After Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal is Imtiaz Ali’s next venture. Obviously the expectations were sky high as Jab We Met was a classic. Thus the comparision was imminent, but it is difficult to compare the two as two stories are different in many ways. Imtiaz’s storytelling skills
comprise of simplicity and realism. He has not made any compromise with that in Love Aaj Kal as well. The presentation of love stories in yesteryears and today is really heartening to watch.
The story involves a playboyish character named Jay(Saif) and a happy go lucky girl Meira(Deepika). Jay and Meira believe that real lovers exist in fairy tales and real couples do not get involved so serioulsy. After a year of dating they get bored and break up. They host a break up party for the occasion which was a new concept. I do not remember any hindi movie handling a break up scene so efficiently. In the break up party Jay meets Vir(Rishi Kapoor) who tries to help Jay realise his love for Meira. Jay neither understands his take on love nor does he try to mend his lifestyle. Jay makes fun of the emotion that Vir had for his crush during his days. The scene at the airport in which Vir and Jay argue about love’s existence in two different generations is really nice.
As time moves on Jay gets a new girlfriend and also helps Meira to get a new boyfriend. Both are unable to get each other out of their minds. Finally when Vikram(Meira’s Boyfriend, [Rahul Khanna]) approaches Meira for marriage she realises that she cannot say yes until she consults Jay. Parallelly in Vir’s Story the lady asks Vir to forget her as her parents have fixed her marriage with somebody else.
At the end of the story both the lead characters manage to get their love. The realisation that she is the one with whom he wants to spend his entire life comes much earlier to the character from older generation. The story conveys the idea that existence of the love is same in all the generations. Only the forms in which it exists across generations is different.
Despite a brilliant script, there are many anomalies in the movie also. The initial few scenes are inconsistent. The viewer who is watching the movie for the first time might not be able to understand the essence of the movie. Deepika’s performance in the later part of the movie has been found wanting. The emotions potrayed by her at the end of the movie are not strong enough as it should have been. In some scenes I felt that Imtiaz probably tried too hard.
On the whole the movie is worth watching. Please watch it on a DVD player in order to understand some of the scenes which need repetition. The DVD is not at all a waste of money.you can count me on that.