portrayed in the first released Chapter of Forbidden Love.
It helps that the episodes are disconnected and can be paced for the relaxed or time pressed viewer over 4 separate evenings.
Forbidden Love Zee5 Cast
Anamika
- Pooja Kumar
- Aditya Seal
Arranged Marriage
- Ali Fazal
- Omkar Kapoor
- Patralekha
Performances
Patralekha shines as the distressed wife trying to “Cure” her husband’s homosexuality by any means required. Ali Fazal of Mirzapur fame and Omkar Kapoor effectively bring alive their chemistry on screen. They also portray the dilemma of coming out of the closet or binding another life into a misery that will never end. Together, they make a couple!
Pooja Kumar is poised , controlled and unrestricted all emoted well in a short duration. The brilliant acting potential of Harsh Chhaya ( of Undekhi fame) seems under utilized. He is shown busy and taking Anamika for granted and he does that very well. Post Undekhi, the expectation of role selection from Harsh Chhaya could have been different and well- etched, even for a director like Priyadarshan. Aditya Seal, who was last seen in Student of the Year 2 and ek Chhoti Si Love Story, looks flambuoyant and promising.
Screenplay
The base premise of the web series is such that it generates viewer curiosity in its depiction and unfolding. The screenplay of both the released stories Arranged Marriage as well as Anamika is engaging and ends of the stories are twists one may not have anticipated otherwise.
Cinematography
While the locations and overall cinematography is regular, it is the stories and the final twists which intrigue the viewer’s attention.
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