A brief note on Imtiaz Ali’s impoverished Love Aaj Kal

Imtiaz Ali has made a deeply disappointing film. After Jab We Met he has confirmed once again that his ambitions amount to nothing more than a tweaking of the Yashraj paradigm. The older film was at the very least focused and was done in a relatively minor key. Though overrated by critics and audiences alike it was nonetheless fairly enjoyable fare. With this new film the director attempts a big glossy work and with some of his outrageous plot developments even tries to beat Yashraj ‘logic’ at its own game. The result is a largely insipid, turgid film which entertains only intermittently with some good comic timing by the lead actors. But this is otherwise a mismatched pair with little real chemistry. Saif himself shows real signs of wear and tear here and though one can sense his effort he has very little to work with in terms of the script. For the director is simply happy gallivanting around the globe. Instead of focusing on the camaraderie of the lead ‘contemporary’ pair he introduces a rather senseless parallel track which allows the director to have his cake and eat it too. With the older love story he can wallow in the treacle of tradition, with the newer romance he can pretend to be edgy and ironic. As it turns out there is no real lucidity to either track, neither really illuminates the other. The first half starts off somewhat tentatively and often has a disjointed rhythm to it. The second settles down into a more conventional narrative which gets increasingly predictable with time. The entire film represents the sort of conformism Karan Johar would be proud of. And to think that Imtiaz Ali otherwise represents a younger brigade that is quite happy to thumb its nose at more commercial industry trends, especially those of the Yashraj kind. Is this the film Kashyap praised so much? Surely one’s word should have a little more credibility! It is impossible to believe that this could be Kashyap’s sort of film. But perhaps dishonesty is acceptable as long as one thinks one is only helping out a friend! Are these the people who (otherwise justly) get annoyed with the nepotism of the industry?

[the only thing I liked here were some shots of Delhi and Calcutta. Some evocative scenes in this sense]