Feels Like A Trending Style
There was a time when a Hindi movie had plots and sub plots in its story. There was one protagonist and the others were merely supporting actors. Then came a time of multi starrer movies. In such movies, there were more than one protagonist and each would have their own story going on while paralleling one another. For instance, Yaadon Ki Baraat, Kranti, and Amar Akbar Anthony. But at the end of the movie, all the characters were mostly related to each other to have a conclusive climax, thus tying all loose ends together.
The concept of anthology came a little later and only became a fashion after the growing popularity of the OTT platforms. From Darna Mana Hai, Dus Kahaniyaan, and Bombay Talkies to Ajeeb Daastaans, Ray, and Feels Like Ishq, Hindi cinema has come a long way.
As the name suggests, Feels Like Ishq is an anthology of four stories revolving around the theme of love and romance. The six stories, of around half an hour each, depict love stories of different people under different circumstances. While one discovers love on the way to save her best friend’s wedding day (Save the Da(Y)te), another discovers love on the way to self-discovery (Star Host). There is a story of a mature romance (Interview) and another of a teen infatuation (Quaranteen Crush). You can see how some youths are trying to make the world a better place with protests and outrightly expressing their views (Ishq Mastana), then there are others that are unable to even express their own feelings to their loved ones (She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not).
The actors are aptly casted and it is refreshing to see some of the new faces as well. Radhika Madan and Neeraj Madhav undoubtedly showcased their expertise in their respective roles. Fresh faces including Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Skand Sanjeev Thakur, Zayn Marie Khan, and Mihir Ahuja are paving the way for other new actors with calibre.
The stories have strong screenplays and relatable dialogues. The art direction of each story is on point and the costumes of each actor define their characters in the best possible way. The yellow gaudy bridesmaid lehenga for Avni (Save The Da(Y)te) showed her zealousness whereas the pink cotton suit showed Shahana’s (Interview) humble background and simple nature.
All in all, the stories also have a subtle theme of hope and happiness in the world. People with heartbreaks can find love in the most bizarre of the places and people who are not even ready to face the world can also be hit by the cupid’s arrow at an unexpectable time. However, I would have loved to see a story of an old couple included in this anthology. It could then have been a full package with the stories for every age.
Taking everything into account, it can be easily said that this new trend of having small stories in the form of episodes is definitely here to stay. The audience is slowly but steadily feeling the ishq with this style of filmmaking.