‘Little Hearts’ movie review: A below par, half-baked effort at being progressive

A still from ‘Little Hearts’

The sight of someone attempting to lift something too heavy for them to handle can be as punishing for the onlookers. In Little Hearts, we get the not-so-pleasant spectacle of the makers attempting to bring in some progressive elements into an otherwise run-of-the-mill film without any big ambitions, and struggling to handle it and give it a proper resolution.

When someone genuinely feels about an issue, and wants to express it through a film or a book, the sincerity of their thoughts would shine through every pore of it, as it did in Jeo Baby’s Kaathal last year. It contributed positively to the ongoing conversations around homosexuality. But when the intent is half-hearted, as it is often in advertisement films attempting to woo the progressive crowd, that becomes evident too.

One of the major threads that run through Little Hearts is the dilemma of a homosexual character in coming out to his family, who live in a rural village in the high ranges. But, this character is placed in a typical feel-good family drama, which also has compulsions to keep the audience entertained at regular intervals. So even when the film handles his dilemma sensitively, at other times it attempts to create a few laughs out of his sexual orientation.

And, once the purpose of this character is served, by establishing the film’s progressive credentials, he is sidelined, as the script then focuses on two other ‘normal’ relationships to play it safe. Out of the three relationships at the centre of the film directed by Aby Treesa Paul and Anto Jose Periera, least effort is taken in writing the one between the lead pair Sibi (Shane Nigam) and Shosha (Mahima Nambiar). The two childhood friends fall in love as expected, and a few minor conflicts are thrown in to drag their story till the climax.

However, some more care is taken in portraying the relationship between Sibi’s widower father Baby (Baburaj) and a single mother. The opposition that they face from those around them, the knowing looks from people in a closely-knit neighbourhood, and their yearning for each other amid all the noise around them makes for some compelling moments. The equation between the father-son duo, and the fun they have with each other, also saves the film at some points when it drags on aimlessly.

Initially, one song after the another is thrown at us, without much of a reason. The film fails to hold the audience’s attention until the introduction of the homosexual character, who in the end gets a kind of raw deal. One wishes filmmakers do not further muddle issues about which misconceptions are galore in the society, through their half-baked handling of it.

Little Hearts is currently running in theatres