Sunday, August 2, 2009

Love Aaj Kal

Starring- Deepika Padukone, Saif Ali Khan, Rishi Kapoor.

Love Aaj Kal is a self proclaimed modern take on love, commitment and relationships. It tries to mirror the dilemmas faced by today’s young couples who are caught at crossroads trying to figure out what comes first- Love or Career.

Saif Ali Khan is Jai , the uber-cool guy who has his heart set on the Golden Gate job which will take him to the US of A. While Deepika plays Meera.. a smart,independent chic who’s into designing frescoes. (No offence but whatever that means ?!?) They share a relationship of comfort.. One that involves loads of sex and unabashed kissing at public places. So much so .. That when the time comes for them to split, they have a break up party ! Enter.. Rishi Kapoor- The oldie with a golden heart. He tells Jai about his own love story which becomes Jai’s Bible. And he embarks on a journey to get back Meera into his life.

Love Aaj Kal fails to deliver because it tries too hard.There is such a desperate attempt to make the protagonist couple look real that it leaves them devoid of any emotions. The chemistry between Deepika and Saif is so thanda that you can almost feel the temperature drop a degree or two. Also there is no coherence in the screenplay. Scenes float in and out of view, without making sense. You almost feel like telling Imtiaz.. Dude stop being Anuraag Kashyap ! The only bright spot is the parallel plot involving Veer Singh and Harleen Kaur. It is delightful.. their old world charm brings a smile on your face. Though, the young Harleen Kaur looks so feeble that you want to stand from your seat and shake her up ! Where is the effervescence of Jab We Met’s Geet ??

Somepeople who have been thru similar relationships might identify with it. But give me Jab We Met’s simplicity and beauty anyday.

The film is disappointing from the word go. Nothing is right about it. Watch it for some pleasant landscaping and a few light scenes here and there.

That is, if you must.


Rating- 2/5

5 comments:

  1. Hey!!!!!! that's not fair!It should have got AT LEAST 3! or 3.5 may be! I know u hate Ms. Padukone!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ok...fine...here i go--->
    well, firstly, ur revealing too much abt the movie!! dnt sPOiL it fr the ppl hu wanna watch it (yes there R ppl hu wanna watch it!. lol)!!...and this is a pet peeve i have with most critics, thy reveal too much!
    secondly, S dyr SUPPOSED to be casual, i mean I wudnt die for the one i love!! i mean hu dus tht?!...n dats why they (ok i think i shud WARN ppl to NOT READ this if they HVNT SEEN the movie) think "is this janam janam ka saathi thing fr real?"....
    thirdly, DNT compare this movie to Jab We Met!!! thts whr ur goin wrong... tht was a feel good movie...n this Isnt...n i strongly disgree with the anurag kashyap comment...i hvnt seen devD so i dnt knw, but ive seen gulaal nd tht DUS have a bit of flashbacks, but really! is he the only one allowed to do tht? n there r lotsa other movies which do/did d same thing....even B4 anurag kashyap came along...i mean Saathiya has it!
    fourthly, dude harleen is NOT geet. thyre DIFFERENT characters. In the 1960s, times....and women...were not as Free as thy r today....geet is a MOdern Day girl...
    n really..S ur prejudiced against deepika...that's why u dnt like it....but u knw THINK abt the movie a Lil...and den u'll get it...:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh Btw,,,she dsnt DESIGN Frescoes, she RESTORES old monuments....she Restores the frescoes n stuff!!!...dats like....cleaning....painting....basically...making the old and faded paintings and murals (frescoes) on the walls and ceilings of old monuments look like new again....and colour them like thy used to be b4 they faded...she even says tht shes goig fr "Restoration" (of old monuments in india....delhi...) in the movie...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Natasha, Thank you for commenting here.
    Regarding the Anurag Kashyap thing,he does not show flashback scenes as they are, but, there's a subtle transition between scenes of Past and Present. (Dev D is the best example) And Anurag Kashyap does that excellently.
    Imtiaz Ali, maybe tried to do a similar thing, by getting scenes of the past all of a sudden out of nowhere, but there was no connection, so he wasn't able to create the impact he might've wanted to.
    Harleen, I agree , can not be compared to Geet of Jab we Met. Both are different women, of different times. Geet stayed in hostels all her life,is an independent & outgoing woman. Harleen, on the other hand, is a small town girl of 1960s, who is shy and not so outgoing and independent as many punjabi women of modern times are.

    Dialogues of the movie were bad at places, and everyone laughed at their perverted meanings, which spoiled the scene(s) . (EX: hamare beech kuch phasa pada hai) It would've been better had they used some english words in these kind of dialogues instead of words like 'phasa pada hai'
    And the dialogues are nothing in front of those of Jab We Met (written by Imtiaz Ali only)
    ["tum apne aap ko bohot pasand karti ho na?" "bohot, mai apni favorite hoon"!! WOW!!)

    You may say the movie dealt with a modern/mature issue, but hey, they can be entertaining at the same time!
    Love Aaj Kal fails to hold the audience for 2 and a half hours. Second half is really boring , and people were actually moving out of the cinema hall during the second half.
    Movies can deal with modern issues, or any issue for that matter, but a movie like LAK was meant to be entertaining in the first place, which, it was not.

    ---
    R

    ReplyDelete
  5. ok...well firstly, i for one, think the transitions between past and present were really relevant to the movie...cuz actually, thts wat the movie was abt...n it brought the story fwd.
    (since neway the 2 stories were connected...which was agn smthn i hadnt expected...)
    secondly, it wasnt even 2.5 hrs...i t was like 2 hrs 10/15 or at the most 20 mins...tht is INCLUDING the interval, so i dnt think thts very long..i mena jaane tu ya jaane na was longer!!..neway...i found it entertaining. and abt the dialogues, if some cheap ppl hadnt spoilt thm, dey wudnt have seemed so bad. n i think one or TWO dialogues in the movie wudve sounded btter in eng...BUT i cudn even hear some dialogues (like the phasa hai one) cuz ppl kept talking. LOUDLY. n pissed me off. n i think its the little things tht matter. and make up the whole. n the movie ahs a lotof these little-liitle gestures and scenes tht r really moving..or cute..or sweet and nice...plus there R dialogues which r brilliant. ill think n tell u smtym, cuz right nw i dnt feel like...:D hehe...*:D*

    ReplyDelete