Love is in the air and no matter how much you try, you cannot dodge it. So before you go to watch “I hate Love Storiesâ€, soften up your soul; wear your heart at your sleeve and get ready to fall in love with “Love†once again. The movie had created quite a buzz before its release for all the right reasons and when I was exiting from the theatre after viewing, my smile was assuring me that the buzz was quite justified.
The movie is so typical, yet so different and so clichéd, yet so fresh. Before going into a detailed analysis, I can assure you what this movie reconfirmed: content matters a lot, but if the presentation is carefully done, slight flaws in the content can be overlooked. This is exactly how I would summarize this movie: quite decent ingredients, suffering with minor flaws, yet presented in a very very beautiful package.
First of all, I’ll list a few negatives.
• The portions in the middle of the first half seem a bit slow-paced and make you feel that annoying feeling of being dragged. This goes on till 5 minutes before the interval.
• A few characters in the movie are half baked; especially the character of Sameer Dattani deserved better screenplay support.
•The character of Sonam Kapoor and the swings in her mood are beautifully presented and enacted, yet I didn’t find them too convincing and a bit far away than reality.
•A few portions are quite predictable. I don’t want to mention them as it will disclose a few important parts of the story.
For me, the list of positives is much longer.
•The second half is a complete winner.
•Highlight of the movie is the pairing of Imran and Sonam and their chemistry. They look simply adorable together and you really feel the nudge in your heart that they should somehow live together happily. A very very cute pair. Imran will melt a lot of girls out there, and Sonam is bound to send ripples in the masculine hearts.
•The music is amazing. It sounds even better than the audio. Especially “Sadka Kiya†and “Bin Terey†are bound to stay with you long after you leave the hall.
•The entertainment quotient is very high. The gloss and the treatment is as fresh as a drop of dew on a shivering rose petal. This will be loved by the main target audience (i.e youth and the romantics)
•The movie contains some excellent performances.
•Direction is so good that it covers slight hiccups in the narrative.
•Though some portions are quite predictable, yet there is a significant amount of pleasant surprises, either content wise or treatment wise.
•The movie is loaded with some beautiful dialogues. There are a lot of funny one -liners and some serious dialogues also work big time. (I again don’t want to ruin your fun by disclosing the dialogues.)
Now coming to the performances.
•Imran Khan will be loved by everyone. He does feel a bit naïve in few moments, but for the most of the movie, he maintains a perfect balance in looking cool and acting mature. His character is very well developed and he does full justice to it.
•Sonam is a real delight to watch. Her character required an amalgamation of sweet innocence and chick style, and she does it perfectly. For me, she is the real show stealer. She is altogether different from what we saw in Saawarya and Delhi 6.
•Kavin Dave (Imran’s buddy) is top notch. His timing and expression is immaculate. A really lovable character.
•Out of the others, Sameer Dattani is decent (but the role lacks meat), Samir Soni (modeled on Karan Johar’s personality) is just sufficient and Bruna Abdullah is of those actresses who just looks gorgeous but cannot act at all.
Overall Verdict:
If the word “Love†doesn’t cause nausea to you; if you are not a real hater of Love Stories; if your heart is still young and if you have ever been a romantic in your life, you will love this film. For me the movie worked big time. It knocked at my heart, it made me smile and it reaffirmed the fact that I love “Love Storiesâ€.
