Love Aaj Kal”, for all its preaching about love today vs. love yesterday, is at its heart a clichéd story, but that doesn’t mean its stale. The smart (though hardly novel) use of the parallel timeline narrative, Saif’s spunk and Rishi Kapoor’s solidity all come together to make it a breezy and a fun watch.
Yes, it could have been shorter. Yes, Deepika Padukone
needs to expand her range when it comes to emoting. And yes, even I cannot still figure out why a Brazilian model should be playing a Punjabi kudi. But I’ll leave that up to you to figure out if she does justice to the role. The performances overall do seem earnest and Imtiaz Ali while not touching the dizzy heights of “Jab We Met” still tells us a nice, urbane love story centered around a lover boy, Jai Vardhan Singh (Saif Ali Khan) who is torn between (weak) logic and (strong) emotion. Saif seems to own such roles of the confounded lover, and does his job brilliantly. Deepika is an able foil with a much improved performance (if “Bachna Ae Haseeno” is your benchmark) but is overshadowed by Saif for the most part.
The surprise of the film is Saif playing the younger Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor), who is narrating his love story (the love kal, so to speak) to the Saif of today who has just broken up with Meera (Deepika) (the love aaj here). As the young Sardar following his heart, he is quite convincing while his lady love, Harleen, played by Brazilian Gisele Monteiro is the most interesting character of the lot – intense and mysterious without having to try too hard. Rahul Khanna is wasted in his role, though. Romantic comedies usually have their share of fluff and gloss, and “Love Aaj Kal” isn’t short on any of it. Neat cinematography, especially in the flashback scenes (notice how the tint changes each time the timeline changes), some peppy music complete a smart little package that at the end turns out quite fine.
It would be harsh to expect tear jerking scenes or memorable lines, but you can look forward to a few good laughs (thankfully free of the raunchy undertones that every other film tries to pass off as comedy these days). Ultimately, it’s about some breezy entertainment for the ‘mango people’, isn’t it?
Yes, it could have been shorter. Yes, Deepika Padukone
needs to expand her range when it comes to emoting. And yes, even I cannot still figure out why a Brazilian model should be playing a Punjabi kudi. But I’ll leave that up to you to figure out if she does justice to the role. The performances overall do seem earnest and Imtiaz Ali while not touching the dizzy heights of “Jab We Met” still tells us a nice, urbane love story centered around a lover boy, Jai Vardhan Singh (Saif Ali Khan) who is torn between (weak) logic and (strong) emotion. Saif seems to own such roles of the confounded lover, and does his job brilliantly. Deepika is an able foil with a much improved performance (if “Bachna Ae Haseeno” is your benchmark) but is overshadowed by Saif for the most part.The surprise of the film is Saif playing the younger Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor), who is narrating his love story (the love kal, so to speak) to the Saif of today who has just broken up with Meera (Deepika) (the love aaj here). As the young Sardar following his heart, he is quite convincing while his lady love, Harleen, played by Brazilian Gisele Monteiro is the most interesting character of the lot – intense and mysterious without having to try too hard. Rahul Khanna is wasted in his role, though. Romantic comedies usually have their share of fluff and gloss, and “Love Aaj Kal” isn’t short on any of it. Neat cinematography, especially in the flashback scenes (notice how the tint changes each time the timeline changes), some peppy music complete a smart little package that at the end turns out quite fine.
It would be harsh to expect tear jerking scenes or memorable lines, but you can look forward to a few good laughs (thankfully free of the raunchy undertones that every other film tries to pass off as comedy these days). Ultimately, it’s about some breezy entertainment for the ‘mango people’, isn’t it?
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