10 Years Of Love Aaj Kal: Here Is Why Deepika Padukone And Saif Ali Khan Starrer Is A One Of A Kind Landmark

Coming of age and romance are two themes that Bollywood has explored endlessly and has mostly done it right. But what about coming of age romances? Well, there can be little debate over the fact that it is Imtiaz Ali who sort of pioneered the genre and it was his film Love Aaj Kal that did a fantastic job of making us understand what coming of age romance entails. In doing so Love Aaj Kal made a landmark case of the romance and relationships are navigated in Bollywood.

While a pleasant watch, Imtiaz Ali’s first film Socha Na Tha failed to create an impression. It was with Jab We Met that he tasted success like never before and it was perhaps the success of Jab We Met that emboldened him to make something as refreshingly audacious as Love Aaj Kal.

It was the first time there was a party celebrating break-up, it was the first time where passionate lovers were being super friendly exes, it was the first time a hero was accepting that he has fallen in love (seriously at that) 50 times, it was the first time there was no contest between old and modern relationships but a harmony of feeling that binds generation. Imtiaz Ali was quietly telling the world that we do not have to be rebel in order to be modern, and that is the coolest thing to do really.

Despite its modern sensibilities, Love Aaj Kal was also a grand celebration of old school romances, something that was executed in the film with utmost cinematic brilliance. In fact, it is not just the soul of the film which was seeped in contemporary ideas, but even story editing, cinematography and the entire production quality was at par with any global entertainer at the time.

It did not have decide between being rooted in desi emotions or completely get carried away by a narrative that was a hit with the American rom-coms or sitcoms. It did not have to be global or Indian, because it was universal.

One of the most interesting things about Love Aaj Kal was the absolute irrelevance of family dynamics that was the biggest operational force in Bollywood traditionally when it came to driving a wedge between the ‘hero’ and the ‘heroine’. The characters in the film, Meera and Rajveer were their own people. Flawed, impulsive, but making their own decisions. Not a lot of Indian film can be audacious enough to show the ‘heroine’ walking away the morning after her wedding and still make us root for her. Not a lot of Bollywood films had the ‘hero’ being morally vague when it comes to romance and ethics and still have our heart.

To say that Love Aaj Kal was a pioneer in relatable romances would perhaps be a hyperbole and grossly unfair to some of the films that came before it, but it was perhaps the first time such romance, irrespective of generation and cultural constraints, was executed with unique and vivacious audacity.