Romcoms are all about the first time the leads meet. In 99 cases out of 100, we know what is going to happen to the leads when they cross paths for the first time. Whatever might happen between the first time they meet, and the closing credits start to roll, we know how their stories would end. So, why does this genre still have that allure? There is a joy in vicariously living a happily ever after through the lives of others, right? In Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi’s Kadhalikka Neramillai, these others are Shriya (Nithya Menen) and Siddharth (Ravi Mohan), and it is their story that we follow through different cities, different lives, and different timelines before it ends up like all good romcoms end up as… flawed, familiar, and frabjous. While Kadhalikka Neramillai definitely has the beats of staple Hollywood romcoms of the 90s and 00s, it has its antecedents in an even older Tamil film… K Bhagyaraj’s Mouna Geethangal (1981). In fact, this is an urban and updated version of the 44-year-old film, and there are enough upgrades in Kadhalikka Neramillai to make it more of a hat-tip rather than a full-blown remake. And each of these upgrades work perfectly in sync with the theme and treatment of the movie. Siddharth hates kids, but he loves the idea of romance. Shriya loves kids, and loves the idea of romance. And in between, there is Nirupama (TJ Bhanu), who loves the idea of romance and marriage, and is open to the idea of kids and a family.

Right from the casting of the delightful Nithya Menen as Shriya, to the picture-perfect houses; from AR Rahman’s youthful score to the way these songs are shot, coded in shades of red and blue; there’s a dotingly recreated design in Kadhalikka Neramillai that is meant to evoke Mani Ratnam’s O Kadhal Kanmani (2015). Like the 2015 romance, Kiruthiga Udhayanadhi’s film also is set around two hyper-individualistic protagonists, each with their own sets of rules and quirks. If OKK was about a couple that was marriage-averse, Kadhalikka Neramillai is about two people who do not believe in commitment. But what if you add an extra layer of conflict into their midst by throwing in the idea of having children? That is what makes Kadhalikka Neramillai a cultural update of O Kadhal Kanmani, like a thought exercise that was born when someone mooted, “What if Tara and Aditya from OKK met, but later, when they are in their 30s?” It’s this bit of tweaking that makes for a more complex film. In a casual breakfast scene set at Shriya’s house, we see her correcting her mother (lovingly called Kanmani!) when she assumes Shriya to still be a virgin. This isn’t a movie about glossy love-at-first-sight moments or syrupy meet-cutes. Well into their adult lives, both Sid (Ravi Mohan) and Shriya (Nithya Menen) have been through enough heartbreaks to realise that love is… a matter of time.

‘God works in mysterious ways’ they say, and in a way, love does too. While the romance genre itself is done to death in all art forms, very few Tamil films have captured the intricacies of contemporary relationships and the multiple factors that might have to fall into place for them to work. The latest to join the elusive list is director Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi’s Kadhalikka Neramillai starring the fantastic duo, Nithya Menen and Ravi Mohan.