Catchy music, stunning Deepika, Imtiaz Ali... nothin to lose to watch Love Aaj Kal... with this mindset and the enthusiasm of watching a hindi movie in AMC, I entered the movie theatre and I wasn't disappointed!
I spent the past couple of days listening to the songs. Pritam's (whichever Korean serial they maybe copied from) music and Imtiaz Ali had set the stage to expect a romantic comedy! And that's exactly what was delivered. A light 150 mins entertainer with some laughs, some emotions and some hip rocking music! I have liked both the previous movies directed by Imtiaz, though I think there was more heart in Socha Na Tha, Jab We Met was one of the few movies I liked Kareena and again it entertained me. Love Aaj Kal, as the title suggests is a love story about Saif and Deepika, who spend two years with each other in London and then decide to part ways to pursue their careers and passion. But since they have fallen in love with each other (it takes a while for them to realize it), they keep coming back to each other. No points to guess that the girl realizes her feelings much before our 'trying to be casanova' Saif! By that time Deepika is married off and Saif has got his Lakshya! But then he realizes how much he loves her and comes back looking for her. So a simple love story and told in a straight forward way!
But wait, Imtiaz is smarter than that... He also draws a parallel to Rishi Kapoor (a sardar in London who gets reminded of his younger days after seeing Saif) and his love story with Harleen Kaur. A nice narration nuance is that young Rishi Kapoor is played by Saif Ali Khan. All those who thought that Imtiaz was trying to save money by using the same actor, give the director some credibility. The 70s love story is very well directed and even though Harleen Kaur had very little dialogues, she emoted well with her eyes and expressions. Full marks to Imtiaz on this piece... the exchange of glances, the exchange of boondi and chai, in the first conversation with Harleen young Rishi Kapoor explaining that he has a good job; all these are very well shown... this is how love would have been in yesteryears!
So in all a great story, good direction from Imtiaz and a different style of narration got me hooked on. But the issue I had with the movie was Saif and Deepika. Deepika falls FLAT when she is given powerful dialogues and a scene full of emotion. And she is not given this once but atleast thrice in the movie and I think she couldn't carry it through even once. Similarly Saif is ok when he starts to talk a lot in the sensitive scenes but the story had a LOT OF SCOPE for much stronger scenes and a display of emotions. Saif and Deepika (and I don't consider either of them good actors) couldn't carry what was offered to them. I don't know who could have played these roles better but it felt like no justice was done to the strong story line by these mediocre actors. Imtiaz could get the emotions out of Abhay Deol (he is turning to be a good actor and more on it later) in his first movie but he somehow couldn't get the emotions out from one established actor and other not-so-new actor!
But just because of this I wouldn't rate the movie on a lower scale. I think Imtiaz has put in his effort in to the story and direction and I think he gets my full marks! I liked the titles where he throws in some scenes from the movie just to give an audience the glimpse of what is coming next and that way keeps them guessing until they see all those scenes from the titles played out. Even the way he has breezed through the two year courtship period of Saif and Deepika is well done! Another good touch was the way 'Main Kya Hoon' was shot - several months of Saif's life shown in 5 mins and that too conveying everything he wanted to.
Before I end, don't miss out the songs, Chor Bazaari, Twist (remix) and Dooriyan!
