Love Aaj Kal – We are about compromises (with treatment too)
It’s a great idea and something that is truly a call of the times. Love has lost its meaning for this generation and “practicality” counts above all else. The story brings out this by contrasting two love stories – one, set in our time and other painted in sepia (could be before Independence but it’s a bit unclear). In our time, the lovers decide to part because they will be moving to different parts of the world and “you know, long distance things don’t work … we’ll become a source of stress to each other and what’s the point in that?”
A refrain that I am sure a lot of us echo and hear.
In that, Saif Ali Khan’s first production has its finger on the pulse of the young urban India. Love is secondary and perishable, especially if our aspirations are stifled because of it. The happy way in which the couple (Saif and Deepika Padukone) decide to part is also not so far fetched. Most everybody counts on there being other fish in the sea and tries to limit one’s emotional stake. And life carries on.
Except that an old timer (Rishi Kapoor) questions the course the young man has taken and recounts how in his time, love used to count for more. In his time, there weren’t “options” of whether to plunge headlong into the whirlpool that love can be. One just built everything around it – not exclusive of it. It was a time when couples didn’t decide on the basis of how good the sex was, a time when even conversation between young men and women of respectable families was frowned upon.
Yes, we get the drift. Love has lost its gleam for this generation and options and practical matters take precedence. Compromises must be struck if material wants are to be met. Very timely too since just about now we are all starting to question some of the consumerist tendencies we have given in to without a thought.
But does a good and relevant idea necessarily make a good movie? “Love Aaj Kal” will prove to you that that is no guarantee. Somewhere along the way things start to fall apart. You will start to notice that the actors don’t seem to be convinced about the characters whose garb they have donned. Saif and Deepika lack the chemistry that would make their story work. Deepika seems to be enjoying herself in certain sequences and Saif does better in the sepia mode than the present generation’s representation. But somewhere close to the end of the first half most people in the theatre seemed to also sense there was something missing. Sure the movie peaks in places, earns a laughs here and there – even gives a few glimpses of “Jab We Met” in one song sequence (now, why as a director would one want to do that?).
I can forgive the fact that Saif can’t dance to save his life and that Deepika outshines him as the natural that she is. But in places where he has to carry the scene by the power of his acting, he doesn’t pull through and we are left unconvinced of his passion. Only credit I will give the director is that he is watchful of Saif dropping his intonation to convey his inner turmoil. Yet, in some places, where monologues have been used instead of repartees, the sequences leave you unimpressed. No time for rehearsals, Saif? Producer’s job taking its toll on your acting?
Oh and if you are as smitten by the looks of the girl who plays Harleen Kaur (Giselle Montiero, the love interest in the sepia era), please forgive her for her other failings. She’s stiffer than Saif while dancing, doesn’t manage to lip sync convincingly and perhaps because of her lack of acting skills has been given very few lines. All in all, she gives new meaning to the word “showpiece” even for Bollywood where actresses constantly complain of weak roles.
See it for a relevant message that will leave some impact and if you aren’t as picky as me. Love does have its place in the overall happiness quotient of young India and distractions will come to naught sooner or later. See it also for the romance which shines through whenever the screen takes on sepia hues.
Don’t see it if you feel you need to see the right treatment meted out to a good subject and story. Avoid it like the plague if you can’t ignore your own expectations of Imtiaz Ali’s work. This is not his best and I’d rather not speculate what went wrong.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Pankaj I echo your feeling over here on this.At the end of the 1st half- it looked like a decent attempt and reasonably entertaining , in the 2nd half things started getting bad- kept thinking things will be back on track but completely drifted off.in the end everything looked too convenient.Certainly disappointing for me considering that the premise was quite good- an oppurtunity not well utilised.and yes no point in comparing with Imtiaz’s previous attempts.
yes, thank you for a non partisan review. Though I still think you are being too generous.
Just watched it last night and i think it helped that i had completely forgotten Jab we Met because all the reviews i have read here compared the two…why? i dont know.
I agree that the movie failed to deliver overall, but think that it had so much potential and it just touched upon so many things that we deal with in relationships today. credit to imtiaz for that.
