Love Aaj Kal Review: A mixture of Complicated & Intense Love Stories!

Cast- Kartik Aaryan, Sara Ali Khan, Randeep Hooda & Aarushi Sharma
Director- Imtiaz Ali
Genre- Romantic Drama
Certification- U/A
Rating- 2.5/5 stars
Review by- Sameer Ahire

Love Aaj Kal released in 2009 was a Box Office Hit and had some popular songs to remember. Imtiaz Ali was having a good time then but his recent movies haven’t been that much successful. So, rather than a fresh project, he comes back with a similar film Love Aaj Kal to recall 2009 film but with new exciting pair of Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan. Imtiaz goes intense again and improves a lot from his last outing Jab Harry Met Sejal, but is it really enough? That’s the question.

Spanning from 1990 to 2020, the movie portrays two love stories from widely different eras facing widely different obstacles. One couple battles society`s restrictions while the other must learn to balance work with love, but both portray the same true and unfiltered feelings of love. There can’t be much bashing over its basic writing and screenplay but somehow the inner soul wasn’t explored fully. We have witnessed such similar stories so many times before so there’s nothing much unique.

Coming to the acting department, which I felt was convincing enough. Kartik Aaryan gets 2 completely different roles to showcase his acting skills and does pretty much well with his variations. Sara Ali Khan as Zoe stands out as Best among the cast and this is without a doubt her best performance till date. Randeep Hooda doesn’t get many variations compared to Kartik hence the impact is average. Aarushi Sharma as Leena is fantastic. Her dancing moves and expression looks so real and not rehearsed. Rest of the supporting cast of the film is decent.

Now let’s move towards the technical fields like Cinematography, Background score, editing etc. Camera work is largely artificial because the same places coming again and again on screen, expect climax portion which captured Himalaya beautifully. Background score is healthy whereas editing lacks intelligence. Lyrics by Irshaad Kamil and music by Pritam are perfectly suitable to the theme and are one of the finest aspects of Love Aaj Kal. We miss chartbusters like 2009 film, though songs are Hit enough.

Now it seems like the obsession of telling complex stories will never get away from director Imtiaz Ali’s mind. When you are going to end your story on the typical, predictable note then why do you need that intellectual cinema-style like western countries? Indian audience has showered so much love to convincing, local love stories and the European sagas were quite depressing for them. Imtiaz Ali should have thought about this and made Love Aaj Kal a simple love story with this new exciting pair called ‘Sartik’.

Overall, Love Aaj Kal has some likeable things, good songs, fantastic performance but it also has below the average direction, less conviction, regular love story theme etc. counting on the negative side. This film can be watched for the performances, songs and love story of two different generations. If you have such limited expectations then Love Aaj Kal should be there in your watchlist. As we know it’s Valentine’s Day, I am sure the couples are going to love this.