Love Sleep Repeat Review – Watch, Yawn, Ignore

BOTTOM LINE: Watch, Yawn, Ignore

Rating: 4/10

What Is the Story About?

A small-town boy from Panchgani, Vishwas, in his early 20s, has hazy ideas of his life ahead and is yet to get a grip on his hormonal desires. After his engineering stint, he bags a software job in Pune, where he plans to stay at his aunt’s place. Vishwas’ bossy friend Shailaja has the hots for him since long, but the former doesn’t reciprocate similar feelings for her. Little does Vishwas know that he’s in for a wild ride in the very first week of his stay in Pune. From a girl cosying up with him for a free cab ride and a mobile recharge to a colleague who honeytraps him for money to a best friend who gets him behind bars, luck isn’t riding in Vishwas’ favour. Will he, ever, get his priorities right?

Performances?

Upcoming actor Anshuman Malhotra couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity than Love Sleep Repeat to unleash his acting mettle. To be fair to him, even though his role is very poorly conceived, it’s only because of the believability in Anshuman’s performance that you invest in the proceedings considerably. His confident on-screen persona, clear dialogue delivery and the quirks in his histrionics, nearly salvage the poor writing in the show.

Most other actors don’t get much to prove their worth. It’s good to see Raima Sen making regular appearances in web shows, but they serve little purpose if she keeps repeating the same mistakes with story selection, as she did with her film career. Priyal Gor just doesn’t have any chemistry with her male co-actor and neither does the role offer her anything out of the box.

Priya Banerjee is increasingly getting typecast as a seductress and her part in this series too is no different. Harshadaa Vijay is impressive while she lasts, and so is Punish Sharma. Teena Singh is miscast in the role of a shrewd Tamilian girl – her Tamil diction, in fact, sounds awful.

Analysis

Love Sleep Repeat is such a silly tale of male victimhood that you wonder how the makers were even impressed by the book it was based on. Though stories of male victimisation are rare and can offer a fresh perspective about gender stereotypes, they need to make sure the other gender isn’t completely antagonised. Love Sleep Repeat is quite casual about dubbing women as vicious creatures who don’t leave any stone unturned to capture the weak ‘spot’ of a man. The narrative only gets more ridiculous with every episode and worse is the effort to make the protagonist seem an innocent man-child when the fact remains that he has no self-control at all.

Hindi entertainment industry’s definition of innocence is so interesting that it can make you fall off your chair. The protagonist, after a tarot reading session with his colleague, is so ‘innocent’ to agree for sex with her for supposed ‘chakra-alignment’ in his destiny. He’s also so ‘innocent’ to do a Rs 700 worth mobile recharge for his co-passenger in a bus ride and pay for her cab later – merely for the promise of love that has sprung up in a six-hour duration. He’s so ‘innocent’ to throw a party with his father’s hard-earned money, for a girl whom he has met just an hour before. He’s so ‘innocent’ to perceive a possessive, nagging friend as the love of his life, out of the blues.

In the garb of cinematic liberty, streetsmart women are depicted as villains but the story ignores the fact that the protagonist is equally at fault as well. The 20-something ‘gullible’ boy is desperate for female company – probably to seek validation for his ‘cuteness’. Even ignoring this obvious folly, the series doesn’t offer any great entertainment. Borrowing a leaf out of Chennai Express, South-Indians are reduced to obvious cliches – the filter coffee-drinkers, the veena-playing women, the dhoti-wearing and moustache-twirling men.

A female boss even gets ready to spend the night with a trainee employee, who’s already the most happening guy in the office. Though certain situations are quirky in terms of ideation, the execution is pointlessly sanitised. You don’t feel much for the stereotypical cardboard-ish characters sans any identity. There’s nothing realistic nor enjoyable about the series. The climax ends with a hook for another season, but what’s the point of it when you can’t even get the first season right? The erotic adventure-meets-love drama tale is a yawn fest you could do away with.

Music and Other Departments?

The music, the cinematography are exclusively quite good, but they don’t quite make the cut when the content is so bland. Every piece of writing in the digital space is sexualised these days and series like Love Sleep Repeat only do good to contribute to the clutter on cloud networks.

Highlights?

Anshuman’s performance
Few quirkily written situations
Occasionally entertaining comic sequences

Drawbacks?

Sexist treatment of the story
Poorly written characters
Coincidences feel contrived

Did I Enjoy It?

No

Will You Recommend It?

No

Love Sleep Repeat Review by Srivathsan Nadadhur

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