FEELS LIKE ISHQ

Starring Radhika Madan, Amol Parashar, Jojo Singh, Meenacshi Martins, and Rohit Saraf, “Feels Like Ishq” is an Indian anthology miniseries of six stories following young adults as they navigate the gamut of emotions that come with finding romantic connections in unexpected places, the first season of which released on Friday, July 23, 2021, on Netflix.

SEASON DETAILS:

This compilation of short films involves five boy-meets-girl (plus one girl-meets-girl) stories, each lasting approximately half an hour. Unlike Lust Stories (which also dealt with relationships), the shorts in this anthology are light-hearted. The brief for the writers and filmmakers, it seems, was to come up with a “sweet love story” that would give the target audience — teens and 20-somethings — that quintessential “warm, fuzzy” feeling.

Ruchir Arun directs Save the Da(y)te. Written by Monisha Thyagarajan, it’s a silly story about Avni (Radhika Madan) who teams up with wedding planner Jay (Amol Parashar) to bring a runaway bride back to her nuptials. Rather than fervently searching for the bride, Avni and Jay spend a great deal of time debating the pros and cons of love, marriage, and everything in between.

In Quaranteen Crush, Tahira Kashyap Khurrana directs a script by Ghazal Dhaliwal. A sweet story set during the Covid-19 lockdown, it features Kajol Chugh and Mihir Ahuja as neighbors. Teenager Maninder develops a crush on his neighbor Nimi, who is in enforced quarantine.

It’s time for an office romance in writer Sulagna Chatterjee’s She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not, directed by Danish Aslam. As the out and proud Tarasha and the timid and closeted Muskaan, Saba Azad and Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, respectively, share affectionate chemistry as their characters find love in the workplace.

The most well-etched and emotional segment is Sachin Kundalkar’s The Interview. It follows two young job applicants who meet on interview day. The more experienced woman guides the newbie and offers him tips to overcome his insecurities. Neeraj Madhav and Zayn Khan breathe life into their simple and compassionate characters in a story laced with loss, regret, and fear and tied up with hope and kindheartedness.

Jaydeep Sarkar’s Ishq Mastana features Tanya Maniktala and Skand Thakur who make a date to meet during a protest. Their opposing intentions and politics eventually align when defenses and facades drop. Better performances would certainly have served this story in which, unlike the other five, has previously acquainted characters.

WHERE CAN I WATCH “FEELS LIKE ISHQ”?

Exclusively available for streaming only on Netflix.

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