Critics’ Review: Kartik-Sara’s ‘Love Aaj Kal’ Gets a Thumbs Down

Critics aren’t impressed with Imtiaz Ali’s new romantic drama.

Sara Ali Khan and Kartik Aaryan in Love Aaj Kal. 

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

Here’s a peek at how critics are reacting to the new Hindi film release Love Aaj Kal.

Film: Love Aaj Kal
Director: Imtiaz Ali
Cast: Kartik Aaryan, Sara Ali Khan, Randeep Hooda

“Love and lovers are not to be trusted. What about the director? The 2020 production is ambitious, to say the least. A few of Ali’s gambles pay off up until the interval, at which point the 141-minute movie launches into freefall, never to recover. <em>Love Aaj Kal</em> is crammed with non-sequitur conversations and faux philosophical musings, but the best bits are the dialogue-free montages, which reflect the beauty and purity of timeless ardour that the film seems to be aiming for.”

Nandini Ramnath, Scroll

“This is a film that exposes a filmmaker as someone steadily losing grasp on his once-celebrated storytelling skills. This is a film that makes the unbearably bad <em>Jab Harry Met Sejal</em> appear like a lowkey masterpiece. <em>Rockstar</em> carried gravitas and explored the complex psyche of an artist’s battle with fame and identity, <em>Tamasha</em> turned predictable rom-com tropes into a dark commentary on societal conformism and the original <em>Love Aaj Kal</em> actually made one ache for an old world romance in an increasingly automated world where algorithms decide our romantic fate.”

Ankur Pathak, Huffington Post

“This <em>Love Aaj Kal </em>is what is known as a “spiritual successor”<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hot-new-movie-catchphrase-call-875626"> </a>or “spiritual sequel”, except that it is so godawfully boring, contrived and wannabe that it provoked some very unspiritual, unholy feelings in me. Drowning as it is in stereotypes of millennial women and youth at large, Kartik Aaryan’s awkwardness, some surprisingly hammy acting by the usually solid Randeep Hooda and tedium, the new film tragically marks a further decline in the qualitative graph of a writer-director who debuted with the sweet <em>Socha Na Tha</em> in 2005, crackled and popped with the Kareena Kapoor-starrer <em>Jab We Met</em> (2007) and has only shone intermittently since.”

Anna MM Vetticad, Firstpost

“Ali, who last helmed <i>Jab Harry Met Sejal</i>, delivers a melodramatic mess that drains the viewer. Adapting a story that’s already been told well, can be challenging. But he struggles even more in translating current relationships and how young adults approach every ache and break…. The film has an obsessive-yet-obedient hero and a heroine who is constantly overreacting and intermittently overacting. And while copious amounts of alcohol are downed by some in the film, the unsuspecting audience will be the one to emerge with a throbbing hangover.”

Kunal Guha, Mumbai Mirror