I liked the transition from practicality to the slow realisation that you might lose something forever- realising the value of something after youve lost it etc.. just wish it would have been fleshed out more effectively, more convincingly.. think great plot, great premise and the only actor i liked was rishi kapoor.
damn im writing my own review here and not answering to your blog am i…
Wanted to write a review myself but there are just too many of em already so I will make do with a comment…..ahem…here it goes…
For me the definition of a good movie is very simple…..it’s much longer than it’s reel length….even after the projector has stopped running…the movie plays itself again and again in my head..sometimes for days on…or at least a few hours, in case of LAK the movie stopped playing even before the credits had started to roll, the main love story of Saif and Deepika was a great irritant…how I wished that the movie was made entirely of the second love story which was given a step motherly treatment……but the movie was better than the average stuff that bollywood churns out so I guess it merits some attention at least….
Well at least some moments from the movie were good or should I say great….when the sepia tinted Kolkata came up on the screen I thought I had died in my seat and gone to heaven, and the scene where young Rishi Kapoor travels from Dilli to Kolkata just to meet Harleen, I saw glimpses of an eternal love story but that’s just about it….nothing more to write about…a couple of one liners too I guess here and there but not much else…
“other painted in sepia (could be before Independence but it’s a bit unclear)”
I believe, it’s the 60’s…the movie does say it
After watching Love aaj kal i felt, this is not the imtiaz ali’s best work.After his directorial debut Socha na tha,he carried himself to the higher level by directing one more gem ‘Jab we Met’.I feel,Saif’s selection for Lead role was really a mistake.He is not a versatile actor..when it comes to variation in acting..he ceratinly can’t act.When he cries u feel like laughing!!..He gave fabulous performance in ‘Omkara’ it’s all beacuse of genius “Vishal bharadwaj’..I really don’t know..why veer das is completely wasted..The only perfomrance to remember was “Rishi Kapoor” as veer singh..and deepika padukone..madam u plz start playing badminton..atleast u have coach like prakash badminton who can teach u…
Imtiaz Ali decides to play by the rules this time — the same rules that he so refreshingly broke in his previous two films.
So let us count some of the rules.
Rule number one. When the hero and heroine break-up, both of them will make sure they will hook up with the dumbest woman and most boring man respectively.
Two — Love happens once in life. (Proof: that dumb woman and the boring guy in rule one).. [more]
The movie left me with mixed feelings.
I loved the old loved story set in the sixties, which i felt was beautifully handled by imtiaz. Saif was very good as the sardar. I really felt on i could connect with the characters. The 60s era was superbly created, the mannerisms an all..even though the story was one which has been witnessed on the hindi screen a zillion times.
On the other hand, I found the modern love story was to contrived and just plain irritating.Although Saif was good ,deepika seriously needs to get some acting lessons. Also, i could never really connected with the couple. Rishi saab however was brilliant as usual.Keep it coming sir.
the characters are not etched out.
who is meera?
who is jai?
there is no substance in the relationship.
what do they do?
how do they romance?
where do they holiday?
…
i am reading these questions in blogs all around and feeling great. because there is no jai n meera, there are no events…there is just me and my lover, the events that we have shared. and it all fits. suddenly i ‘identify’. cinema is not a bounded language and so there is no one grammar. you dont need a plot thats linear. you dont need characters which are well defined. this is Imtiaz’s cinema. He made me see myself with my lover on screen and i am thankful for that.
after ages, i saw people clap in a packed pune theatre during the middle of the movie. at that one moment, everyone in the audience including me saw ourselves on screen and thought, ‘fuck, this has happened to me’.
Thanks Imtiaz.
P.S: Anurag was right, Imtiaz tells stories.
YOu share your name with the maestro! Wow
Mr Mullick… your review is very well written and captures many nuances that a careful movie goer like me would like to know before he swipes his card at the counter. While people may critique some aspects of this review, what was refreshing to me was your style of narration and the smooth nature of the thought flow……
once again, very impressive writing.