Love Aaj Kal Analysis

Love Aaj Kal (2009)

Written & Directed by: Imtiaz Ali
Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone

This film feels like an old school love story - where people who don't at all believe in love, end up falling in love. Deepika's performance in this film is so good - there are a few moments in the film which are impossible to act and pretend, she just lived those moments. One moment is, when they meet after so long and when she is with Jai in the train, and after some talk and hesitation Jai says that he's putting his hand on her shoulder, and she doesn't say yes or no, she smiles and looks away - it is a mixture of 'okay fine' and 'I don't know man, it's weird'. Also the cathartic breakdown in the last scene. Also the shot where she is in the car crying, after Jai tells her that he gets his dream job. All these moments are brilliantly carried by Deepika, it feels like she draws from her own life to perform in these scenes - all of them feel so real.

Some aspects in the film seem personal, like the feeling of having to say goodbye one last time, this worked in the older timeline - because of the use of music there. The editing is so innovative in this film, by Aarti Bajaj. The phone conversation montage after the first break up is done so well, and of course the seamless intercutting between the timelines. The sequence about the monotony of a desk job, is so similar to that in Tamasha. After this sequence is when, Jai is mugged and that ignites his catharsis and that's when he realizes that he has fallen in love - I wonder if they could've done that differently without him saying out loud about his realization. The lighting in some shots was visible, it stood out from what would otherwise seem natural lighting. This film made me want to indulge myself in this film, irrespective of the tropes, cliches, etc.