Love Aaj Kal

So I know you guys are probably really busy and don't have time to read extremely long posts, so I'll keep this as short as possible. But when I start talking about Bollywood, it's difficult for me to stop myself, so this may get long.

Love Aaj Kal taught me one very important fact about Bollywood audiences like myself. Whether or not one likes a movie depends on one word, and one word only. EXPECTATIONS. I was dying to watch Love Aaj Kal. I live about 22 miles away from Naz 8 (the Indian Movie theatre in Fremont, CA) and on July 31, I drove to Naz 8 around 3 in the afternoon to get 7 tickets for the 9pm show of Love Aaj Kal and drove back home. That's 44 miles of driving. Then at 9 pm, I drove to Naz 8 to watch the movie. That's a total of 88 miles of driving for one day for one movie. And let me tell you something about myself -- I hate spending money. When I go out to a restaurant with friends, I stare at them eat but don't even order water for myself because I fear they may charge for the water. So now do you know what I was expecting from Love Aaj Kal? I expected it to be the movie of the season. I expected it to be the "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na" of 2009. The promos were full of exciting music, it looked like a hip movie, Imtiaz Ali's previous movie ("Jab We Met") was one of my favorites, Saif was producing "Love Aaj Kal" -- there was nothing that could go wrong. Only one problem. My expectations were too high.

I watched Love Aaj Kal twice. The first time, my expectations were really high, and I ended up hating the movie. I thought it was boring. The second time, I expected to be bored but I ended up liking it. Why was it boring? Because the movie started with random scenes following other random scenes. I'm not a very serious person; I do laugh at funny movies, but the beginning scenes of Love Aaj Kal were not funny. If all we have on screen for 5 minutes was two characters poking each other, how are we supposed to be entertained? And movies are supposed to serve one purpose only: they are supposed to entertain the audience! Sorry Imtiaz but the beginning of Love Aaj Kal was bad! Some suggestions: 1) Maybe you could have started it off with Jai and Meera already dating and showed that they were getting sick of each other and on top of that, Meera had to leave. 2) Maybe you could have had a narrator! Frankly, the beginning scenes were so dull whereas the promos promised the movie to be loud and exciting. Even having a narrator speak through the movie would at least provide some noise. 3) The idea of showing clips of the entire movie throughout the beginning credits was a BAD idea. Sorry, but that just confused the audience.

Another problems with the movie could be explained in 3 simple words: Jab We Met. Imtiaz Ali tried to incorporate so many elements from "Jab We Met" into "Love Aaj Kal." My friend's mom had a good point -- Saif was trying too hard to be Kareena from "Jab We Met." He was trying to play the fun-loving, care-free, bubbly character, but failed miserably. DUDE act your age! Romancing Deepika makes you look like a pedophile! Saif was definitely the wrong choice for the movie. A much younger actor was needed. Maybe Shahid Kapoor or Ranbir Kapoor.

So the movie starts off with a couple breaking up. Very new concept. I like it. There's a scene in the beginning of the movie in a restaurant where they are breaking up, and the boy suggests they have a "break up party." Here's the exact dialogue:

Jai: Hey, let's have a party! A break up party! Ya! Why not?

Meera: What?

Jai: Sunnay main ajeeb lagta hai na?

Meera: Haa!

Jai: Great! Kartay hai phir!

(Hassan thinks: Am I the only one who remembers this dialog happening not once, not twice but three times in Jab We Met?)

Sorry but the dialog "Sunnday main ajeeb lagta hai na? Great! Kartay hai phir!" happened three times in Jab We Met -- once when Geet and Aditya were in the hotel room (for the first time) and Geet tells Aditya to burn his ex-girlfriend's photo and flush it down the toilet. Second was right after the song "Aao Milo Chale" when Geet convinces Aditya to jump in the lake with her. Third was the second time Geet and Aditya were in the hotel room and Aditya makes Geet call Anshuman and abuse him. All three times, either Geet or Aditya says, "Bacho jaisi baat hai na? Great, kartay hai phir!" Only difference was that when it happened in Jab We Met, it was much more entertaining!

I've only seen two of Imtiaz Ali's films -- Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal. Frankly, he is not a very good director. 1) He does not know how to start or end a movie. Both Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal had bad beginnings. We've already discussed Love Aaj Kal's beginning; but even Jab We Met started very abruptly and didn't become entertaining until Kareena entered the picture. Also, both the movies ended so many times! Jab We Met could have ended when Geet agreed to take Anshuman to her house, but then there was another twist in the tale. Love Aaj Kal could have ended when the newly-wed Deepika realized "something was stuck between her and Jai." The only difference is that the twist at the end of Jab We Met (Geet's family assuming she is with Aditya) was very entertaining, mainly because of Kareena and Shahid's acting; whereas the twist at the end of Love Aaj Kal was boring. The song in San Francisco was a boring song and during the scenes after that, we just wanted the movie to end. Surprisingly, Love Aaj Kal was not a long movie. It was less than 2 hours. But because it was so boring, it seemed much longer.

2) The scripts of Imtiaz Ali's films are just mediocre. Jab We Met's story is 90% lifted off of DDLJ, but Jab We Met was still a good movie because of the performances by the main cast. It was easy to imagine Kareena as Geet and Shahid as Aditya. However, in Love Aaj Kal, Saif was way too old for Jai, and frankly, Deepika is a fob. Who uses the phrase "pile on?" And who says "discotheque." Sorry but that woman cannot speak.

There were many interesting concepts in Love Aaj Kal. It started off with a couple breaking up. Then they tell each other what each of them did wrong during their relationship. Then the girl asks the boy's advice in getting with another guy and the boy seems slightly jealous but doesn't show it much. Even in the second half when Jai and Meera secretly meet and just be themselves because they don't need to impress each other was a very good concept. And then add the love story of Veer. My friend's mom brought another valid point: the movie showed how Jai and Meera had it very easy, there was nothing stopping them from being together but they were idiots and chose not to be together whereas Veer and Harleen wanted to be together but couldn't. This difference, like the other concepts of the movie, was very interesting. But Imtiaz, why didn't you use these concepts to make the movie entertaining? The movie was so boring, so bland, so dull! Where was the exciting background music we heard in the promos?

Love Aaj Kal was not a terrible movie. It had potential. Bottomline: it could have been much better.

Hassan's rating:

After the first time I saw it, I gave it a 3.5 out of 10

After the second time I saw it, I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Lesson learned: Don't promise the audience the moon if you are only going to land amongst the stars. I expected so much better. Expectations play a very big role in determining how you like the movie, so Imtiaz, don't play with our expectations!

Upcoming review: Kaminey