Love aaj kal

Love aaj kal – kind of gave me mixed feelings. Leaving out the direction, the songs and even the story, the theme was good enough for me. Few of the dialogues in the movie were simply superb and the contrast in the love of the previous generation and this generation was aptly portrayed, but, the conclusion that love shall remain was a bit of an off to the theme perhaps. If the movie is talking about two people practical enough to make wise decisions, it also shows that those practical decisions are not worth it, for at the end of the day, once their ambitions or the practicalities are stripped bare, then, eventually the loneliness creeps in and causes a mess that none would be too happy to deal with.

The movie is about two people who fall in love with each other in London. The typical “today’s” love that starts with coffee and ends with a “good bye – can’t commit” sort. Meera (Deepika Padukone) and Jai (Saif Ali Khan) walk into this relation, which would be called dating. They walk around, hand in hand for sometime and finally realized that their destinies are different and be practical about the relation. The girl wants to go to India to renovate the old forts, buildings etc etc and Jai wants to go to San Francisco to construct bridges (literally). So they part with a bang, throwing a huge party to all their friends. A comic scene :D. And at the end of the party was the farewell hug and a drop of the tear (SIGH). In the middle of the night, walking on the streets with his friends, Jai wants coffee, which basically is the closing time for café’s around and his friends manage to speak about his broken heart and the owner, who, as expected, was an Indian, who understands the heart break and insists that the café be open. Enter the older version of Saif Ali Khan, Veer played by Rishi Kapoor, into the scene, and his love saga told in bits and pieces which was irritating, but also interesting. It was irritating because the movie blends both the older generation and the younger generation’s love, with no specific pattern, interesting because it is nice to observe the differences. From this point onwards, the movie starts the swing of the pendulum from old to new, from ecstasy to depression, from success to tears, from marriage to departure, from love to despair and finally to conclusion. Phew, that was some stream of emotion!!!

Meera moves to India, but continues to be in touch with Jai. Jai walks around London, getting to know Veer’s love story and finding a new girl friend, Joe. Meera finds a new boy friend, Vikram, who is her co-worker and boss. Jai finally comes to India along with Joe, dumps her in a hotel and meets Meera and for the duration of the stay, they keep meeting without telling their respective dating partners. On the new year’s eve, in a private party, Meera and Vikram are sitting at a table, with Vikram talking about something and Jai walks into the party with his girl friend Joe and takes a table closer to them and Meera and Jai communicate through SMS!! Ridiculous! But, after a few minutes in the party, they meet anonymously when Meera says that Vikram proposed her and asked her hand in marriage. Jai reacts in a typical way, the usual, ok, it is just a proposal, not that you are getting married, sort. Meera lashes out saying, they cannot meet and they cannot talk, typical girl talk! Jai asks why (duh!!). She says, she is thinking of marriage and if he was near her, she cannot open her heart to someone else (wow! Splendid!). So, they break up, yet again!

After a little more of the drama, Jai gets an invite for Meera’s marriage. He attends it and again (I am getting tired of this rendition!), meets Meera privately. This is the killer of the scenes. The guy speaks about his love for her (although not typically sentimental), but says that he is alright and again says he is not alright and leaves the place. Meera on the other hand, walks into Vikram’s life and a day later says that she needs to go to Jai and sort out the issue. She was unclear as to why she had done whatever she had done, but she needs to talk it over with Jai, else she is doing a mistake again. Is it as easy as that? To walk out on a marriage (??) and she leaves to meet him. On her way, she gives a call only to hear that Jai has got an offer in San Francisco! SO, she lets go of him! (How, romantic! Why can’t people realize that any sacrifice is useless?). Jai is in San Francisco, doing his dream job and in a single song, he rises to the heights and ends in despair after realizing that he realized his dream, but something is not quite right! Wow, did the lightning strike him then? So he comes back to India, only to find her waiting. To cut the long story short, they meet and marry and if there is a happily ever after, well, perhaps, they lived happily ever after!

Why such a blatant story is a hit is something I cannot understand. I mean, if you want to show the practicality of a relation, ideally the girl should have continued to live her life, not that love is essential to sustain a marriage, c’mon, how many ‘love’ relations end in marriage? Ideally or logically, the guy should have met someone and lived his life, end of story! But no, they have to bring in the senti stuff of love and one love for one life and etc etc.

What I liked about the movie was its realistic approach to the dialogues of a typical guy afraid of commitment, of a typical girl of today, independent and individualistic, the talks of the couple – literally a page borrowed from the youngsters love in a pub and finally the mutual parting. (This is the current trend!). It could not effectively portray what would happen when the decision is taken in the wrong time. What is Vikram’s life now? How can Meera walk in and walk out of that relation, just like that? What was Jai thinking to walk back into her life after five years? Was he expecting her to wait, if not, what would she be going through to see him, yet not choose him?

Why are the people in love so damn confused to not know their heart? To not know its own beat? To not know where their happiness lies? Why is it that they can realize only when the things get out of hand? Why do they rush into a relation only to realize they cannot hold it and start a conflicting set of emotions in their lives? Why not just go along with life and make it beautiful than tangle in a mess called love? Love, but not commit, marry but not love, commit but not marry – how can they have so many different meanings? Either my mind is too warped with the concept of love as it exists today and it seriously needs some reconsideration! Perhaps, there is no love as such, just flings for an attractive human. There is no heart in today’s relation, there is practicality and walking martyrs and perhaps that is the reason they cannot realize love even when it is bare in front of the eyes and run around the sour grapes hanging high above. Today’s generation have careers, ambitions, secured houses, life insurances, medical claims, car loans, house loans, pubs, restaurants, friends, malls – the artificiality bought and spent, but, when all these take a cut, what remains is an empty hulk in a walled chamber, where a wet tissue does not wipe the tear, a foundation cannot mask the scar or the wrinkle and a peg cannot soothe the raging heart! And when all these begin to ache, the questions haunt and life is hell and then, they realize it is too late!!! Modern society, culture, independence, money – all are equivalent to crap, when the heart is silenced!

(God has given this generation brain and nothing more – or something like that was the dialogue in the film, how true!!)

Hmm… note to self – do not think! Not worth the time or the effort!