Feels Like Ishq Review: Netflix Anthology Might Not Sweep You Off Your Feet But Is Easy To Love

Feels Like Ishq Review: Like the characters they portray, the films feel their way around in search of the sweet spot. They hit the target only occasionally but the misses do no permanent damage.

A Netflix Original series of six short fiction films, Feels Like Ishq tells stories of the first rumblings of romantic love, not of the mesmerizing, fluttery, all-enveloping kind but the sort that, in an infinitely quieter way, hastens self-awareness.

Produced by Seher Aly Latif (to whose memory the series is dedicated) and Shivani Saran, the films dwell on tentative, tremulous probing rather than on passion-filled plunges into the unknown. Like the characters they portray, the films feel their way around in search of the sweet spot. They hit the target only occasionally but the misses do no permanent damage.

The formula is familiar. Mismatched pairs are thrown into situations in which words begin to fail them and they are compelled to bank on pure instinct. In the process, two people who share little in common stumble upon life-altering connections and realizations. Not all of the incipient relationships in Feels Like Ishq are sealed with a kiss. But every one of them culminates in a minor epiphany.

All the six episodes of Feels Like Ishq tap the quaint and explore the unexpressed. They have something on offer by way of understated drama. The series has one creative director (Devrath Sagar), but each story is written and directed by a separate duo. So, every short film has a distinct flavour and inevitably differs from the others in terms of impact and accomplishment.