Love 360 movie review: Director Shashank's tale of love and crime is engaging but with its share of lapses

3/5

Spoilers Ahead...

Story:

Childhood friends and fellow orphans Ram and Janaki grow up to become the most doting lovers. Janaki, however, is plagued by a mental condition called Selective Memory Loss but in the eye of the rest of the world, she is a certified “mad woman”. Ram guards her life against all evil with utmost passion, vowing to marry her someday when her mental health improves, but things take a disastrous turn when Janaki is accused of a very serious crime.

Review:

In one of the early scenes of Love 360, a police inspector (played by Gopalkrishna Deshpande) refers to the film’s protagonist, Ram, as ‘Mr. 360’. He goes on to add that just as the South African cricketer AB de Villiers (who is world-renowned with the same sobriquet as Mr. 360) boasts of a 360-degree range on a cricket field with his strokes, Ram too surrounds his lady love with all-embracing, 360-degree love. Ram, quite indeed, dotes on his Jaanu, or Janaki, and the fact that she suffers from a mental condition called Selective Memory Loss makes their relationship a uniquely symbiotic one, wherein Jaanu depends completely on Ram for her mental and physical well-being while the hero draws all his optimism and zest for life from her innocence and child-like charm. So much so that the film opens with a scene in which Ram daydreams of marrying a rehabilitated Janaki one day for a much-deserved place in the sun.

And yet, Love 360 is far from being an absolute love story. Sure, the love track lends the film the emotional crux but director Shashank intends on using the same to tell a more gripping tale of crime and morality. There is a prominent Shakespearean element to his conception, in the sense that the world always seeks the two lovers to be separated for myriad reasons, and struggle, pain, and danger loom large persistently around the two individuals. To make things all the more dramatic, Shashank includes a recurring flashback in the film to reveal that Janaki and Ram forged their unbreakable bond several years ago when they grew up together in an orphanage. It is here, at this very nascent stage, that Ram assumes the role of Janaki’s guardian and vows to be so for the rest of their life together. In many ways, Love 360 has strong echoes of films like Sadma and Barfi but the Shashank’s take also dares to become a thriller at one point which is surely the highlight.

And therefore, as though on cue, things become precarious when Janaki is accused of a very serious crime and arrested by the local cops. The investigation makes her the prime suspect and the lack of coherence in her account of the incident only makes things worse, threatening to put her away behind bars for a long period of time. Ram grows desperate on the side, unable to prove her innocence, and when the walls of the world close in on him further, he is prompted to go to extreme lengths. Writer-Director Shashank, who borrows key elements of the story from the 2009 South Korean film Mother! (Directed by Bong Joon-ho), manages to keep his narrative intriguing and infuses elements of thriller seamlessly into it. While there are several logical lapses in the same, aside from the slight lack of nuance in the storytelling, Love 360 remains an interesting watch throughout mainly because of the director’s conviction about the subject matter.

Two other major contributors to the film’s credibility are the music and cinematography. Arjun Janya seems in top form and his background score, in particular, helps some of the interesting moments to be accentuated. Running close to 2 hours and 15 minutes, Love 360 features only three songs and one is likely to walk out of the cinema hall humming the Jagave Neenu track (sung by Sid Sriram). Abhilash Kalathi’s cinematography is unassuming and simple at first glance but the same allows for the coastal town of Gokarna to have a unique charm. Be it the shots of the vast seascape or those of the narrow streets, the cinematography is praise-worthy.

As far as the performances are concerned, Rachana Inder is impressive in her maiden solo project and looks well attuned to the character demands. Although the performance is not pitch-perfect, her screen presence and infectious smile make up for the lack of depth in the writing. Debutant Praveen, on the other hand, comes into his own, particularly, in the action sequences but seems a little too coy and untrained in other dramatic sequences. Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana actor Gopalkrishna Deshpande plays the grey-shaded police officer to good effect but the film falls short of being commendable because of some lackluster writing and performances of the ensemble cast.

Verdict:

Love 360 is certainly worth one’s time at the cinema hall. Guided by director Shashank’s experience and his will to not spoon-feed his audience, the film is an interesting version of the typical melodramatic romance story. Sure, the lack of sufficient nuance threatens to derail things a bit but because the director keeps his eye firmly on the big picture, the shortcomings do not impact as much. Watch the film for its novelty and a superb score by Arjun Janya.