What Is the Story About?
Jio Cinema original film ‘I Love You’ is centred on a young successful woman, Satya Prabhakar (Rakul Preet Singh), who’s just gotten engaged to Vishal (Akshay Oberoi), the love of her life. What she doesn’t know is that her colleague and friend Rakesh (Pavail Gulati) is secretly in love with her; and will go to any lengths to get her.
I Love You is written and directed by Nikhil Mahajan.
Performances?
I Love You has a threadbare cast, out of which only Rakul Preet Singh delivers a decent performance. Pavail Gulati hams his way through a badly written character, while Akshay Oberoi has precious little to do in the film. Kiran Kumar is barely recognisable in an inconsequential cameo.
Analysis
At its core, I Love You is a badly made copy of the hit Netflix show, ‘You’. Just like Joe Goldberg, the antihero of You, Rakesh Oberoi, aka RO, too misinterprets the friendliness of his colleague Satya as something more, and falls badly for her. He then uses every tool and tech at his disposal to stalk her and keep track of her every movement. It helps that he is a techno-geek, and in charge of the IT section of his company.
And just like Joe, RO has serial killer tendencies. He murders at will, is ruthless and remorseless, and we learn later, has murdered another young woman before in Delhi – obviously yet another object of his unrequited love.
But unlike You, writer – director Nikhil Mahajan fails to add any kind of thrill, mystery or intrigue into the story of I Love You. It is as predictable as they come, and with not enough meat in the story to keep the viewer engaged for almost two hours of runtime.
We know where the narrative is leading within the first few minutes of the movie – when RO gets a flight notification on his phone at exactly the same time as Satya tells her driver that she has a flight to catch that night. We know instantly that things are gonna go very wrong, and soon enough, they do.
The lead-up to RO’s craziness is constructed nicely. But that’s the only nice — and somewhat suspenseful — part of I Love You. The rest of it is dull, dreary and done to death in numerous movies and shows – both Indian and foreign. Heck, Shah Rukh Khan did it back in the early nineties. I Love You is thirty years too late in telling its story, a story the audience doesn’t want to watch anyway.
The murder scenes are gruesome and gory, and don’t add much to the watchability of the movie. The second half of the story plays out like a survival thriller, and takes place entirely within the spacious office complex, as Satya finds herself trapped in the huge, isolated place, with a crazed murderer on the loose.
Honestly speaking, I Love You could have turned into a gripping thriller in the hands of a better director. It is but a wasted opportunity. And horror and horrors, the story is left open-ended, which means we could be subjected to ‘I Love You Part 2’. Unless Jio Cinema decides to have mercy on us and dumps I Love You to be confined to the ashes of obscurity.
Music and Other Departments?
The music of I Love You is passable nothing memorable about it. The songs only serve to extend the agony of the viewer instead of allowing the movie to end quickly. Cinematographer Cameron Bryson’s camerawork is fine. The editing is efficient.
Highlights?
None
Drawbacks?
Predictable story
Poor performances
Not enough meat in the story
Did I Enjoy It?
No
Will You Recommend It?
No
I Love You Movie Review by Binged Bureau