Love Aaj Kal : Black Tea is better than Black Coffee.

Watch Saif Ali Khan "drink" his black tea. Turban and attitude firmly in place - all so cool!. Then you see him "act" as he drinks his black coffee and flexes his biceps - aargh! weak man weak!.

Love Aaj Kal

I happened to catch a show last night. A bunch of beer-damp, un-fed office mates and me (Yeah! I decided to bunk-dump the depressing delivery-on-time scene and dragged them along for the flick). The film, I kinda liked it. The other guys ummm... didn't. Here's the bits and pieces of the flick that I picked up.

The good bits:

It's very fresh, charming in bits. The time fracture is nice. The whole "tell a tale in 2 minutes then tell it again in 2 hours" presentation is neat too (don't worry if you don't get this line till after you've seen the flick).

You'd've seen it all before. All the thingies, the situations, the sexless virgin, the mock innocence, the story, the sardar stereotypes, everything - repeat telecast - but, but, but, the approach here is quiet new and fast. That is how it engaged me. I think that is the strength of the film. One by one, it takes the most cliched situations ever on the desi film and turns it into a self-refferential, pattern-breaking moment. Esp. the climax. Neat.

Deepika Padukone is pretty natural in most of the talky bits. She is a little out of depth, unsure of her role, out of character in those dancy, just-look-at-the-camera-and-smile parts. Both, Saif and Deepika throw a fake laugh or two, but, it's easily forgiven.

Saif's surd-attitude and Deepika's calm-contemporary-hip is an engaging act all in all.

The umm... okay bits:

The film fails where the new age Saif tries too hard to be charming (probably another self reference - who knows!). The initial break-up scene was so cool in the trailers, but, it's a lost moment in the film. Initially, I loved it when the film told a 30-40 minute tale in about 2 minutes in the beginning (including the meet cute - "I don't want to pile up..."), but, soon enough there is a 5 minute drag of a scene with Rishi Kapoor. The film totally lost its pace there. It picks up again in a few minutes and maintains this uneven pace throughout. Fast and engaing, then a drag, again fast, engaging, again a drag - it could've been like a few minutes shorter and it would've been like a few notches nicer.

At times the performances were a let down. The old-timer-cute-girl act by the actress with no name was a turn off.

Here's the best "okay" bit: The old-surd Saif, sips his black tea with elan, his act is better, more confident, more polished. On the other hand, the new-bicep-ey Saif, "appears" to be sipping his black coffee (It's Americano - espresso "stretched" with hot water - so you get a mug full of bitter liquid), you can see the sham, his act is scratchy, good in parts, bad in parts and not well etched at all. It looks like Saif was saying: "Black Tea is better than Black Coffee." - old vs. new.

The bad bits:

Neetu Singh is such a cliche! I think the scene would've been nicer if we'd only get a hint of the real-life love: "Veer singh enters his house, hangs his coat and heads to the chair announcing his presence. We see female hands preparing two cups of black tea. Veer Singh smiles - END"

At times, the film appeared bold enough to just say what it had to, but, at others it chickend out, taking its audience for retards, it started explaining everything. Looked like someone was really interfering with the director's work. This uneven-ness is what hurts the film the most. I kinda hoped for a repeat act from the guy who did "Jab We Met", but, I guess, two in a row is not an easy task.

Still, all said and done, the film is heads and shoulders above the rest of the desi rom-com mud-muck.

Try it. You just might like it. My beer-damp office-mates (with due-respect) may beg to differ...  ;)

:)

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S.