Can love be one-dimensional? Imtiaz Ali makes you think again through Love Aaj Kal 2020 the juxtaposed narrative – one set in 1990 and the other in the present day.

Directed by- Imtiaz Ali

Produced by- Dinesh Vijan, Imtiaz Ali

Music- Pritam

Starring-  Sara Ali Khan, Kartik Aryan

Plot of the Movie Love Aaj Kal

Zoey played by Sara Ali Khan is a 20-something, carrier oriented woman, who’s trying to balance love and career. But somehow the complications are too daunting to choose between heart and mind. She is a girl who has mapped her entire life till retirement, but her emotions for Veer is a hindrance in her sorted-in-mind life.

Analysis

Love Aaj Kal 2020 is not a reboot of the director-writer Imtiaz Ali’s 2009 original. Instead, it has borrowed the same structure as the earlier version. Hence the narrative looks similar and scenes seem familiar in its appearance.

The two different time frames, wait in the balcony, monument romance, one confidante – cut to the current generation and the more modern take and perception of love. It makes you nostalgic.

However, the recent one is much bolder and more conspicuous to keeping up with the time. And what connects the two fundamentally is the essence of love. The want and the need, but aspiring for some more, and also not wanting to let it all go kind of love.

The world of Imtiaz is magic, but at the same time, it is baffling, confusing, and full of human complexities which are trying to get a grip with. And that’s what the character Zoe and Veer struggle with.

Though, this time, the female protagonist is going through the complexities more unlike the 2009’s version where Saif’s character was the one struggling with mind and heart. Probably, that was a calculative move to keep the narrative both unique and imbibe the new wave of women’s lib.

Hence, the confidante is also given to the female protagonist played by Randeep Hooda, who drags similarities from his own life which also helps to draw a parallel in the narrative.

Veer’s character, on the other hand, is head over heels in love. He doesn’t want a compromising relationship and is dealing with the complexities of love in his way – the wholeheartedly, deep-dyed way, which has its pain and affliction.

And all the emotions are well known to the Imtiaz Ali fans. The sentiments, the intensity and the inclination, are similar.

Not only the emotions but the cinematography and the screenplay can be recognized as Imtiaz’s film. His obsession with trains, mountains, roads, the combination of fearless and coyness of his characters are the traits of his filmography. And Love Aaj Kal is no different.

Besides, Yeh Dooriyan by Mohit Chauhan plays an important role which keeps the nostalgia of 2009’s refresh. But the tune never escalates. It has a subtlety which preserves the taste and makes you crave for more. But Imtiaz decides not to spoil you.

Kartik Aryan who has done quite some successful box office numbers in the past have pushed it in this one. Khan, who is more popular for the inherited popularity, has done relatively well.

All in all, Love Aaj Kal has done everything pleasingly complicated and confusing – maybe because love itself never fails to embroil hearts and minds everything together.

Check out it’s trailer!