Let's play spot the difference !. Review on Love Aaj Kal 2

I am not a fan of the Imtiaz Ali universe. Like any other filmmaker has had highs and lows, he has had his pattern, favorite motifs and mandatories in his films. So, when this movie dropped on Netflix, I sat with a notepad to play ‘spot the difference’. So here goes:

• While its namesake(2008) about two indecisive people had parallels spread over 30 years, this one spreads its parallels between 1990 and 2020.

• Both films have a protagonist who is highly career driven to the point that they call it their ‘spouse’(Kill me now…)

• Both films use generic montage      to depict realization that they like they prefer their live companions to the mad rat race to something called ‘a career’

• And of course, in the process, both of them discover who they are and what they want to do in life which has been the leitmotif for Imtiaz Ali Cinema right from his debut film(Socha Na Tha)

I know I’ve listed out the similarities but ‘spot the similarity’ is way more fun when a watered-down version of ‘an Imtiaz Ali self-discovery mission' turns into a slog. The differences in this movie are not much to write about.

Veer(a surprisingly subdued Karthick Aryan) and Zoe(a shrill and almost insufferable Sara Ali Khan photographed in unflattering angles) bump into each other, discover their complexities, have superficially deep conversations in the form of awkward and almost irritatingly cryptic dialogues about life relationship, call it off, prioritize careers over the other and finalize metamorphosize into complete individuals in the Himalayas. Did I mention slog?

And in place of Rishi Kapoor, we have Randeep Hooda(he tries) as the ‘wise story/ fable teller’ dropping his notions of romance, love and togetherness on Zoe(it was Jai in the previous film). Credit where its due, this track did have the potential as it went into showing that even our romantic hero is not susceptible to flaws. But alas, that interesting bit lasted about 2 mins in this 2hr 20 min snooze fest.

Not that the 2008 namesake film was a master piece but it had decent performances, reasonably solid emotional beats, sharp dialogues and a few light hearted moments. This remix/ retelling is a still born venture that aimed to lure audiences into the legend of Imtiaz Ali.

The yet-again almost done to death lesson we get from this movie; content is supreme and technical brilliance cannot salvage it. So, in spite of great music, costumes and on-point locations, art work etc, this film only managed to frustrate me.