Team FC
Firstly, it’s non-fiction. The six handpicked narratives revolve around real-life couples featured on the Instagram handle India Love Project, a humans-of-romance-themed initiative that platforms clutter-breaking stories of inclusivity, courage and diversity.
The cosmetic result is what I call Greeting Card Filmmaking, where it starts to feel like a quasi-doc ad spot (featuring dogs saving the day) playing during an interval of a romcom.
a story rooted in the interfaith upheavals of an radio-jockey couple in Shillong. Despite the openness of their struggle – social stigma, parental aversion, addiction – it often feels like the film crafts a happily-ever-after out of nothing.
The best of the six – acknowledges the uncertainty of moments. As per the title, the journey at its core is organic; it reveals an unrehearsed pursuit of belonging. The tell-don’t-show tone allows the viewer to experience it through their own lens of storytelling.
The content feels personal, but the form looks studied. It doesn’t help that each of these segments opens with a snapshot of what is to follow, like a promo before the actual film; it’s a bit disorienting, especially because it reduces their realities to a form of reality television.
The film focuses on the bureaucratic and emotional hurdles: Endless separations, an undocumented stint in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, cultural adaptability, societal change, and a reverse of gender norms. The tiny touches and the anecdotes work.
The flashbacks here are fairly ornate – childhood dream sequences, poetic voice-overs, and vivid depictions of body dysmorphia. But this style works, because it mirrors their psychological evolution.