Movie Review: Love Aaj Kal is WOW

I’m no fan of story book romantic ‘Love stories’. (Yes I write love stories myself. But I haven’t read any and have no plans either.) I dont like romantic movies too much, except the likes of DDLJ, Noting Hill and Serendipity. But I adored both ‘Socha na tha’ and ‘Jab we met’. That is what made me believe that Imtiyaz Ali is a brilliant film maker. And that is why I wanted to watch ‘Love Aaj Kal’ as soon as it was released. I wasn’t disappointed at all!

I think we as a generation are slowly getting more casual about the relationships we have with each other. Most of my friends (almost all of them) dont stay with their parents. They have left the house for either education, job, differences with parents or for the pure thrill of it. We are getting more ‘friend’ly with our connects. Love affairs are no strange to it. I remember the college days and the first love (infatuation). I dont think we spoke commitment. But we were less casual. Alas, the times have now changed. The casual ‘no frills’ relationship is probably taking center stage I guess. Anyway, let us talk about the movie now.

‘Love Aaj Kal’ makes an attempt to build a bridge between the two aspect, that is committed love versus casual love and bind them together. (The bridge, by the way, has been brilliantly used). We have certain Jai (played by Saif) who is a protagonist of casual relationships. He doesn’t know what commitment is, he doesn’t want to understand and he doesn’t think it is important. Of course he is not a Casanova. Just that he doesn’t want to get into a lovey dovey relationship and then go through the grinds of possessiveness, greed, jealousy and all. He is ambitious and his career is very much his only focus. Meera (Deepika) is a cute little (by no means height) girl who wants to work for restoration of historical sights in India. She is dating Saif, without actually being committed or being in love. Life is a ‘happy-go-lucky’ circus for them, without having to carry the excess baggage of a relationship.

2 years pass by and then it suddenly changes. Meera gets her big break and decides to shift to Delhi. They both decide that long distance affair is not going to work and they happily break off. They both find love (rather entertainment) some where else. But are still in touch, without knowing what have they lost… or are going to lose. The realisation comes soon to Meera when she is getting married to Vikram (Rahul Khanna). Of course eventually you know the end is happy!

The story looks very generic, except that it has been brilliantly made. The movie has a very sweet and soothing feeling to it. It has been very well interspersed with the ‘committed’ love story of the 60s (Rishi Kapoor playing Veer Singh). Deepika is very adorable and her chemistry with Saif is exceptional. I wish the difference in their heights should have been more than the difference in their ages. That is well complemented with the music and the costumes too. I think Imtiyaz Ali has done nothing wrong here. The dialogues, the angles, the script… all is great. In fact, I liked the 60s love story more than the one he essayed here.

Overall Love Aaj Kal is absolutely fresh and new age. I dont know if this is the new age relationship mantra. But this can be a new genre of film making for sure. 🙂