Might be coming a bit late, but happened to see Love AajKal now only. Has been sometime since I wrote a review, actually a full year, last one I wrote was in Feb'09. Lets hope I can write a little more consistently this year round.
Coming back to Love AajKal, well, in a nut shell, a crisp movie, great editing and some good acting by the protagonists of the movie. On the Story side, it has a lot of gaps, and not very convincing. The story runs on two parallel tracks between two Saif Ali Khans, one a hip and modern Saif set in 2009 and the other a Sardar Saif set in probably the Late 1970's early 1980's. The movie actually starts with a break up between Saif and Deepika, and that kind of sets up an interesting context for the movie. The story that follows is about the changing feelings and relationships that both of them have, still continuing to remain in touch, sharing every minutest details of their lives even now.
The 1980 story is that of a current Rishi Kapoor (Saif pays his younger self as a Sardar), a restaurant owner in London. Rishi is telling the love story of his times and how he took almost 1 year before even speaking to the girl of his dreams, and how he traveled from Delhi to Kolkatta, just to catch a glimpse of her and came back without even exchanging a word (instead exchanging a lot more without even saying a word). Something the current generation is unable to relate to. There is a conversation between Saif and Rishi to describe the difference in relationships of their respective times, where Rishi says, in his times, the Relationship start with "looks/ observing", moves to "Following each other" to "Romance" and then Marriage, post that the "SOMETHING" happens, where as the relationships of the current generation actually start with that "SOMETHING" and then if there is any future, there might be some "Romance" coming in. It would be right to term them as companionships more than relationships.
The factor where the movie fails is the way stories of Both Saif end. Very unconvincingly. I personally felt there should have been at least another 10 mins given to both the stories to make them end as dramatically as each of them started.
The story telling on parallel tracks is quiet interesting, which is why I commended the Editor of the movie, for surely he had a lot of work to do. The second person who stands out in the Movie is Deepika Padukone. She has given a Rocking performance, having a lot of scenes where only her eyes say everything. The music of the movie is very hum-able and actually stays with you much after the movie has ended. Big Thumps up for Pritam for having a rocking 2009. Saif definitely looks better in the Sardar role than the normal self. He has captured the essence of being a Sardar quiet well. Frankly a few close up scenes of his Normal self could have been shot with Soha instead and you would not be able to make that out. The most forgettable performer of the movie is a Brazilian who plays "Harleen", Rishi Kapoors romantic angle. The less I say about her performance the better. Can't understand why so much noise was made about her being the best kept secret of the movie. It is better to keep her presence in the movie a secret actually. :-))
I would say, watch it on Home on DVD or DTH surely, certainly not worth spending movie on the expensive tickets in Multiplexes.
PS: I deliberately have not compared Imitiaz Ali's two works Love Aajkal and Jab We Met, as I don't see any point in comparing works of the same person made at different times. Once the Circumstances are different, the outcome is always very different.
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