Mumbai, Director Imtiaz Ali’s much awaited ‘Love Aaj Kal’, marking the debut of national award winning actor Saif Ali Khan as a producer, released worldwide on friday to huge expectations.
With this, the ‘Omkara’ star has joined the Khan bandwagon Shah Rukh and Aamir, who are established producers.
‘Love..’ is a story eulogising the importance of heart over head theme for a commitment phobic, where Saif plays two diverse characters, featuring Deepika Padukone as the female protagonist.
The actor essays the characters of ‘Jai’ representing on friday alpha male, and ‘Veer’, the younger version of Rishi Kapoor, a shy but sure lover set in the 50s.
While some critics dubbed the Imtiaz Ali’s latest as cliched, others said good locales and foot-tapping numbers may help it to pick up with word-of-the-mouth publicity.
‘Expectations are high especially after ‘Jab We Met’ and comparisons between both the films were evident,’ said another film critic.
An additional highlight of the film is a cameo by actress Neetu Singh opposite her real life husband Rishi Kapoor.
Akash, a college student, who caught the first show, went ga-ga over the OSO girl Deepika Padukone.
“A few more such classy performances and she would be in the top league,” he said.However, Shashi Sharma, a bank manager in his mid 40s, did not find the film to be so riveting but found Deepika impressive.
Senior journalist Ajay Brahmatmaj, felt that the Imtiaz used the flashback sequences in a very innovative manner.On Deepika’s performance he said,” the character required a lot of maturity”.
The movie also had its share of controversies with the All India Punjabi Cultural and Heritage Board objecting to two scenes in a Gurudwara and the trimmed beard of Saif’s Sikh character in the film.However, Saif has given a written apology to the board, its president Charan Singh Sapra said on Thursday.