'Lover' tells the tale of Arun, a recurrent bad decision-maker, apparently an alcoholic, stoner, and chronic smoker, who is aggressively in love with Divya and expresses his love through constant psychotic tantrums, pushing, shoving, and, verbally abusing her. Before you could judge Divya, who is traumatized by his actions for six years and still gives him multiple chances to prove himself, the director, Prabhu Ram Vyas, makes it clear that the story is about Arun and we don't get to see Divya's world completely. Arun, being an incorrigible character, is stuck in a cycle of mistakes and misery and we, as an audience, are asked to tolerate him for the first 1.5 hours.
If you made it to the second half of the film, here is your award for the patient man on Earth. Because now you have entered the accidental redemption arc for Arun which is only necessary, or no one else will watch this movie. The whole arc continues to test your patience, with Arun being 'Arun', still not getting it that Divya is not his pet. I wish I entered the screen to knock sense into him, but Divya thankfully does that in the last ten minutes of the film, which I wish she had done before. Lover is raw, and real, and depicts the common tale of women who lack self-esteem falling in love with miserable stoners, whose perception of what life is' is subjective to what drug they have consumed that day. My heart goes out to all Divya's in the world. May you rest in peace at least in your death.
Nonchalantly,
Vetrrich Chelvan
HOTSTAR290324.