‘LOVE-ALL’ REVIEW | 1 September, 2023

Anand Pandit Motion Pictures and Filmart Productions’ Love-All is a sports-based drama.

Siddharth Sharma (Kay Kay Menon) lives with his wife, Jaya (Shriswara Dubey), and school-going son, Aditya (Ark Jain). Siddharth doesn’t like Aditya playing any kind of sports. Siddharth, who works for the railways, is transferred to Bhopal, a city he had left many years ago. Aditya is admitted in a school in Bhopal, in which a student needs to opt for at least one sport. Aditya opts for badminton. When Jaya and Aditya go to Vijendra’s (Sumit Arora) sports shop to buy the badminton kit, the latter tells them about how Siddharth used to be a phenomenal badminton player in his youth. Siddharth and Vijendra have been friends from childhood. After hearing the story, Jaya tells Vijendra not to tell Siddharth about Aditya opting for badminton. But one day, Siddharth gets to know that Aditya is into badminton and is doing well too. He fires his son and asks him to leave the game. Why doesn’t Siddharth want Aditya to excel in the game? What was the incident which had converted his love for the game to hatred?

Aditya is selected to represent his school in the Junior National Badminton Championship, for which he needs a coach. Does Siddharth become his son’s coach? Does Aditya avenge the wrongs suffered by his dad in his youth?

Sudhanshu Sharma has penned a routine story which has some thrill only because it’s a sports drama. Sonal and Sudhanshu Sharma have been unable to write an arresting or exciting screenplay which could keep the audience engaged. Except for the last 15 minutes of the drama, it doesn’t hold the audience’s attention much. Many scenes are actually predictable and, therefore, lose in impact. The duo’s dialogues are okay.

Kay Kay Menon does well as Siddharth Sharma. Shriswara Dubey is okay as his wife, Jaya. Ark Jain performs ably as Aditya. Swastika Mukherjee lends average support as Soma. Sumit Arora does a fair job as Siddharth’s friend, Vijendra. Deep Rambhiya (as young Siddharth), and Mazel Vyas (as young Soma) provide average support. Raja Bundela (as Jay Pratap), Digvijay Purohit (as Jay Pratap’s son, Rahul) and Kabir Verma (as Jay Pratap’s grandson, Shourya) lend routine support. Alam Khan (as young Vijendra), Atul Shrivastava (as Pandey ji), Pravina Deshpandey (as Siddharth’s mother) and Tanishka Verma (as Soma’s daughter, Pakhi) do as desired.

Sudhanshu Sharma’s direction is so-so. Saurabh-Vaibhav’s music has some appeal. Lyrics (Sonal and Ankit Pandey) are okay. Debarpito Saha’s background music is ordinary. Raut Jaywant Murlidhar’s cinematography is fair. Shahbuddin Yusuf Shaikh’s action scenes are functional. Durga Mantoo Gupta’s art direction is ordinary. Editing (Aalaap Majgavkar and Raunak Phadnis) could’ve been sharper.

On the whole, Love-All is a non-starter.

Released on 1-9-’23 at Metro Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Lakshmi Ganpathy Films Studios. Publicity & opening: weak. …….Also released all over.