Lover (2024 film)

Lover is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by debutant Prabhuram Vyas and produced by Million Dollar Studios, in the company of MRP Entertainment. The film stars Manikandan in the titular role, alongside Sri Gouri Priya, Kanna Ravi, Saravanan, Geetha Kailasam, Harish Kumar, Nikhila Sankar, Rini, Pintu Pandu, Arunachaleswaran, and Harini. It follows Arun, an alcoholic and unemployed designer, who tries to start a café business and is aggressively in love with Divya.

The film was released on 9 February 2024, where it received positive reviews from critics.

Plot
Arun and Divya's six-year relationship starts unraveling as they drift apart, raising the question of whether love can withstand such differences. Story starts with heroine Divya practicing Surfing on Kovalam & chilling with friends for a send off party with their Team lead where she narrates her love story, then protagonist Arun calls her she tells him that she's in a family function, he finds out she's lying and directly barges into the party to create ruckus, Divya calls off the relationship. Arun goes to his dysfunctional home his father is in open extramarital affair, aging working mother, he lost investments in business; slowly the couple rekindle their 6 year relationship — but this vicious cycle Fight-Trauma-Apologies keeps on repeating, but eventually Arun moves away from indulgence friends gets a job & reconcile with her & his mother starts pushing for marriage. A new team lead Madan wanders, also a travel vlogger enters Divya's life, a Arun loses his job & both of them caught each other in a web of lies — Divya finally decides to call of the relationship. Hero undergoes further breakdown as his mothers attempts to end her life; both of them drifting apart in illusion of lies but on her birthday she invites him to be part of celebrations, they then plan a Gokarna trip where he desperately tries to patch things up but his idea of love & commitment doesn't align & let Divya live her life, she exclaims that she's in constant fear and juxtapose them in his mother-father, this is the trigger point that made him realize how self loathing love he had, and realise he needs to work on himself more rather than just holding onto the 6 year old relationship need to look the life ahead, decides to quit alcohol & substance abuse, his mom decides to file for divorce. Two years later it's shown that Arun had realised his dream of opening up a designer-Cafe & running it successfully; he gets to meet Divya again in the same cafe but he's different man all together now but still remembers her perfume & serves her favorite dish.

Production
The inaugural ceremony of the film was launched by Vijay Sethupathi, and principal photography started in August 2023. In the same month, the team completed the first schedule. The second schedule was held at Gokarna in Karnataka. By the end of November 2023, the makers completed the entire shooting.

Music
The music for the film was composed by Sean Roldan.

Release
Lover released on 9 February 2024.

Critical response
Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu wrote "Director Prabhuram does a fine job of humanising the characters amidst the exuberant highs and depressing lows of their relationship. The film spends a lot of time letting its leads be confronted and comforted by their friends, and the filmmaker does a brilliant job of showcasing both contemporary relationships and friendships. Be it the parallels, the lovely scores of Sean Roldan which amplify the mood of the film, or some fantastic performances from the entire cast, especially Manikandan and Sri Gouri Priya, the film has a lot going for it, making you look past its minute flaws."

Manigandan KR of Times Now gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Manikandan Aces Role Of Disgruntled Man."

Ashwin Ram of MovieCrow rated 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The opening, mid and closing is done well, but the rest of the portions deserved better. More depth in characterizations rather than repeating the same content would have helped us to invest more on the drama." Siddarth Srinivas of OnlyKollywood rated 3.5 out of 5 stars and described "On the whole, Lover is an interesting and impressive relationship drama that would have done even better if the second half was trimmed and carried out well. The film gets a lot of things right though, and helps itself through with real emotions throughout."

M Suganth of The Times of India rated 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The writing tries to be truthful, reflecting the mindset of contemporary 20-somethings when it comes to relationships."

Anusha Sundar of OTTplay rated 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Lover packs a punch in the way towards the end. There is a lot of brooding and healing that the couple gets. The film may not cover the entire healing journey, but it makes a brutally honest case for the complexities that arise in modern-day relationships, where couples don’t shy away from saying what they feel. The screenplay stagnates at times, but overall, it makes the smallest of issues the biggest. And rightfully so. Lover is a film that takes the realistic route to show how much emotional and psychological abuse can take a toll and make people do what they do. It is a film that doesn’t advocate for time stamps in a relationship. More importantly, Lover is a film that makes you want to put yourself first before those you love and care for."

Vijaya Shankar O of DT Next rated 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "Overall, 'Lover' isn't path-breaking in the genre of modern love like 'Livin' (both have the same ending), but it is made with such passion and poignantly conveys the meaning of moving on from a breakup. The film never glorifies Arun's actions and balances both people's viewpoints involved in love and states that letting go of someone takes a lot of time, patience, and understanding, and it is very much possible."

Prashanth Vallavan of Cinema Express rated 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Lover fumbles in places where it tries to wring the ‘point’ out of a scene but excels in places where a lot is unsaid or unfinished and yet a lot more shines through the subtext."