Directed by: Imtiaz Ali
Starring: Saif Ali
Khan, Deepika Padukone, Rishi Kapoor
Released: 2009
My rating: destroy
every copy ? horrible ? bad ? whatever ? flawed
but enjoyable - good ? great ?
amazing
The story may not be great
and performances of varied quality, but there is something lyrical
about Imtiaz Ali films, which makes them an enjoyable watch, even if
only once. Love Aaj Kal is the least emotional of his movies, least
complicated, not reaching the amazing entertainment offered by Jab We
Met or even emotional wreckage of Rockstar. But it has its share of
charming moments and overal is a pretty, pretty picture, using
flashbacks very well, without confusing the viewer, and heightening
curiosity as the story goes on.
We are given a glimpse of
?modern? and ?cool? relationship between architect Jai and
art student Meera, who have great time hanging out together, all on
the backdrop of London. Jai, who is really the one carrying the
narrative and the story unfolds from his point of view, considers
romantic love an old-fashion concept, and when Meera is offered work
in India, he very sportingly supports her to leave him, breaking up
with her on friendliest terms possible. How very modern and cool
indeed. However as the time passes by, he notices his sloppy attempts
to move on are all destined to fail. And being constantly nagged by
an elderly restaurant owner, who paints in front of Jai his own story
of love he had once lived, Mr. Architect is quite shocked when he
realizes Love has probably happened to him. Unfortunately it seems
Meera actually did move on...
Deepika Padukone does not
have much to contribute to the movie, aside from her utterly gorgeous
face and drool-worthy wardrobe. After getting used to her very much
exciting self from the last two years, I was actually surprised to
revisit the somehow awkward, extremely camera-conscious Deepika with
pitiful dialogue delivery (which has so evolved since then!). She
doesn?t ruin the scenes she?s in, but the director very wisely let
Saif Ali Khan do most of the acting instead, giving him most of the
dialogues, and so our dear nawab goes on like a chatterbox, rarely
stopping an endless flow of words whenever he is nervous or
emotional. Sometimes his monologues actually get so long you wonder
if Meera?s turn to talk would ever come (and sometimes it really
does not).
The most charming bits of
the movie, however, are introduced to the viewer by Rishi Kapoor and
his narration of the old-school love story several decades ago, in
India. The warm, brown colouring of all the scenes in the ?past?
gives them a unique mood, very different from the rest of the film.
In fact, it felt so nice, I caught myself wishing it would have been
the main bit of the film, or a film of its own! Even more so since I
felt it was left rather unsolved, even though Neetu Singh?s brief
appearance in the very end of the movie gave away the final result.
Love Aaj Kal concludes a
very simple fact: Love is Love, no matter if one searches for it or
not, no matter where, no matter how it happens, and no matter how
modern and cool you consider yourself. You can never bee too cool for
Love. It?s just about how thick you are in the head to realize it
happened. Very good production values, very likeable actors and very
charming story telling make Love Aaj Kal a nice film, if you are in
the right mood.
