Love Aaj Kal - not a great work of Imtiaz Ali
Posted by Anantha | Posted in Cinema , Imtiaz Ali , Movie Reco , Music , Pritam , Saif Ali Khan , Watched in theatre | Posted on Thursday, September 10, 2009
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As evident from the title of the movie, it is an attempt to juxtapose the 'love of yesteryears'(of 60s to be precise) with today's 'modern love'. This is a comparison of the love as an emotion and as an expression and how it has changed during the course of time. There are two story lines of the couples, Veer and Herleen (Saif and debutant Brazilian model Giselli Monteiro) and Jai and Mira (Saif again and Deepika). The love story of Veer and Harleen is simple, cute and innocent and touches the heart. They hardly talk to each other throughout the movie but convey a lot through their silence. Where as in the story of Jai and Mira, they are the perfect representatives of today's Gen-Y (or Z or what ever) world. They love by mind and not by heart (according to Rishi Kapoor who plays the older Veer so adorably), who choose career over love, who throw a party to their friends on their break-up, who are spoilt by choices, who are more 'practical' than their previous generations. Now that's quite a lot of things to tell in the story of just over 2 hours. Though Imtiaz was successful in narrating the story of Veer and Harleen (quite a simple and easy job though), he seems to have lost grip in telling the story of Jai and Mira. The love story of a pair which is torn between the decisions made by head over heart has not come so endearing. The attempt to show the characters of Jai and Mira as confused pair, yet they themselves thinking that they are very firm about their decisions taken in life is not successful.
That does not mean the movie is not good, it is certainly a good movie, but not to the standards set by the same director in his earlier movies like Jab We Met and Socha Na Tha. Love Aaj Kal has it's moments, is funny in parts, is touching in few scenes. As a matter of fact, my favourite scene in the movie is the one in which Harleen brings a cuppa chai hiding behind her dupaTTa to Veer who would have travelled all the way from Delhi to Calcutta just to have a glimpse of her. The other one being Jai just making it to the airport to bid farewell to Mira.
I liked Saif more as Veer than as Jai. Saif seems to have done some homework in bringing across the body language and gesticulations of a Punjabi munda of 60s and it has worked very well. He has done pretty decent job as Jai too. Deepika looks stunning in few scenes. Not sure if I am the only one who is having problems her dialogue delivery. I feel it is some what not perfect, not right. But if we have lived with two left feet of Saif all these years of his acting career, who seems to have no interest in improving his dancing skills, then Deepika is pardonable. Just check Saif struggling to shake his hip in the song 'Twist.. twist'. The credit of managing Giselli Monteiro as Harleen by giving her hardly any dialogues should go to Imtiaz. Rishi Kapoor as older Veer is simply superb. Of all the songs by Pritam, I liked 'Chor Baazaari' sung by Neeraj Sridhar, Sunidhi and 'Aj din..' sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
Overall, the movie is good, but not great. Love Aaj Kal looks like the best work of any debutant director from Yashraj Banner, the movie seriously lacks the spark of Imtiaz Ali.
