Little Hearts Movie Review : A romcom with poor focus on the romances

Story: Little Hearts is about Sibi's relationship with Sosha, his widower father Baby's with his childhood sweetheart and that of Sosha's brother

The theme of Little Hearts is basically ‘love is love’ and that all sorts of relationships, if accepted with an open mind, can bring happiness to all concerned. There are some nice and tender moments, when families and friends grapple with and try to learn how to deal with tricky new relationships, but there is too much effort put on creating comedy that the film steers away from the point and lags.

Sibi (Shane Nigam) and his widower father, Baby (Baburaj), have been longtime friends with their neighbours, and their children, Sosha (Mahima Nambiar) and her UK settled brother, Sharon (Shine Tom Chacko). At the heart of the film are three different relationships: Baby’s with his childhood sweetheart, Sicily, who is estranged from her husband, and has a daughter; Sibi and Sosha, and Sharon’s love for a foreigner.

Interestingly, it is not the relationship between Sibi and Sosha, but the other two pairs which push the story forward. In fact, the romance between the lead pair is quite shoddily put together, from start to the very end.

Shane and Baburaj are adequate in their roles; it is nice to see Shine play a reticent, mature character. Mala Parvathy needs a special mention for carrying off the emotional scenes well.

The film directed and co-written by Aby Treesa Paul, Anto Jose Periera, along with Rajesh Pinnadan, who also shares a writing credit, could have been a sweet enough, feel-good romance with some good lessons for the audience, but it needed a proper tightening at the writing and making stages. As it is now, the key moments feel lost as the story progresses, particularly with a messy resolution.