Strange & twisted love

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Strange & twisted love

Sunday, 16 February 2020 | Shalini Saksena

Strange & twisted love

LOVE AAJ KAL

*ing: Kartik Aaryan, Sara Ali Khan, Randeep Hooda

Rated: 5/10

When one goes to watch a love story, they want it to be simple. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, they face some roadblocks but all is well that end’s well. May be over the years watching Yash Chopra films and before than movies like Bobby, Love in Simla and Teesri Manzil have probably spoilt us and in our mind, we have a definition of a love story that is so different from what love means in modern times.

While we agree with director Imtiaz Ali that relationships are so much more complex, because we read too much into it, yet real is different from reel. As a Valentine’s Day release the movie is unable to live to the standards of being anywhere near love. Complex relationship? Check. Two people wanting to be together and yet not together? Definitely check. A mother who wants to live her life through her daughter? Check. A boy who wants a complicated relationship with a complicated girl. Check. The list is endless.

In the middle of this somewhat modern-day love story, is another love story which is a much better story however sad it may be. But at least it is relatable. The love story of Randeep Hooda, who plays Raj and Aarushi Sharma, who plays Leena that is told in flashback is so much more in tune with what constitutes love.

There are millions of people out there who don’t get their happily ever after because they made choices and took a wrong turn and lost their way only to realise they had lost the best part of themselves.

Back to our modern-day Gen Z love birds. After doing films like Luka Chuppi and Sonu Ki Titu Ki Sweety where Kartik Aryan fit the role to a T, in Love Aaj Kal, the role doesn’t sit well on his shoulders. Just because he is a software programmer, doesn’t mean he has to be a nerd, be a stalker and look uncomfortable and shifty. Sara Ali Khan who made her debut in 2018 with Kedarnath has definitely grown comfortable and plays Zoe well. But some of the credit needs to got to Imtiaz Ali to get good work out of her. As a young woman who grew up to be taught that career is everything, she plays the role — that of a person conflicted and torn — rather well.

If one is looking for a film with a conventional love story, there will be a big disappointment. However, one should not forget, that at the end of it, it is a love story — some lose, some win.

 

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