Love Story 2050 Movie Review: Would Have Been Better As Love Story 2008

Stylish treatment, special effects, costumes and other elements which assist in cinematically enhancing a film, work only if the basic screenplay itself has merit and substance. There is no doubt that a great deal of effort and money has gone into the special effects for the futuristic look of Love Story 2050 and in parts, the effects are truly superb, but the impact is completely diluted by the fact the film has a wafer thin plot which is developed without any attention on the emotional quotient of a love story. In fact, the film may have worked better had Harry Baweja made an out and out futuristic action film, or a modern day romantic comedy as this mix of both ends up quite disjointed and disappointing.

The film starts with Karan (debutant Harman Baweja) and Sana (Priyanka Chopra) in 2008, Australia who meet through a case of mistaken identities and after a bit of wooing by Karan, profess their love for each other. All seems well and initially the film is more of a romantic comedy which moves quite smoothly except for the excessive songs in the first one hour. Karan's Uncle Yo (Boman Irani) is a scientist who has been developing a time machine but is yet to solve one minor glitch which miraculously Sana solves accidently for him (change an alpha to infinity, and voila, you have a functional time machine). The twist in the story comes when Sana tragically dies in Karna's arms in a freak road accident. Uncle Yo, on seeing his depressed bhanja, suggests that they travel a few days back in time in order to avoid the accident altogether and hence save Sana. However, the time machine is locked on Mumbai 2050, something Sana had typed herself on the machine only a few days earlier, which leads Karan to believe that Sana must be in the future. Hence they embark on their travel to the future, into a Mumbai with flying cars and stage performances in the sky while Karan has 30 days to find Sana (who is now Zeisha) and take her back with him. Throw in a Darth Vader like villain (Dr. Hoshi), and R2D2( QT ) and C3PO (Boo) like robots to make the adventure a bit more interesting (or at least that must have been the intention), but what results is a second half which is complete disjointed from the first half and an almost non existent love story in the second half, which is a bit surprising considering that the title of the film is Love Story 2050.

Interestingly, although the first half of the film catches you a bit off guard, as you are expecting the film to essentially be futuristic since that is how the film had been positioned through its promos and other communication, it is essentially a cute, romantic comedy and surprisingly more enjoyable than the later futuristic portions of the film. The problem in the second half is that there is so much more focus given to the fact that we are in 2050, the story is lost; Karan's plight to find his love and bring her back is minimal, the chemistry between the two leads dips due to lack of any major romantic scenes or interaction, and you don't find yourself routing for the lead couple nor is there any emotional connect with the love story. The story has been heavily inspired by various Hollywood films like Back To The Future, Star Wars and even Minority Report. The length of the second half is also excessive as the film is three hours plus in totality.

The film was clearly made with the intention of launching Harman and showcasing him as an actor, which to a large part has been successfully achieved. He dances like a dream, looks great, has a great physique, his action sequences will make you hold your breath (watch out for the sequences when he is chasing Sana's bus and running away from the group of Australian guys chasing him) and to top it off, he is also quite a good actor. His comic timing is great which is why you tend to like him a bit more in the first half. Although he does need to work on his dialogue delivery because in some of the emotional scenes it is difficult to understand what he is saying and his voice gets a bit screechy. As far as comparisons to Hrithik go, you will quickly forget that as the film progresses as Harman has his own distinctive style and personality in his performance. In fact his dialogue delivery at times will remind you of SRK, but not Hrithik. The only glitch is since the film was 2 years plus in the making, Harman looks different in several sequences. There are no two ways about the fact that Harman, who has all the makings of a superstar, is definitely here for the long haul. Priyanka Chopra pitches in a very honest, endearing performance. Although the film is essentially Harman centric and doesn't demand any histrionics from her, she uplifts the scenes that she shares with him and you will find her extremely likeable, especially in the first half. In the second half, the attitude of a superstar who is deep down innocent and lonely is conveyed quite well and she ensures the character never becomes loud. Her chemistry with Harman is superb, which is probably why the first half of the film is so much more watchable. Boman Irani as Uncle Yo is extremely irritating while Archana Puran Singh is great, making you wish that she too was a part of the time travel landing up in 2050 rather than Sana's two siblings, who actually have nothing to do.

The special effects are superb in some sequences and laughable in others. The electronically transmitted house maid "Kanta" is great as is Zaisha's room and the climax fight between Karan and his robot duplicate although it will give you Star Wars d?j? vu, but nonetheless has been executed well. However all of the exteriors look like an animation film, whether it be the flying cars or the building structures. Harry should have stuck to very hi tech futuristic rooms and internal features, rather than trying to focus on the exteriors, roads, vehicles etc. The film has been shot beautifully, capturing the beautiful locales of Australia and South Africa.

Love Story 2050 could have been a landmark film in Hindi cinema, making the audience take serious notice of the science fiction genre, but unfortunately the film leaves you wishing that Harry Baweja had made a modern day romantic comedy with a decent script rather than focusing so much on packaging of an empty film.