Movie Review: Love Aaj Kal

A MANGO MOVIE.

While in college, one of my friends fell in love with a classmate. They went around for a few months and broke up. She later dated another mutual friend and my friend meanwhile, married and now has a child. Love Aaj Kal is like that.

Well, not exactly like that. But what I mean is that this movie doesn’t feel like a movie. It is like listening to a friend’s tale of love and loss. In other words a normal love story.

A simple story. Simply told. Or to paraphrase Saif, its an aam film. A Mango film.

The problem however is that the director’s previous 2 films were Socha Naa Tha (which is both, one of the best and yet also one of the most underrated love stories) and Jab We Met (which I don’t need to mention about).

With 2 such movies preceding it, the expectations from Love Aaj Kal was always going to be sky high and it is here that this movie disappoints.

Its not bad. Not at all. Infact when compared to recent releases like Luck and Kambakth Ishq, its pretty damn brilliant. But the problem is that you don’t compare it to those movies. You go in ready to expect another Jab We Met. And this is when it becomes a disappointment.

Saif and Deepika play modern lovers in London and who are moving to Delhi and San Francisco respectively, and who decide that long distance relationships don’t work and decide to break up amicably instead.

He then meets some crazy Swiss chick while she meets Rahul Khanna and both of them ‘feel in love’ but obviously not like it was with each other.

How they re-discover their love makes up the movie.

Running parallel to this is Rishi Kapoor telling his story and this is the best part of the movie.

In many ways this movie is also about the difference between old love and new love.
How old love was more about values while new love is more about sex.

How old love was about adulation while new love is all about copulation.

I don’t know about you, but for me the most memorable scene from this movie was of a young girl walking past her admirer with a cup of tea for him, hidden under her dupatta.

Am I old fashioned??? Dunno.

Of the actors Rishi Kapoor is reliable as usual and there is a great cameo by Neetu Singh but the lead pair are opposites.

Deepika CANNOT act. Period.

She can rock a great smile and the dimples always help but act she cannot. Maybe this is why the movie falters emotionally. You never actually feel for her character Meera.

For me, Meera was just a crazy, mean and selfish bitch.

Now remember Geet from Jab We Met. See the difference? Gottit?

Most love stories are usually the same with just a few variations in between. So to make them really memorable you need great actors so that they can make you relate to the usually tepid stories. Here, Deepika is the weakest link. Where’s Bebo when you need her?

A few years back Saif won the National Award for Hum Tum and while a few eyebrows were raised, its generally accepted now that he is a good actor. Here he brings both youthful exuberance and resultant heartache to his role and infact in one stunning scene, both at the same time.

In a classic example of “What I Mean Is I Love You - No Actually I Don’t - Yes I Do”, he is talking to Deepika during her wedding and he brings so many emotions to the scene that I am already looking forward to him going face to face with Bebo in the forthcoming Qurbaan (directed by Rensil D’Silva who wrote Rang De Basanti).

So is this movie worth watching?
Definitely. Its Good but nothing to rave about.

Or let me put it this way.
Its like a Mango. A nice, good, juicy mango but definitely not an Alphonso.

Till Next Time and another movie (probably Kaminey)

Love

Vish