Imtiaz ji, you can do a little more ji..

I have already said a lot about 'Love, Aaj Kal' on Facebook and thoroughly enjoyed sparring with friends who had very convincing reasons to hate it,but perhaps on account of the extreme reactions it has generated , I want to say more.

The goods-

1. It is an interesting way of attempting a movie which is purely a directorial venture- a love story across time with one common thread of 'how love conquers all in the end' while everything else has changes with time. According to the Director, love in the sepia tinted era was all about the heart while for Gen- X or is it Y coz you cant really place the 'now' in a definite historical context (the cities are too airbrushed, there is no explanation of the Golden Gate beyond it being a dream project for the protagonist who otherwise seems to be utterly incapable of focusing on any given thing at a particular point of time, Deepika's clothes are very Babli meets Priyanka Chopra in Dostana-esque, so as a viewer the 'Aaj' in the movie could be anywhere between the 90s to 2009), love is all about 'being practical'.'Humne kaam karna shuru kiya kyon ki pyaar ...settle hona tha aur tum apene kaam ko lekar itne serious ho ki pyaar ko jaane de rahe ho' mouths the kal ka hero Rishi Kapoor to aaj ka confused jawaan Saif.




2. Saif gives a stupendous performance in this one- I prefer his confused, yet sassy smart- Alec'ish version of 'Jai' in this one to the more popular persona he played in Hum Tum. This one is a lot more real and far less annoying- he has really mastered the uber cool, carefully careless look of the urban, metrosexual male over Kal Ho Na Ho, Hum Tum,Salaam Namaste and now this. (As a compulsve digress er , I must say that my favourite Saif performances ever are Langda Tyagi in Omkara and Dil Chahta Hai) .A gem that I think only he could pull off is Saif asking Rishi Kapoor whos soulfully narrating his love story of yesteryears with a Harleen Kaur, how overwhelmed he was to suddenly see her at a gurudwara most unexpectedly- 'Aapko heart attack aa gaya hoga? aap ke jaise feeling wala aadmi''!!! His role as the young Sardar (Rishi Kapoor in his youth) is a refreshing change and the one that stands out as he competently switiches on screen personas from the modern metrosexual to the muscled, quiet but fuming , lovelorn Sardar struck by love at first sight .




3. Im sorry people- I disagree with all of you who think Deepika is a mannequin who cannot act- I think it is an unfair bias that 'very good looking people' in our culture and (sigh), even filmdom have to deal with often. Ok, she's no Tabu but she holds her own as Meera Pandit- an independent woman in a very new age career (fresco restorer, was it?), who knows her mind (as her boyfriend adeptly remarks through outthe film - 'tum hamesha sahi baat bol deti hai jaaneman',) but takes a while to recognise that Jai is indeed the one made for her, even if she has to wed and bed a few Vikrams(Rahul Khanna, competent but fairly held back- this is his prototype on screen) on the way.. I totally agree with the directort hat there is a certain stillness(maybe serenity) about Deepika which is captivating. It never failsto amuse me that we would all rave about something similar in a Chitrangada Singh, coz shes dusky and earthy, but have very little sympathy for Deepika because she has gorgeous long legs, a pefect yet heartwarming smile and doe eyes. Too much for us lesser mortals to handle , eh?




4. Rishi Kapoor- man, can the man ever go wrong? Clearly the most underrated actor of his generation- he scores again as the amicable, forever in love, restaurant owner/ chef in this one, whos the protagonist of the 'kal' segment of this double love story.




5. The winner for me in this love saga is clearly the clever writing. The pace of the second half is superb, but I think that we could have done with a little more speed in the first half. Imtiaz scores again at what his becoming his specialty- 'the non- love-at-first sight genre'- a common thread for all his films so far, starting with Shaadi se Pehle. Clearly, our Director believes that love does not hit you the first time you meet the right person, bu grows on you, almost creeps up the alley slowly and steadily and you will meet a lot of Mr. Wrongs before figuring out that the one you thought was right for you is indeed your Mr. Right!!




6. Kolkata has rarely looked as good on screen as in this one- the only film from recent times that managed a superior depiction would have to be Mani Ratnam's Yuva. The sepia, the houses with the 'gol' (round) verandahs, the rickshaws, the gullies(alleys) and the banyan clad chaiwallahs all look and feel very real.

The 'not- so goods'-

1. Ok, I don't know of anyone who says stuff like 'pile on' or 'tumhara angle kya hai' . The attempt at penning contemporary lingo looks very contrived and rather unreal- makes an otherwise levelheaded film appear very 'wannabe' and we all know that the mantra to being cool is to 'not try too hard'.




2. The 'break up' party , though a novel concept and I can imagine it might hold an aspirational value for many ,would never end the way it does in the movie. That hug between Jai an Meera would lead to a lot more action and post that night, none would continue with the 'break up' plan, at least not until the long distance relationship fails. Besides, I do think it is an oxymoron of sorts to have laptop, i-phone users of our generation seem so sceptical of a long distance relationship. Come on, we have trancontinental marriages and chemistry on the world wide web even among the 'aam junta/mango people' these days.




3. My personal gratitude to anyone who would help us understand the Golden Gate project which is the goal of our protagonist's life coz the film does not reveal anything on that except that one usually has lattes and sandwiches while working in SF wearing very well tailored suits.




4. Can we get rid of the 'pretty firang women who are easy to manoeuvre into the sack and want to see Delhi and Taj Mahal' stereotype please?




5. Even as a sucker for love, I doubt whether Meera Pandits leave Vikrams for Jai's in real life - at least not till the marriage decays . This realisation , on the day after getting married while sitting on a 500 dollar a sheet kind of bed in a star resort, wearing a designer dress, that your heart actually pines for Jai is too - good- to be true.




6. Baaad music- except for Chor Bazari, the songs are nothing to write home about. This has the worst music among all of Imtiaz's films so far(was it Pritam who did Jab we Met?), though I must applaud him for using Neerak Shridhar of Bombay Vikings fame so well, and Mohit Chauhan seriously needs to take a break from 'the one soulful song a movie' pattern that hes been following ever since-'Tum se hi din...in Jab We met'- classic case of a good idea stretched beyond its goodness.

This is why it work for me by and large though- I believe in love, I believe that we all want to find and live with love, not necessarily die for it and I believe that the loveliest things about love are often the silliest, and the ones that don't make any sense.And I also think that much of this has not changed over the years...

oh, and another thing- the Director is a school senior of mine from Jamshedpur and Im going to be rooting for him all the way!!!

True to my state of utter joblessness, let me end with a completely pointless trivia- did you know that Harleen Kaur, who has apparently taken Bollywood by storm (I don't see why given that she could neither act nor dance) is actually a Brazilian model, Giselle Monteiro?