“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I’d hoped to give you forever.” These words by Nicholas Sparks sums up the essence of the anthology Feels Like Ishq streaming now on Netflix which showcases the journey of love by various individuals and how they perceive it and pursue it to transform their lives.
Save The Da(y)te
Avni (Radhika Madan) the bridesmaid, and Jay (Amol Parashar), the wedding planner goes in search of the runaway bride. During the search, they happen to share some interesting ideas about marriage which Jay compares with a mutual fund which sounds quite apt to which Avni also agrees. How they find the runaway bride and how Avni and Jay continue their journey is what Save The Da(y)te is all about.
Radhika Madan stands out and some of the scenes between her and Amol like the one throwing the mobile into the water were best conceived and the climax too was well presented. The writer-directors, Monisha Thyagarajan and Ruchir Arun have done a great job in signifying the essence of marriage and its intricacies with a softer message that running away was not a solution to all the problems.
Quaranteen Crush
Gazal Dhaliwal and Tahir Kashyap Khurranna have come up with a love story in quarantine between a teenager Manindar (Mihir Ahuja) and Nimmi (Kajol Chugh) who moves into the neighbourhood to spend her quarantine. Maninder befriends her with some pretext or the other and both get along due to some of the common interests between them like playing guitar.
While Mihir and Kajol performed well, the script lacks the appealing touch as many such stories have come in recent times during lockdown days hence, it manages to get an average rating.
Star Host
Aditya (Rohit Saraf) turns the vacation of Tara (Simran Jehani) into a memorable experience as he was more than a perfect host to the disturbed Tara. Tara, who had her own fears, inhibitions, and vulnerabilities comes out transformed who carried back many cherishing moments spent with Aditya just like Hrithik in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.
The presence of Rohit made this episode quite interesting and Simran too has excelled in her character adding charm to the narrative. Saurabh George Swamy and Anand Tiwari have presented the plot effectively with those breathtaking visuals of Mahabaleshwar contributing a lot to the feel of the narrative though it’s quite predictable at times.
She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not
“Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.”― Nicholas Sparks. This is what happens with Muskaan (Sanjeeta Bhattacharya) when she realized the crush she had on her colleague Tarasha (Saba Azad) who had a heartbreaking past. But ice between the two melts down slowly and it’s pure bliss that followed.
Sanjeeta looked beautiful and gave her 100% to the character Muskaan with Saba too has essayed the character of Tarasha who hides her real face quite well. Sulagna Chatterjee and Danish Islam were effective in their writing as well as the presentation by exploring the nuances of same-sex relationships.
Interview
One of the finest shorts in the anthology with a decent storyline and slick execution along with a perfect portrayal of the characters Shahana by Zayn Marie Khan and Rajeev by Neeraj Madhav. Both get connected unexpectedly during a job interview and Shahana who happens to get haunted by a darker past get acquainted with the Malayali guy Rajeev. The story, writing, and execution by Arati Rawal and Sachin Kundalkar were top-notch.
Ishq Mastana
Mehar (Tanya Maniktala) meets her boyfriend Kabir (Skand Thakur) amidst protests and both end up in a police van. There follows a lot of exchange of views between them which finally gets the ball rolling between Mehar and Kabir. Some crucial links were missed by the writer and director Shubhra Chatterjee and Jaydeep Sarkar as a result this short fails to create any impression except for the performances of Skand and Tanya who were near perfect in their roles.
Final Verdict
She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not was absorbing though there was nothing novel, it was executed nicely on the screen while Interview takes second place for its positivity closely followed by Star Host and Save the Da(y)te. Quaranteen Crush and Ishq Mastana could not impress much.
After all, Feel Like Ishq is a finer depiction of love that makes the world go around. Watch it to feel it as mentioned by Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist, “When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better.” Better watch it then!
