Love Aaj Kal

DIRECTOR: Imtiaz Ali
CAST: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Shweta Gulati, Rishi Kapoor, Rahul Khanna

Jai and Meera are a very today couple. They noodle around in London, figuring out if they are, like, together. That entails mugs of black coffee and lots of smart chatter, and eventually, a parting of ways, because they can’t quite get a handle on their feelings. Like, love, you know, who knows?

Veer and Harleen take us back to the 1960s. He follows her rickshaw on his cycle in Purani Dilli, and she takes note of her smitten Sikh suitor with downcast eye and demure smile. She’s a soni kudi, he’s a changa munda, and there is nary a doubt in their hearts that they are meant for each other.

Imtiaz Ali’s new film shuttles between the two time zones, aaj and kal, and his twin sets of lovers, as they ricochet between cities and convictions. We get good-looking locations in London, Delhi, Calcutta, San Francisco, and exceedingly good-looking people. We get zippy backchat (I’m not trying to pile on, says Jai; then why pile on, shoots back Meera). We get some really nice moments. What we don’t is a crackling romance.

Because Love Aaj Kal is, in the way it comes across, a buddy movie. Jai (Saif Ali Khan) and Meera (Deepika Padukone) kiss and cuddle, and their conversation leads you to believe that they have done sab kuch, but they are more like pals who hang out than dying-for-each-other lovers. There’s affection, not ardour. There’s more longing in Veer’s (Rishi Kapoor) voice when he talks of his Harleen (Shweta Gulati) than in all the exchanges between Jai and Meera. 

... contd.