In #Love, a new Tamil-language romcom on Netflix, the debate between whether chemistry or compatibility is the most important factor when it comes to making a love match is waged, via a bet between two rival dating app founders.
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it → come → founders
People debate the merits of two leading dating apps: Find My Bae, which is about pure physical attraction and chemistry, and Found, which matches people via compatibility.
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which → debate → compatibility
Tara Krishnan (Aishwarya Lekshmi) is the co-founder of Found, and she is insistent that compatibility is the best way to meet someone you intend on marrying.
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you → meet → someone
Her app is getting a lot of attention, but funding is becoming a problem, as she and her business partner Arun (Kiran) finds out from the CFO, Sylvia (Harini S).
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she → get → CFO
Both Found and Find My Bae are up for a Maverick Tech Award, and Find My Bae CEO Chakri Rajagopal (Badree) is pushing his cofounder, Matthew Jebraj (Arjun Das), to contact his father’s influential friends to get them the award for the third year in a row.
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Rajagopal → push → row
Matthew, however, has become less interested in the business; he’d rather climb rocks (though the last time he did he broke his leg) and sleep around.
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he → become → leg
He is firmly in the camp that thinks chemistry is the biggest factor in finding love.
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chemistry → think → love
At the awards, Matthew and Tara meet on the building’s rooftop, drink some whiskey, and make a drunken bet: They will try each other’s apps for 60 days.
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They → meet → days
If Matthew finds a mate, he’ll invest in Found.
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he → find → Found
If Tara finds a mate, well…
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Tara → find → mate
Matthew certainly has some ideas of how Tara can pay the bet off.
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Tara → have → bet
What Shows Will It Remind You Of?
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It → remind → You
#Love reminds us of Mismatched, another romantic comedy series from India.
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Love → remind → India
It’s pretty obvious that the “bet” between Matthew and Tara that’s at the center of #Love is a red herring; the real story is that Matthew and Tara are immediately attracted to each other — the “spark” Matthew describes in his very deep voice.
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Matthew → ’ → voice
We wouldn’t be surprised that, even as they go through the challenge of using each other’s dating apps that they might find someone they want to see for more than half an hour.
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they → go → hour
But the idea is that these two crazy kids are going to come together at some point, even if they don’t stay together.
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they → go → point
It’s a charming story that only requires a little bit of knowledge about how people in India date and couple up.
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people → ’ → India
It’s like Tinder vs. eHarmony, or hitting on someone at a bar vs. using a matchmaker.
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It → ’ → matchmaker
Seeing that play out as the group around each of the main characters comments on the dating and the chemistry everyone knows they have with each other will be fun to watch.
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they → see → other
We’ll give this to Arjun Das because of his incredibly deep voice.
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We → give → voice
Though it does sound like all of the dialogue is dubbed in over what was filmed, even in the show’s native Tamil language.
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what → sound → language
But we did check; that Barry White-level timbre is all Das.
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timbre → check → ?
We see Matthew wake up from dreaming about his rock climbing accident, and he’s next to a woman whose name he doesn’t even know.
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he → see → name
Matthew summons a helicopter to pick him and Tara up on the roof when they’re locked out of the stairwell.
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they → summon → stairwell
While #Love is a fairly light, low-stakes romcom, the leads have really great chemistry with each other, and the compatibility vs. chemistry question is a fun one to watch them explore.
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them → have → chemistry
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie.
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he → write → himself
His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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writing → appear → Times
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