Movie Review: Love Aajkal

Love Aajkal has the effervescence and the adrenalin rush of impetous love of Shahid and Kareena has been replaced by a more serious, realistic and modern love story. Love Aajkal literally holds up a mirror to the commitment phobia of the young, professionals, film stars who keep changing their status from 'committed' to 'single' on social networking sites.

Love Aajkal instead of relying heavily on a three-hour long script, chooses to concentrate on crisp, concise and today's urban lingo dialogues. All of Jai's (Saif Ali Khan) babblings about love sans marriage and Meera's (Deepika Padukone) discourses on careers and cumbersome commitment are straight out of real life ramblings in coffee shops, discotheques, pubs. The characterisations literally set the screen on fire, with their highly individualistic streak coupled with their sad vulnerability.

Jai (Saif Ali Khan) dreams of building bridges like the Golden Gate and cannot see romance coming in the way of his career, Meera (Deepika Padukone) too feels long-distance relationships are a drag when she decides to move from London to repaint frescoes in Delhi. Refreshingly, Love Aajkal actually begins with a break and then goes through umpteen twists and turns, before the new age Jai realises that he ain't very different from the old fashioned Veer Prathap (Rishi Kapoor) who lived the Heer--Ranjha story in the less cluttered 1960s. Both Jai and Meera try to live out their lives independently, simply as 'good friends', pursuing their careers and different love interests. Ironically, they keep bumping into each other at odd junctures of their life, babbling incoherently (and funnily) to avoid the senty soulmate signals. Saif Ali Khan is absolutely delightful with his gibberish take on I'm okay, you are okay, we're okay, while the scene's actually yelling out something else.

Just like Jab We Met, this film too scores in the lush atmospherics that anchor the movie so exotically. London, San Fransisco are fine, but it's actually Delhi that once again sweeps you off your feet as it stands by as a sweet and vibrant witness to the wooing and shooing, both in the 1965 romance and the 2009 romance. Playing a major role in creating the ambience is music composer Pritam's foot-tapping music which boasts of a number of chartbusters.

I agree that the first half does ramble a bit and takes time to build up into a rivetting second half. The alluring performances by the lead pair do cover up for the langorous bits. Deepika is definitive as Meera, the modern girl who has an individuality of her own. Saif Ali Khan who renders so many shades to his character to make it seem so very real; confident, confused, career-oriented, homebody, fancy-free and foolishly in love.

How do Jai and Meera resolve their long-distance-relationships-don't-work dilemma? I'd like to believe that the bridge builder moves in with the restoration artist in Delhi. Go and watch it for it's GenNow feel and it's ekdum real yet modern feel.