Love Aaj Kal beats Ghajini

Love Aaj Kal, Imtiaz Ali's latest, has opened to packed houses. In many places, the film, which has released in over 1800 screens, overtook last year's record setter, Ghajini.
"The film has taken a superb initial," says Komal Nahta, editor of The Film Street Journal. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh seconds that. "The opening's on par with Ghajini. In the overseas, the film will be one of the biggest hits." Devang Sampat of Cinemax confirms that the film has opened better than Ghajini in all its properties.

The film, about contemporary relationships in urban India, where the protagonists are not afraid of calling off their relationship in their pursuit for personal goals, seems to have struck a chord with the youth. "It was like watching me, or one of my friends, up there on screen," says 22-year-old aspiring filmmaker, Viral Shah. "I have had a long distance relationship when I was studying abroad and could relate to the scenes."

Law student Shruti Kant enjoyed the flashback portions, which had the more 'Hindi film' type of a love story. "The film intertwined love stories from then (Kal) and now (Aaj) very well and appealed to the romantic in me." Shruti also feels that grey areas in the film, like the heroine realising she doesn't want to be with her husband two days after marriage, was identifiable. "I completely related to Deepika's character."

The film's appeal may be restricted to the youth due to its content and treatment by writer-director Imtiaz Ali, but its not something actor-producer Saif Ali Khan and he need to worry about.The major chunk of the film going audience in India is made up of youngsters, says Adarsh, and the film appeals to them. "Even though few over the age of forty may like it, it will be strongly patronised by women for its emotions, an advantage even Ghajini didn't enjoy."

Whether in the final analysis, the film will better Ghajini at the box office or be as patronised as Jab We Met on the small screen, remains to be seen. But for now, its Love All at the theatres.

Kisses and butt grabbing not vulgar in ‘Love Aaj Kal’

The intimate scenes between Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone in Love Aaj Kal won’t offend family audiences, says director Imtiaz Ali .

The promo of the movie is getting a lot of attention because it shows eye-grabbing stuff like Saif trying to hold Deepika's butt or sharing an unabashed kiss with her in the car and also cussing Hinglish expletives on a date.

But the director is not worried. He says the promo packs all that is ‘objectionable’ in the film.
“Kisses included, nobody will feel inhibited watching ‘Love Aaj Kal’. No one will hesitate walking into the film with his family. All that is potentially objectionable in the film in the strictest of sense has been taken care of in the first promo. If you have warmed up on it, rest assured you will love Love Aaj Kal,” Ali is quoted as saying by IANS.

In fact, there were certain people in the production team who thought the overt promos might give a wrong impression about the movie, but Ali differs with them.

“They thought that people may get an impression that the film was only about these things but I had my own viewpoint…My argument is that audiences are really smart. They pretty much see the intention of the filmmaker and make up their mind to watch the film accordingly,” Ali explains.

The movie has Saif and Deepika in dual roles as the story is set in two time periods. In the first roles, Saif and Deepika play Jai and Meera, a modern-day couple in London. They are very happy together but do not believe in tying each other down. In the second time period, in the Calcutta of 1965, they play a Punjabi couple Veer and Harleen.

Ali also goes on to reveal that ‘Love Aaj Kal’ is primarily aimed at youth and family crowds.

“The film caters to them mainly because it's this age group that goes and sees films in theatres. Due to this, even when I am conceptualizing a film and then putting it on celluloid, I feel safe from my target audience perspective,” Ali said.