Disconnected. Review on Love Aaj Kal

If not a diehard fan, I still can be considered as someone who looks forward to watch good love stories. Conventional, unconventional, simple, complicated doesn’t matter as long as I feel connected to it. DDLJ, Walk To Rem, A notebook, Hum Tum, Jab We Met etc are just to name some of them. Unfortunately, Love AK will never be in that category.

In one line, the movie drags and fails surprisingly to touch your heart considering the proven director and a fantastic star cast. The plot had potential but it wasn’t utilized as you would expect from Imtiyaz Ali. LAKis two love stories running almost parallel to each other and the message the film passes on is no matter in which era you belong, true love exists and will always do. Fair enough! But the portrayal of Gen X love story is incoherent and fails to get its due attention.

It is the same old Saif(Jai) which we have seenin Dil Chahta Hain, Saalam Namaste; commitment phobic, moving from one relationship to another and enjoys his occasional freedom(Khulla Saand!).He meets GenX Meera(Deepika) who too is not too fussy about commitment either. They break-off after 2 fun-filled years due to their different career paths and Deepika inparticular was brilliant in that scene when they decide to part away, happily.

LAK is the story of how they meet again and again and finally realize that theyneed to be together. But how late is too late, you might ask! But in this case, it is never too late. The story of *Kal *which features Saif again playing the young Rishi Kappor plays a crucial part inhelping Jai finally accept his true love for Meera.( Trust me, you will lose interest by that time)

Saif has done a better work as the young sardar and you could relate yourself with the character and his feelings. Though we have seenJai before but again you can feel his anxiety, confusion, rage, eccentricity duringthe different phases of the story; sometimes in a single frame(By the way, what is wrong with your Dancing ShoesSaif??). Deepika is confident and ravishing and acts well in most of the moviebut then she is no Kareena (I’m the chairman of Kareena Hate Club but can’t deny that she can act ..in fact reallywell.) The other gal Parleen has not much to do but looks convincing for the characterthough looks completely out of place while dancing. Rishi Kapoor has played his part to perfection and received the only cheers from the crowd when he explains Jai what is true love all about.

The music is good with a nice combination of songs. The narration style is crisp and director has often shown his class while moving in between present and past. Imtiyaaz’s affinity for Punjab/Delhi is reflectedagain but I loved the way the essence of Kolkata is captured in just couple of frames.The movie has its moments and some real good dialogue but I felt the overall movie repeatedly failed to take off. So, on one hand the scene where Saif asks, “Are you married Meera?” is brilliant, Deepika’s acceptance scene about he rfeelings drew huge laughter from the audience. During the climax, we all really wanted Deepika to come down fast to finish off the drama. Well, just didn’t click in spite of having all the ingredients.

I’m sure Imtiyaaz will get it right again like he did last time. But still to fulfill your romantic desires this monsoon, revisit one ofyour favorites.

You can either watch Shahrukh murmur, “Babuji thik kaahte hoonge” *or Shahid’s angry confrontation withKareena asking “Geet* , tum mujhe ek phone nehi kaar saakti thi?”.

I may be old fashioned, but boy that is what you call a love story!