Review of Love Aaj Kal (2020) . . .

Review of Love Aaj Kal (2020) . . .

At various stages of life we become so indecisive specially when it's about career or love life. It happens with almost everyone at least once in a life particularly in young age. Such situations like when you're in true love with someone you'll feel sometimes that person doesn't love you like the level like you love her/him. In a relationship where you'll feel is this the true love with whom I'm going to spend the rest of my life or may be i have hurried in choosing life partner so earlier or sometimes we may feel that career is more important than love or relationship. We feel relationship can take place after successful career but at the same time we may feel we can compromise the career for true love after all nothing is more precious than love in this world. All of us must have gone through or must be going through all these complexity in life. Then Realization stage comes either we regret for the decisions we have taken in the past or we feel happy for those decisions. 

There are some film makers in Bollywood who present this kind of complex stories of confused protagonists. Imtiaz Ali Sir is one of my most favorite film maker i have learned a lot from his films. In 2009 he made a film Love Aaj Kal with Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone as lead roles which was super successful film and music too. He again made a film with same title Love Aaj Kal version 2.0 or (2020). It's not a remake of first one but plot is similar to that such as this film is also running two parallel stories together one is present where Zoey (Sara Ali Khan) and Veer (Kartik Aaryan) playing lead roles while another one in late 80s where Leena character played by new comer (Aarushi Sharma) & Raghu is being played by (Kartik Aaryan).

Like how Rishi Kapoor Ji narrated his story to Saif in Love Aaj Kal (2009) similarly here Randeep Hooda is narrating his story to Sara Ali Khan but in the past we see young character of Randeep Hooda is being played by Kartik Aaryan. Ratio of two stories are 60-40 we see more present and less past it's not like one particular part of the film belongs to past but from starting to end we see present past scenes simultaneously.

Sara Ali Khan is playing the most confused character among the others from two stories. She's is career oriented sometimes while sometimes she says I'm in love with you and will sacrifice my career for you, she is modern girl who argues with her mother on career & relationship, who keeps the button of her shirt open during an interview to look more confident, she doesn't like to fall in love before becoming successfully financial independent. This is what we see in the character of Zoey while Kartik Aaryan of present is also little confused but more old school kinda thought he carries inspite of being a software engineer. He thinks that he can have sex with anyone but Sara is special girl for him but Sara doesn't feel anything for him special until she listens love story of Randeep Hooda. 

In past story character of Kartik Aaryan is in love with Aarushi Sharma who is also in love with Kartik Aaryan but when they meet character of Aarushi we see is quite forward as compared to that era of 80s which is not digestible. Well Imtiaz Ali Sir wrote the screenplay of the film where we see or feel mixture of Tamasha and Love Aaj Kal (2009) here storyline is similar to Love Aaj Kal while characterization reminded me of Tamasha.

Tamasha was not an appealing film to all mass or family audiences but it was loved class multiplexes audiences and specially loved by fans of Ranbir Kapoor and Imtiaz Sir. Film lovers also loved the film Tamasha but as it wasn't masala film like Jab We Met general audiences didn't welcome it with the heart. Imtiaz Sir made Jab Harry Met Sejal which also got negative reviews because Imtiaz Sir set high benchmarks with Rockstar, Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal kinda films and SRK is also having damn more talent than we see in JHMS so i personally also didn't like the film much. If role of SRK played by any other actor then impact would have been something else.

This second version of Love Aaj Kal is also a film which is likable by very little targeted audiences of youths or class of multiplex to be clear not likable by many youths like Kabir Singh but very small targeted youths may find it appealing to them while rest mass audiences or family audiences will be bored because of screenplay. I watched on Valentine's Day and honestly some couples in ahead row talked to each other it was better to be at home than being here. Reason is very confusing screenplay.

Imtiaz Ali has directed 7-8 films so we can't say it's not technically well handled film but yes narration of the film is confusing so we can not connect with these two stories. For general audiences it lacks masalas or something which can make them feel entertained.

My view on it is i liked it. Not as good as Imtiaz Ali's previous films but yes undoubtedly it's not a bad film for me at least.

Big fan of work of Imtiaz Ali Sir and i got what i had expectations from the film. I liked his many films but from this i had no expectations like Rockstar or Tamasha or Jab We Met so no point to get disappointed with it. Although star cast announcement was  also not impressive for me because i liked Kartik little in his earlier films but not loved like i loved other Heroes of Imtiaz Ali's films.

Screenplay is slow and little confused but for me it was engaging because i love the way Imtiaz Sir narrates all his stories. Dialogues are fine not great but ok kinda.

Direction is top notch. No doubts in that from beginning to end loved many scenes specially past scenes where they showed era of Maine Pyar Kiya & Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, auto rickshaws having photos of Salman Khan from 90s, Sara's arguments with her mother, Kartik-Sara romance, Randeep Hooda past story narration by him is the most enjoyable part of the film, Aarushi Sharma's scenes in past story very nice beautifully shot, climax could have been little better there's no faults in direction but screenplay lacks engagement.

Editing by Aarti Bajaj is very very nice she is damn good in her job. Whenever she works with Imtiaz Sir we get the best Director-Editor pair.

Music can be weak point here to attract the audiences to the theatres. Yes unfortunately it doesn't have super duper hit music like Love Aaj Kal (2009) had. Pritam Dada is repeated here as a music composer and he gave two very nice tracks but what we expect from him is full album should be chartbuster but here it's minus point if it had strong music then impact would have been much better. I was damn missing guitar tune of Ahun Ahun during the film.

Performance by Aarushi Sharma is brilliant. What a fine act. Loved her this role. Good luck to her for bright future in Bollywood.

Kartik Aaryan is playing mainly two roles one from past story Raghu where he did good job one of present story as Veer he has done good job in this role too but my personal view is i was damn missing Ranbir Kapoor here. Many scenes where Kartik was trying to act he reminded me of Ranbir. Ved from Tamasha stayed with me since i watched it and i don't think so i will ever forget this performance by him so whenever this kind of role will be played by any actor it will remind me of Ranbir Kapoor. 

Here HERO of the film is Sara Ali Khan OMG what a powerful performance. Critics found it over and audiences may find it boring but i think she nailed it. Killer role playing no doubts in that. I love the way she acted and i don't think she can act seriously like Taapsee or Swara or Alia but this is what she can do in her career. It's her third film and this is her best one. She's has got the major screen space than others after all she's the main protagonist of the film. She looks damn sexy and glamorous kudos to her costume designer. Her dialogues are sharp and worth watch performance for me.

Lastly besides Imtiaz Ali's direction there was someone else who made excited to watch the film on very first day. Randeep Hooda steals the show here. I loved his combination for Highway and here once again we got to see him with Imtiaz Sir. He's playing cafe owner here an older version of Raghu now Raaj from the past story. He's terrific and looking damn hot and hit in his role. His talks with Sara lovely scenes. His breakdown scenes, his dialogues etc loved it. Kudos to him for another classy performance. Very natural actor.

Overall it's very nice film not belong to all but yes some people will definitely love it specifically who prefer to watch films like Tamasha or who ever loved someone in his life and stuck in relationship.

My Ratings

3.7/5.

--- by Harsh Desai Filmy . . .