I Hate Luv Storys

It's all about loving Johar



Director: Punit Malhotra
Starring: Imran Khan, Sonam, Sameer Dattani
Stars: **

One can almost visualise how director Punit Malhotra must have pitched the film to his boss, Karan Johar. Let's have Dharma Productions as the setting for the film - so ready-made references available. The hero hates love stories but is reluctantly working for a hot-shot director (Johar?) who makes mushy love stories that he calls 'sagas'. The hero mocks at romantic films - so in the garb of spoof (that favourite excuse to make a film when you have no original ideas), each one of Shah Rukh Khan's films from the Johar-Yash Raj stable is plugged. It's like Johar will either make movies only with Shah Rukh Khan or have a proxy for him. The heroine is the art director on the sets and is a die hard romantic - the kind who carries a white gerbera in her purse every day to work. So after turning his nose up at his boss' films till interval point, the hero magically realises that all those love stories were true after all and turns all puppy eyed by the end. After such thumping validation for his films, getting a green signal for the project from our Koffee man may not have been too difficult.

The hero, Jai (Imran Khan) is modelled on Aamir's character in Dil Chahta Hai (DCH), a non-believer in love. In fact, a large chunk of the film is a remake of the Farhan Akhtar coming-of-age comic-drama. Jai is a flirt, looking for short-term affairs. He cringes when the topic is romance. He is irreverent and comes up with wise-cracks. The girl, Simran (Sonam Kapoor) believes she has a perfect love life with boyfriend, Raj(Sameer Dattani), until cupid strikes again. Problem is, Jai does not believe he is in love, so Simran ends up hurt and disappointed. But sooner than later, he too is headlong in love, but now Simran has second thoughts.

The film may or may not have intended it, but it brings to light how confused our generation is about love and relationships. And this little complexity is achieved because the writers do not attempt to present Simran's boyfriend in a bad light. He's a gentleman, attentive and caring - a bit too much probably, but this is done subtly. So you stay mildly interested in Sonam's conundrum of choosing between the two men.

The vacillating heart of a die-hard romantic, who swears by movies might have perhaps made for an interesting film, but the makers operate in extremes throughout. Sameer Soni, who plays the director in the film admits that he sells the same mush to audiences film after film, but his movies have some magic that people connect with. This is the argument that the makers want to peddle in Johar's favour, so Imran after being the nonchalant, non-believer turns only one peg short of becomming Devdas by the end. There's a scene where he builts a tent of red baloons, wears a red shirt and then goes on his knees to propose to Sonam! This transition is far too dramatic and unconvincing. The nuances are simply not there. You don't get enough sense of how they fall in love. Imran is supposed to be a brash charmer who mouths some smart-alecky lines. But frankly, his act comes across as quite rude and annoying for anyone to fall for it. Compare this with SRK's act in DDLJ, where he is a cad in the first half, and falls in love later. His personality doesn't altogether alter. That restraint that SRK brings to his role or the one Aamir brought to DCH is not there here.

Imran has great presence and shines in some of the earlier scenes and is at home playing the cynic (though he didn't convince me as womaniser for a moment). He's awkward in the second half. Sonam looks pretty, but like most of her contemporaries, no depth in acting. Also, she needs to work hard on her dialogue delivery. Since neither of them engage you particularly, the film does tend to become a drag in the middle.

In the end, I Hate Luv Storys serves more as an ego massage for its makers. Imran's character has to grovel and be a total convert to Johar's idea of love before he can have the girl. Other than that, the film is just passable fluff.

-Sandhya Iyer