“New Normal” is exactly as its name suggests – normal. The movie is a love story narrated by Appu (played by Anagha) about her first love. It follows the same old formula of teen love stories. A girl meets another girl, they fall in love, there are songs, there is dancing and then there is a misunderstanding and they fall out of love and break-up. It is fairly simple, sweet and “normal”.
The movie opens with a short of Appu talking to us about the very first time she fell in love. She describes the first time she met Isha (played by Swiya) and it cuts to a scene that is beautifully shot with warm romantic lighting. Isha sings ‘Bade achche lagte hain’ with very light acoustics in the background. They exchange glances and a slight pause. All of it effectively gives one a sense of nostalgia and yearning. The visuals in the movie are brilliant, the colour palette, locations, and even the hair and makeup on the actors makes the audience feel like it’s going to rain, but it never does. Much like the happy ending for this love story, that never happens.
This however is not because of a tragedy of any sort. They part ways for the same reasons that teenagers usually part ways. They are flawed and immature as people and handle relationship problems impulsively, instead of being communicative and mature about it. Every queer love story that I have come across so far has had one essential element – trauma. There is always either a death or a very high tension scene or the break-up happens because someone gets married against their wish. This short-film has none of it. Nobody dies. Neither Appu nor Isha have any shame surrounding their identity. The filmmaker treats the relationship as if it was one among the numerous love-affairs happening in the town of Kakkanad.
Something else I really enjoyed about the casting was the fact that there was zero effort to cover the acne scars on Isha’s face with makeup. It made the whole story feel even more relatable and real.
It is a fairly basic romantic movie and that’s the best thing about it.
Like every other basic romantic movie, this movie also has its flaws. The short-film is too in-your-face about what it wants to achieve. The phrase ‘its normal’ has been said a total of 6 times in 20 minutes. This is besides the song with the hook: ‘its normal, its beautiful’. The movie could have done this with more subtlety, in my opinion. Apart from this, all the four songs in this short-film have at least one reference to a rainbow. Just in case the audience forgets that this was a queer film.
Then there is the one minor technical error whenever Appu breaks the fourth-wall. In the beginning Appu is narrating the incidents from the future to her new partner. Then in some places she somehow comes back to the present. This inconsistency while very noticable is not jarring. It gets covered by the beautiful visuals, storytelling, acting by the cast, and the songs.
Overall, it is genuinely an entertaining piece of cinema. It is fun, light-hearted, and cheesy. I personally believe it is worth a watch, just for the songs and Appu.
