Four Years Later review: A complex tale of long distance love that does not quite land!

Mithila Gupta’s Four Years Later has its hits and misses and we’re here to dig deep into just that!

Four Years Later review: Set in the pink city, Jaipur, Mithila Gupta’s Four Years Later opens with its protagonists, Yash (Akshay Ajit Singh) and Sridevi (Shahana Goswami) meeting each other for the first time with their families. While they don’t really start off on the right note, they’re soon attracted to each other’s polar opposite personalities. Sridevi is the more free spirited, extrovert in the relationship whereas Yash is the introvert, bogged down by responsibilities. But because they balanced each other out in a way that just felt right, they turned their alliance into marriage even though their parents were not quite convinced. Hence, even though it was an arranged marriage, it never really felt like one!

But as soon as the two tie the knot, Yash gets his traineeship letter and has to go to Sydney to fulfill his and his dad’s dream of becoming a doctor abroad. Sridevi, on the other hand, is left alone in a new house, for her to navigate this new life with her in-laws. The eight episode gives you a daunting reality check on how gravely long distance can impact a couple. No amount of video calls, phone sex, or promises could die down the sheer pain of yearning for someone. Yash is surviving the medical hustle life in Australia and Sridevi waits and waits in a house that is starting to feel like a cage. Four years later, when the two finally meet, it’s filled with awkward silences and constantly finding a middle ground about things. 

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Sridevi feels liberated the minute she sets foot in Sydney, whereas Yash does not have it in him to romanticize the place that makes him slog day and night. The sex scenes between the two are intense, steamy and really well done. But while the two have great physical chemistry, they’re on completely different trajectories when it comes to their emotional and mental well being as a couple. As the plot unfolds further, you realise that both of their outlook on life is completely different from one another and when that in itself is enough to rock a marriage, infidelity comes into the picture too. But through it all, Yash and Sridevi try their best to make a small world of their own. 

The story has a lot of potential in terms of showcasing what it’s like for so many Indians who migrate abroad for a chance at a better life and every hurdle they come across in the process of doing so. But it also feels derailed by set stereotypes foreigners have about Indians. Be it the command over the language or family dynamics, some of it feels too caricature like to feel real or relatable in any sense. However, shooting at aesthetic backdrops of Sydney and Jaipur helps elevate the scene a plethora of times.

At the end of the day, Four Years Later serves as a reminder that sometimes the plans that you have chalked out for yourself aren’t what you want from life ultimately. It’s okay to start something thinking it's your dream, it's your forte, until it's not. And sometimes that applies to facing the realities of your marriage as well.

Four Years Later is currently streaming on Lionsgate Play!

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