Love Aaj Kal (2009)

Quiteliterally Love - Aaj - Kal, Imtiaz Ali's take on loves-lovers past and present is a good follow-up to Jab We Met. Any notions of the film being merely an exercise in comparison are dispelled before halftime. Jai (Saif Ali Khan) and Meera (Deepika Padukone) have to go through their respective dreams of working for Golden Gate Inc. and doing restoration work to monuments in Dilli before realizing their need for one another. The theme of bridges isn't bandied about on screen (the title has the Golden Gate adorning it) but presented with subtlety; their metaphorical nature - Jai is well into 'building bridges' with Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor, so effortless that the role hints at a palpable danger of his being typecast in the future) - is driven home with clarity. In short, the crucial ingredients that made people susceptible in the decades past to falling headlong into love - deprivation and finding access to one's partner difficult - are the missing pieces for the modern couple too. Almost as if a work of art was finding itself, the film heaves an audible sigh, relieved that not much has changed over the years.About the pair then. Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone have zero natural chemistry and far from being a detractor, it adds to the experience - it makes their on-screen vibes seem very appealing. Indian filmmakers dealing with love stories go to great lengths in casting the lead pair and try to derive much of the chemistry from the pair itself. None of that here. Imtiaz has worked at extracting performances from the duo making them seem every inch a couple by dint of putting them at ease with each other and also by the play of events.Love Aaj Kal holds testimony to the comfort levels Indian filmmakers have established with cinematographic techniques (Natarajan Subramaniam, here) in the past decade. Experimenting yet but there are genuine indicators here to the control they have over the same. The period pieces don't feel overdone. The songs (Pritam) could have added more to the film and only two of them (Chor Bazaari and Dooriyan) register.All these are packaged into just-about-two-hours making for a crisp movie. For that alone, Imtiaz deserves applause.

Its always challenging to write about movie which is complete all aspects. There is a predicament if one would do justice - and needless to say "Love Aaj Kal" falls into the same category. If I were to list the top 3 movies of 2009, it would be - Kaminey, Dev D & Love Aaj Kal.There is no earth-shattering love-story in "Love Aaj Kal". The USP of "Love Aaj Kal" is juxtaposing the past with the present using "Love" as the baseline. In DDLJ Anupam Kher says a memorable line "Mohabbat ka naam, aaj bhi mohabbat hain" and Imitiaz effectively translates this on silver screen to convey that the core emotion/ feeling "Love" is still the same - unadulterated & pristine, the dynamics however may have changed with times.¤ Saif: Reprising the character of modern/ contemporary "Jai" comes quite naturally to Saif and undoubtedly his its his forte. I particularly liked the way "Jai" goes on verbal diarrhoea when he gets confused. It takes a while for the audience to get around rustic sepia "Veer Singh" but once that mental block is jumped over, you would appreciate two distinct characters played by Saif and yet again conjoined to Rishi Kapoor. And yes, donning the hats of the producer is indeed praiseworthy. ¤ Deepika: There are varied shades to her character and it lives within the defined boundaries. Her conviction to follow the philosophy "Set your love free...." is well portrayed. Author backed role and she delivers with utmost perfection (to the extent that you can't imagine anybody else in her shoes). And yes, her best performance till date, and maybe long way to go until she manages to surpass it.¤ Giselle Monteiro: She was fantabulous as Harleen, and keeping the secret under the wraps? Only Imtiaz could have managed to pull such a spectacular feat. ¤ Rishi Kapoor: Spot on. You will fall in love with this large- hearted Sardar.¤ Rahul Khanna: Nearly forgot! He was adequate but his character was more of a stocking filler.Songs by Pritam are neatly-blended into the storyline. The foot- tapping numbers are bound to stay on top charts for a while. Nicely complimenting them is the choreography. The costumes designers deserve a special mention. Technical department namely story, screenplay and script are the strongest point of "Love Aaj Kal". The passion of Imtiaz Ali gets reflected in each frame. "Jab We Met" had set a new bar and I was sceptical if Imtiaz would manage to get even close. But after "Love Aaj Kal", yet again he has set a new precedent. Raj Kapoor was extremely passionate about his movies - he narrated the story from the bottom of his heart, the female characters were fleshed out strongly and the music was rich. The Bollywood can now rest for a true successor to the "Showman" has arrived. PS: The last frame in "Love Aaj Kal" was a pure master stroke.

I had high expectations about this movie. I guess it wasn't all there in it. The movie starts very messy and very boring. Jai gets a relationship and every month you get to see a glimpse about the way the relationship evolve. Jai and Meera gets bored. They break up.Then Rishi Kapoor gets into the story and everything seems so be more interesting. He tells his love story in the past as we continue to follow Jai's and Meera's story in the present. And here the whole movie goes wrong where it can go wrong. Bad writing, editing, acting.Saif Ali acts very immature. His acting from Pareeneeta would have been more suitable in this movie. The way the story switches between now and then is clumsy. It doesn't make the story easy to understand. Rahul Khanna acted lame when he heard Meera was still in love with Jai. Come on, he just swallowed all her crap just the day after he married her! The anger I saw in Abishek Bachchan in Kabhi alvida na kehna was very missed in this scene.In the movie we go from London to India to America. It doesn't work. There is so much that happens in this movie, that is not necessary to let the viewer watch. Like why did Jai have to meet a blonde girl in Londen and take her to India? Why did Rishi Kapoor have to tell Jai his story but not show him the result? With saying this all, Love aajkal had the potential to be a mature movie. With the wrong guidance it grew out to be a small entertaining movie to me. (This is only my opinion, I'm happy to hear lots of people are fan of this movie. I like Saif Ali Khan a lot as an actor, but his acting could have been better).

With all the hullabaloo surrounding the Love Aaj Jal, the question is does it deserve it all not? In my personal opinion, the answer is no! After Kambakkht Ishq, this is the second film that has all packaging and no substance. It's hard to believe it's Imtiaz Ali who has given films like Socha Na Tha and Jab We Met agreed to direct a film of this sort.For a start, all the actors in the film get no scope to perform. Watching Saif Ali Khan in Love Aaj Kal gave me a déjà vu feeling. It seems like Salaam Namaste and Hum Tum all over again, expect that this is worse. Those films are actually good, but this is bad. As for Deepika, again, she was good in that crying scene towards the end. Otherwise, the role did not demand much from her as an actress. Giselle Monterio is wooden, despite given a role that only required her to smile and move her eye-lashes. She still manages to look cute, but her attempt to dance is horrendous. Rishi Kapoor is wasted. Rahul Khanna is neglected to the backseat.Overall, there is nothing new in Love Aaj Kal, expect for the 'Aaj' and 'Kal' part! Otherwise, I suggest you take a pledge to never watch this film!