I’m sorry it took me a while to complete the whole series and write this review. Lil’ man had surgery and is recovering well. But he got the best advantage here because he got to watch a whole series of Aju Uncle while recuperating! Our new mantra is Jio Hotstar and chill ! ;)
I’m talking of the much loved Vishnu Raghav’s new series <drumroll please> “Love Under Construction” (LUC).
This whole series is all hearts. The first season has 6 episodes in it and it unfolds the story in perfection ( not sure why I read that word in my head in a French accent)!
The whole show leaves us rooting for Vinod (Neeraj Madhav) and Gouri (Gouri G Kishan) to end up together. But honestly, under no bias, I genuinely think the most well written character in LUC is Pappettan (Aju Varghese).
I’m so glad Neeraj Madhav is getting this long overdue recognition. This man has a myriad of talents- singer/rapper,dancer,actor (I’ve probably missed a few there, blame my thalla vibe! I had absolutely loved him in the sweet character he had played in Feels Like Ishq (a hindi series), where he plays an innocent loverboy. He always nails the romantic hero character and I really wish he bags more of it in future! His soft eyes exude romance and it is brilliantly captured in LUC.
Gouri G Kishan is so pretty! She gives me Nazriya Nazim Fahadh vibes whenever I see her onscreen. She does complete justice to this strong independent woman character in LUC.
LUC starts as Vinod and Gouri’s love story and ends on that note too. But the couple that got lucky here is Pappettan and Lissy (Ann Jameela Saleem). The story, I believe is written by Vishnu G Raghav himself, takes a detour into Pappettan and Lissy’s lives and a sweet love story unfolds on the sidelines.
Aju Varghese has portrayed the character Pappettan so beautifully, it feels like a real person we know in our daily lives. Such patriarchy infested toxic people are present all around us in the society, especially in Kerala (if I may say so). He blurts things out that are not politically correct but has a straight forwardness to it. I feel Aju Varghese plays these choriyan (toxic) characters so well that it has actually become his forte! His character in Helen being a personal favorite! This generation’s priyapetta Pappan is definitely this one!
Ann Jameela Saleem is an actor we’ve seen in numerous roles. I noticed her in Hridayam. She always plays these bold characters really well. I have to admit I kept thinking she is Tushara, the girl Pappettan originally sees for marriage. It is only towards the end when he confesses to his mother about his love, that I realize the fact that I totally mixed up characters in my mind!
Other characters like Vinod’s father and Gouri’s father are also well written and portrayed. They are definitely fathers we still see in Kerala and India throughout!
When my son casually asks, “why are they bothered with their kids' marriages?”, it hit me that this is so typical of Indian parents and luckily our next generation doesn’t need to face this! I didn’t face a problem because I chose a same caste guy and my mother is a lot chill than traditional parents of India, owing to living in Bombay all her life. But I’m 38 now and dare I still take a decision without her consent! Allow me to tell you a funny incident(sorry derailing from the core subject of this post), my 13 Year old came home one day declaring he officially has a girlfriend. His classmate, a Chinese girl. My mother was visiting us then and it flips her mind that she is not a Malayali! And I tell her to just be thankful, it’s a girl(not that it mattered to me)! This is why I love living in the US!
Love Under Construction is a must watch and you definitely shouldn’t miss this gem of a fun riot romantic drama. An innocent guy who is torn between constructing his parents’ dream house and marrying the dreamgirl of his life, the nuances of which, is beautifully woven and portrayed in the story. Love Under Construction is a well written story by Vishnu G Raghav and I loved it! He has a way of bringing out the chemistry between his romantic leads (I had loved the chemistry between Keerthy Suresh and Tovino Thomas in Vaashi ) and he has absolutely brought that out in Love Under Construction too.
Head on to steaming LUC right now! And trust me, you are going to want to binge watch and finish the season at one go!
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