Hate U Romeo review: Aravinnd Iyer’s Kannada web show starts well, but gets progressively bad

1.5/5

Story: Dev (Aravinnd Iyer), is an obnoxious, selfish and narcissistic supermodel with a bit of a roving eye. He’s living it up, with a soaring career that’s getting the right push from magazine head Suman, with whom he’s got a clandestine relationship going on. Life’s just perfect, until, one fine morning, he wakes up on a strange beach, with no recollection of how and when he got there, no mode of communication available and no money. Amid trying to save himself from this dire situation, Dev also needs to figure out who did this to him and why?

Review: Hate U Romeo was one of the early Kannada web series productions by Shri Mutthu Cine Services and Sakkath Studios, which got a delayed public outing. By then, the makers had brought two other shows to Kannada audiences, namely Honeymoon and By Mistake, both of which were good watches, so, a certain standard and expectation was set as far as productions from them go. Hate U Romeo came saddled with that baggage; it had to be good – or so one thought. Well, how horrifically misplaced that thought was.

The show has Aravinnd Iyer, as Dev, stranded on a remote beach in Vietnam. Someone who absolutely abhors him had placed a ‘hit’ on him with an agency called Mr Hate, which helps the aggrieved person get revenge. The only way back home and to the life he’s left behind is to play a set of games, all of which are designed to harass and insult him. He’s either got to figure out who hates him and have the game end, in three guesses only, or get to 100 points. He is joined in this adventure by a girl, Disha Madan, whose bag with valuables is stolen.

Both Dev and Partner have just the one set of clothes each throughout this journey - he in a blue suit and white shirt, she in white jeans and pink hoodie. It’s amazing how odour-and-dirt proof these wardrobe selections were for two people, who are finding their way around Vietnam, with no access to a bed, bathroom, etc., over multiple days. But the bigger problem with Hate U Romeo is that a decent premise was squandered with some silly writing, whether it is the tasks or the situations Dev and Partner find themselves in, or the final reveal of who put the hit on him, among others.

Hate U Romeo was advertised as the Kannada show to have been shot in Vietnam. The objective behind setting the show in that country still eludes me. There were no stunningly picturesque locations and the local ‘artistes’ used were caricaturish, to say the least. If having the protagonist stuck amid people speaking a foreign language was the only draw, the fact that there are no subtitles for those portions, doesn’t help audiences. Aravinnd Iyer tries his best to infuse life into the tepid narrative, but he’s severely limited by the fact that much of what he has to say is “No”, “Stop”, “Please”. Physically, it was a more challenging role for him than for Disha, considering that he’s the one doing all the tasks to guarantee his freedom.

The show has dropped on Talkies App, a platform that’s been around for a while, but strikes no bells for most people. If you are used to the more sophisticated OTT platforms, you are likely to find the user interface of Talkies unwieldly. All you get is five options – play/pause/stop and skip forward or backward by 10 secs. It doesn’t even automatically redirect to the next episode.

Verdict: If creators Esham and Haseen Khan were aiming to make a comedy, well, the show was just as flat as the jokes Aravinnd cracks in the last episode. It isn’t funny and has nothing to really hold your attention. It is also at last three episodes too long. Boy, was I glad that Talkies has the 10 second skip forward option; it really came in handy.

One of the ‘characters’ on the show is a blow-up doll called Julie. Apparently, someone from the crew got to take her home. Well, at least one person can say Hate U Romeo’s satisfactory!