What is this thing called love? The question has exercised the imagination of philosophers (“Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the...
What is this thing called love? The question has exercised the imagination of philosophers (“Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods”: Plato) and pop lyricists (“What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more”: Haddaway). Imtiaz Ali has spent nearly his entire career looking for the answer. Ali watchers might argue that the 48-year-old director had already completed his quest in his debut, Socha Na Tha (2005), and his second and finest movie, Jab We Met (2007). Yet, Ali has persevered, herding together men and women who meet, deny the depth of their feelings for each other and finally unite after a series of tortuous adventures set to melodious tunes.
Ali’s latest exercise in monomania revisits his Love Aaj Kal from 2009. We are back with two time zones and the conceit that the lessons of the past can help solve the problems of the present. The older LAK had Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone as lovers in familiar denial mode and an elderly romantic played by Rishi Kapoor. Khan also depicted the young version of Kapoor’s character.
In LAK 2020, Randeep Hooda is the love guru Raghu and Kartik Aaryan is Veer in the present as...
