Well world is full of wonders, and one great wonder which we all forgot is love, just yesterday I watched a different love story "Her" which is an oscar nominated movie which depicts an unusual love, love between a guy and his OS, yes, virtual love! And today I watched a movie which was release long back in 2003, and which I’ve recorded on TV, It is "Love Actually", it is infact a mashup of love stories, all happening in and around Britain.
As I am currently listening "Ambarsariya" on my Ipod, and my internet is really meharbaan, so I thought to write this review, it is a kind of "Salaam-e-ishq" concept, it could be otherwise since SEI comes in 2007, but the concept is similar with an ensemble cast. It’s a mashup of 9 stories, 9 different stories of love in different stages, intermingled with each other.
Story 1: An old and yesteryear Rockstar Billy(Bill Nighy) is trying to come again to the music world, but facing lot of competition, but he hasn’t left his style, and his manager Joe(Gregor Fisher) is trying hard for him, in the end Billy understand the hard work of his manager, and acknowledges it on Christmas.
Story 2: Juliet(Keira Knightly) is married to Peter(Chiwetel Ejiofor) but came to know about her secret lover, Peter’s friend Mark(Andrew Lincoln) and acknowledge his love by kissing him on Christmas night.
Story 3: Jamie(Colin Firth) is a writer and he slowly falls in love with his maid Aurelia(Lucis Moniz), and when he reached his family house for celebrating christmas he understand that he’s deeply in love with her, and instantly get a flight and reached to the pub where she’s a waitress and acknowledge his love for her.
Story 4: Harry(Alan Rickman) is a boss of a company, and is aged, has a beautiful wife Karen(Emma Thompson) who is also Britain’s PM’s sister, but he get attracted to his new secretary Mia(Heike Makatsch). He brought a necklace for his secretary as the christmas present from a jewellery salesman Rufus(Rowan Atkinson).
Story 5: David(Hugh Grant) is the newly elected PM of Britain and get attracted to one of his household staff Natalie(Martine McCutcheon) and get jealous when US President(Billy Bob Thronton) get attracted towards her, but finaaly he acknowledges his love out in the open when he kissed her in middle of a school christmas drama.
Story 6: Daniel(Liam Neeson) has lost his wife, and now he has to take care of his step-son Sam(Thomas Sangster), who is just 4-5 yrs old, and already in love with a girl Joanna(Olivia Olson) who is leaving UK to US, but he run through the airport security, unknowingly helped by Rufus, to confess his love on the christmas night.
Story 7: Sarah(Laura Linney) & Karl(Rodrigo Santoro), both loved each other but unable to confess and both are employees of Harry, when they confessed, Sarah’s mentally retarded brother Michael(Michael Fitzgerald) comes in between and on the christmas night Sarah went to see his brother leaving Karl alone.
Story 8: Colin Frissell(Kris Marshall) understood that he would be instantly liked by AMerican girls, and not by British girls, so he fly to US, and instantly become a hit between 4 US girls, and brought back one as his girlfriend on Christmas time.
Story 9: John(Martin Freeman) & Judy(Joanna Page) worked as body-doubles for actors esp in se* scenes for them, and fall in love with each other.
See, so many love-stories are inter-mingles here and there, and this will confuse you in the beginning, even if you try hard to remember each and every character, you’ll get confuse, but then slowly knots get opened, and it get simplfied, and you started liking the lovely and cute stories more, direction is good for sure by Richard Curtis, and this is his first movie as a director, and what an ensemble cast, all big names in one, and everybody given their best. Rowan(Mr Bean) shines in his small role, and I laughed at his act, it is comic, then the young boy Thomas(Jojen from Game of Thrones) looks so cute and adorable, you fall in love with him. I also liked Hugh Grant’s character, he is spontaneous as fall-in-love PM.
The 9th story got the least space in this 2hr long movie, hence we are not able to see much of Freeman(Frodo), and movie has bollywoodish elements, just like at the end, the climax, where one character dodging the airport security to see the love of his life, and then a guy who suddenly realizes his love and ran back to meet her by taking planes immediately. There are so many shades of love in one movie, that is one plus point of this movie, good work by the writer Richard Curtis aka the director, and perfect music for this slow and cute love story(Craig Armstrong). Some scenes are too beautiful, need no explanation, and the stories met at Christmas day.
This movie has 63% fresh rating on RT, and I will recommend this movie to you as well, do get some time and watch wither on movie channel or buy a DVD/CD, and watch it with your partner on a sleepy Saturday evening, you’ll like it. I rate it 3.5/5
P.S. I’ve attached a pic explaining the inter-connections between all stories’ characters, so check out.
GRuchirG.
Jai Raam ji ki:)