Love Aaj kal - Very Relevant To Today’s Times
This is a forward-thinking film that handles the new-age relationships with complete understanding. Love Aaj Kal connects with the feelings of love and commitment in a relationship deeply and with delightfully captivating candour.
Through Love Aaj Kal , Imtiaz Ali has presented yet another example of his directorial excellence, the use of simple, short and crisp dialogues, with complete focus on the characters.
Love Aaj Kal begins with the story of Jai Vardhan Singh (Saif Ali Khan) and Meera Pandit (Deepika Padukone), who in London and in love with each other, but are practical enough to realise that their relationship can’t take priority over their careers.
When Meera decides to move to India to pursue a career in conservation architecture, the duo decide to break up, albeit amicably. There are no tantrums, no tears and instead of being sad about it, they decide it’s best to be practical, even throwing a break-up party to celebrate the event.
In New Delhi, Meera starts going out with her boss (Rahul Khanna) while Jai falls for a Swiss girl called Jo. He also meets a cafe owner called Veer Singh (played endearingly by Rishi Kapoor) who narrates his own love story to him, which we get to see in flashback.
Saif plays the younger Rishi Kapoor (Veer Singh)who is in love with Harleen (played by newcomer Gisele) Both the stories play out almost parallel to each other, and while both styles of love are diametrically different, they end almost identically, which makes for a nice touch.
The film has Imtiaz Ali’s stamp all over it. Imtiaz used the flashback sequences in a very innovative manner. Young professionals will love it. The conversation is real, the characters are identifiable. Nonetheless, the complex, but comprehensive, screenplay has helped the director a great deal in keeping his audience hooked to the movie, right from the beginning to the very end.
LAK is not an easy film to write and execute. Sure, it’s a love story, but it’s not one of those mundane love stories that talks of love and heartache. Here, the two stories, set in different eras, run parallel, but have a similar end.
To be brutally honest, it takes time to grasp the plot, since the past and present run concurrently. If you aren’t attentive, chances are you’d lose the plot. Also, if you aren’t aware by now that Saif Ali Khan enacts dual roles in the film , playing his part as also the part of young Rishi Kapoor, the goings on would confuse you no end, when the transition occurs.
After a breezy first half, things get complicated post-interval, which is fine, except that most of the complications seem to be unwanted. You sense how the film is going to end, but the wait seems endless. Also, the confusion over the two individuals wanting different things in life is never quite resolved
From the beginning to end the film belongs to Saif’s. Whether he is playing Jai, the young ambitious architect in London, or Veer, the poor young sardar in Delhi, he does it with aplomb. Saif has handled two different characters ably showing his versatility
Once a side-kick in Akshay Kumar movies , Saif Ali Khan has surely come a long way. He never gave up and kept on slowly and surely drifting towards good, intelligent cinema.
Love Aaj Kal is Saif Ali Khan’s best performance so far. He dons the double role of actor/producer and shows immense maturity in choosing a subject as novel as this one for his debut production.
Saif, as the modern-day Jai, he excels in all the nuances. And as the young Veer Singh, he tugs at your heart with his silent love. His cutting-edge one-liners and stark intensity form the film’s backbone.
Deepika pudukone is the real surprise & in all respects was up to the role and left impression. She delivers a surprisingly effortless performance. Rishi Kapoor is top notch & spontaneous as usual.
The actress enacting the role of Harleen is pretty innocent. Rahul Khanna does well in a small, but significant role. Watching the graceful Neetu Kapoor in the end sequence is truly astonishing..
Director Imtiaz Ali is a genius. The film bears the stamp of an accomplished storyteller. It’s not an easy task weaving two love stories together set in different eras and it’s commendable how he merges them together.
It is to Imtiaz Ali’s credit that he has penned an offbeat story, developed a complex but comprehensive screenplay and extracted sensitive performances from the principal cast.
Imtiaz’s dialogues are once again straight out of everyday conversations. Another area where Imtiaz Ali experiments is by depicting Saif as the young Rishi Kapoor. It’s a novel concept.
Music of the film by Pritam is already ruling the charts and thankfully none of the songs act as speed breakers. The songs compliment the goings-on beautifully. This is amongst Pritam’s accomplished works. He is a master when it comes to giving an age old tune a new age sound. ‘Twist’ [already a hit], ‘Aahun Aahun’ [foot-taping, comes with the naagin tune ], ‘Chor Bazaari’ [melodious] and ‘Dooriyaan’ [melancholic], each song is a gem.
Director Imtiaz has repeated his technical team trio of Jab We Met – Aarti Bajaj (Editing), Teddy Maurya (Art Direction) and Cinematographer (N. Nataraj Subramaniam) and each of them have excelled in their respective departments.
On the whole, LAK is for the young and romantic at heart. Very relevant to today’s times & can be related so well. It’s not perfect or a masterpiece movie, but in one of the Bollywood’s dullest years, LAK comes as a refreshing ray of hope. With the terrific performances, melodious music and stirring emotional moments, this movie bring a smile on your face. Here’s a film both with head & heart.
The final Verdict : Love Aaj Kal connects with the feelings of love and commitment in a relationship deeply and with delightfully captivating candour. It’s a Sensible Movie with brilliant Direction, Dialogues, Screenplay and Performances. Everything looked just at the right place.
The positive reviews, great hype and hopefully strong word of mouth, Love Aaj Kal could be the biggest hit of the year so far.