After reading rave reviews about the much awaited and over hyped Love Aaj Kal(LAK) I decided to watch the movie yesterday. The posters with cute Deepika and dashing Saif looking promising enough. Another Jab we met, was what all the reviews spoke about.
The movie began with Saif(Jai) and Deepika(Meera) crossing each other in a lift and a month name flashing on one corner of the screen. Cut to scene two: next month name flashes and Jai was shown trying to hit on Meera but prove that he was not piling on.
And thus the months go on changing and the journey from strangers to confused ‘lovers’ take place before the eyes of the audience. Confused lovers because the duo is not ready to accept the fact that they are in love but keep on puckering up and getting intimate whenever they get the chance. Till this point you are trying to comprehend the real equation between the two – puppy love or serious love.
But before you can even savour the fact that they are a real couple you are hit on the face with their breakup. Breakup? Why, how, what, when – all these questions start clouding your mind. Meera looks quite amused with the cranky humorous excuses like ‘we are aam admi – mango man’ from Jai and so is the audience, while talking about a serious thing as a fallout. In short they decide to breakup as they figure out they need to move in two diametrically opposite directions for pursuing their career dreams in two different countries and since there are too many hassles than benefits in a long distance relationship so nip it in the bud. Point Noted.
So now we are in a party celebrating their breakup since they wanted to end on a happy note. This particular sequence is quite well made. The confused emotions of two people who are breaking up, stepping down from the rosy alter of love to the grassy reality of friendship and trying to move on in their lives is portrayed well through silent expressions of Meera when another girl tries to woo an discomfited Jai in front of her. Taking a decision is easy but keeping them is hard. Meera is trying to stick to the point of being just a friend but it isn’t easy to erase all the past memories and feelings for a person just like that. Jai is relatively unperturbed though a bit awkward at times. As the party draws to an end they feel the heat of their decision. Their parting goodbye carries a lot of pain and unsaid words.
After the party is over and Jai is left a bit fazed, still unable to comprehend the gravity of their decision, when he meets the genial Rishi Kapoor (Veer) , owner of the cafe where they were partying. Veer tries to understand the whole point of the breakup party and they start talking heart to heart. On Jai’s insistence Veer delves into the past and brings up his own love story which was quite similar to Jai’s barring the timeframe.
So the two love stories now run side by side, teleporting between past and present. A very clever and interesting move by Imtiaz was to caste Saif as the younger Veer. Veer informs Jai that he reminds him of his younger days. So by portrayinf Saif in the role of the younger Veer, Imtiyaz was actually trying to make the viewers feel how Jai was visualising the whole thing as Veer narrated his experiences. It could have left a better effect if only Saif would have taken more care to perfect his Punjabi diction, which anyone even without being a Punjabi would know was plausibly laughable and annoying. In fact the forced jokes in a strange Punjabi accent and equally awful gestures were too much to digest. Saif was pretty stiff in the role of a sardar and really seemed lost at times. End result - the supposedly funny scenes couldn’t even squeeze out an ounce of laughter from the somnolent audience.
Still the story of the yesteryears set in the dusty lanes of sixties Delhi is the far better than the modern one just because of the lingering charm of the immaculately beautiful Harleen Kaur (Giselle Monteiro), love interest of young Veer. Imtiyaz Ali and his team had put in all the effort to keep the identity of this beautiful lady wrapped in mystery maybe because she is a Brazilian who was initially considered for Saif’s Swiss girlfriend’s role. Imtiyaz was sceptic because he didn’t want people to go with a prejudiced mind and reject the brazen beauty as the demure Harleen. It amazed me to no extent that inspite of not having much dialogs, how beautifully she does justice to her role; with her eyes and posture emoting the myriad emotions of being in love so gracefully that you cannot but fall in love with her. The instance wherein she is standing on her balcony in Kolkata after Veer goes away, trying out her lover’s favourite black tea, with amazing transformation in expressions as the bitter brew fills her senses, just to feel his presence through the tea seems like pure bliss. It has to be seen to believe it. Indeed in love one eventually falls in love with everything that his/her love interest does or likes.
In the meanwhile both Jai and Meera try to move on with their life and engage in new love interests asking each other every time whether they have chucked out all the feelings for each other from their heart. Coerced by Veer’s love story jai lands up in India with a surprise visit for Meera. They both duck and lie to their counterparts and have a heyday exploring the nook and corner of Delhi while having a lot of fun. But the fun ends when reality starts to sink in – Rahul Khanna Meera’s boss proposes marriage to her and she is in a dilemma as she finds it hard to accommodate a new person in her heart, a place she had already reserved for Jai. A heated conversation follows and Meera makes it clear that henceforth they should not be in touch till the point she decides anything about the marriage.
The dilemma and agony of two people who are well in love with each other but just because of their mountain sized egos are not ready to accept the fact is well executed by Saif and Deepika. This movie would definitely be the turning point in her career, which had given her enough substance to prove her mettle and she had done that most perfectly. Her dialog throwing and voice control in the intense sequences are specially mention worthy. The shock and grief of the situation is brilliantly articulated by Saif’s demeanour in the pre marriage scene.
The music of the movie is definitely a highpoint of the movie. Whether it’s the soulful Yeh Dooriyan by Mohit Chauhan or the fast paced Main kaha hu by KK really touches the heart. Twist was good but its abrupt emergence in an intense situation was really not required.
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