If you can’t be with the one you love, the rest of the life is about distracting yourself from this fact. So, if there is a slight chance or life adjustment required to make things work, it’s totally worth it. Notwithstanding that there are no guarantees of knowing if it’s going to last.

The latest version of Love Aaj Kal, which came after 10 years of the previous release, almost makes you reflect on these things while watching this movie. After a long time, we watched a film that works better if you feel the film rather than trying to understand it. The storyline or the chronology of events is relatively less important here. Even the chemistry between the lead pair takes a backseat which till now we believed was the most crucial in a love story. Lead pair Kartik Aryan and Sara Ali Khan in Love Aaj Kal neither ooze chemistry nor do they give you star crossed lovers’ vibe. But somehow, it’s the rich soul of the film that works for us. The heart of the film is in right place. When it beats, it synchronises with your heartbeat that is definitely not racing because the world is trying to pull apart two lovers but is in a dreamy slow-motion pace because the lovers are still internalising the fact that they have found the one. But just like real life, one of the pair (Kartik) is a little too sure about it and the other one (Sara) is taking her time to get there. How beautifully that is portrayed in this film!

There is another parallel love story set in a different time between Kartik/Randeep Hooda (Raghu/Raj) and Aarushi Sharma (Leena). This is also a lovely story many would be able to relate to. While this story mostly works because of the rock-solid performances by Hooda (who is one of the most underrated actors of our times) and Sharma (debutante but promising), the main storyline between Kartik and Sara works too. We attribute this solely to the very focused and sorted direction by Imtiaz Ali. Ali may not be able to entertain the masses with this movie but he manages to make a film that is somewhat poignant, maybe in parts.

But Ali faltered big time in choosing the lead actor, Kartik Aryan here who incidentally, playing two parts, strangely fails to make us believe in any of the characters. After watching Pyar ka Panchnama, Sonu ke Titu ki Sweety, Luka Chuppi and Pati Patni aur Woh, we really wanted Aryan to try something new. In Love Aaj Kal he does try something that he hasn’t done before but somehow doesn’t work for us. Sara Ali Khan has spark and we have liked her performance even in bad films like Kedarnath and Simba and she is mostly fine in Love Aaj Kal as well. She is looking ravishing in role of an ambitious career oriented up market South Delhi girl who deep down is looking for love above (or maybe with) everything else. We totally get her confusion about shifting focus between love and  career, torn between fulfilling her mother’s dreams for her and dealing with the insecurities of professional world.

We thoroughly enjoy this love story without any villains, without any item numbers and without a big brigade of supporting cast with middle class Indian family drama. Oh it is much needed break, what with an influx of Ayushman Khurana and even Kartik Aryan films.

Current Love Aaj Kal is not really called as Love Aaj Kal 2 maybe because it’s not actually a sequel of 2009 film. We have seen both and to be frank we enjoy this version 2 times the previous one.