LOVE VERSUS REALTY
In Netflix’s first Hindi original, Love Per Square Foot, it’s the common dream of home sweet home in Mumbai that brings two people together even if they are polar opposites. Sanjay Chaturvedi (Vicky Kaushal) has grown up in the tiny quarters of a railway colony with his parents (Supriya Pathak and Raghubir Yadav). Karina D’Souza (Angira Dhar) and her mother (Ratna Pathak Shah) reside in a dilapidated apartment in Bandra lent by a relative. Both the twentysomething professionals crave for space and privacy and seek a new beginning. The film is a reminder that finding the ideal partner is as hard as finding a flat in Mumbai.
Written and directed by Anand Tiwari, making his feature debut, the heart-warming romantic comedy has endearing characters, a credible depiction of the elaborate process of getting an apartment and a satirical take on love. “I grew up with the romance of Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan and I always wanted love to be that but never found that in a relationship. I’d always struggle with that ‘Yeh pyaar toh nahin dekha tha cinema mein’,” says Tiwari. “I started toying with the idea of two people who have a very conditional love brewing in Bombay.”
And so LPSF, apart from being a contemporary romance, is also Tiwari’s homage to the city that gave him wings. He moved out from his parents’ home after his graduation at 21 and did theatre with eminent theatrewallahs such as Naseeruddin Shah and Sunil Shanbag, acted in films such as Go Goa Gone and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, assisted Sai Paranjpye and Anurag Basu and then wrote and directed the popular web series, Bang Baaja Baaraat (2015). “In the last two decades of Bollywood, we talk about the migrant in Mumbai a lot,” he says. For Tiwari, it was important to be a “responsible writer and Mumbaikar” by giving the city an identity that goes beyond Bollywood and underworld and shine a light on the life of the middle class populace.
LPSF didn’t start out as a Netflix original. Produced by Ronnie Screwvala Pictures, the film was envisioned for release in theatres until the streaming giant broached the idea to the makers. “We all sat down and looked at this opportunity and looked at the market realities of where Bollywood is going, how trade is working, and we started looking at the analytics of where exactly is the youth of India consuming content,” says Tiwari. “We looked at this film as an opportunity to break the barrier of box office and go into completely new territory. What is the end game? If it is to reach an audience, I think people will reach more with Netflix.”
The film is a reminder that finding a partner is as tough as finding a flat in Mumbai