Love Story 2050

A prime example of when potential is not even used...

Love Story 2050 centres around two opposites falling in love. On the one hand there is Karan (Harmen Baweja) who is very energetic and lives life on the edge. And on the other hand, there is Sana (Priyanka Chopra) who is a self-assured, yet rule-orientated individual. After an unlikely accident, Karan's only hope for saving Sana rests in the use of a time machine.

The story is one of many problems this film has. It's difficult to tell whether it was the complexity of a sci-fi film that got to the script writers, or their own idiocy, but Love Story 2050 does not even attempt to tell a viable story, let alone a love story. For the most part, the futuristic setting of the film, its major draw, does not even come into play until the interval has subsided. The story borrows heavily from various Hollywood films, most notably Time Machine, Back to the Future and Terminator, and there is very little which is unique. It also moves as a fairly slow pace, and the silly attempts at humour always fall short, and does not help the film's pacing. If director Harry Baweja had only tried to make a more serious film, it would have been less frivolous but most importantly, a better film.

But regardless of whether the story is taking place in the present or future, it is entirely predictable and illogical at times. One such example being when Karan is trying to catch-up with Sana, who is in a bus, and Karan comes to a stage where he jumps up onto an above crossing bridge, only to jump off it a second later. What is so vastly comical about all of this is that he is trying desperately to get to the bus, but instead of merely running through the facility he was in, he decided to take a few seconds from running to do some climbing and jumping. The musical segments do not fare any better, and are fairly weak. From terrible dance movements to poor music, except for perhaps Chopra's concert number in the future, the music never helps to aid the film from feeling as if it is being dragged along to its conclusion, which itself is quite bad.

The acting is sadly low-key. While Copra does seem suited for her characters, she is still quite offbeat from the whole affair never bringing any convincing characteristics to her character. However, it is Baweja that truly disappoints. As the lead, his acting is not particularly good and neither was his line delivery. Perhaps this can actually be credited to the poor dialogue and even poorer characters. Where Sana and Zeisha comes across as strong-willed females, they inevitably fall for Karan to the point where their lives need his existence for them to even be able to talk. And Karan is such a pathetic excuse for a man that I was really hoping he'd be killed before the interval, but alas he was not, and his overly sensitive and exaggerated need for love finds its way throughout the entire film: basically, there was no characterization whatsoever. There is no need in discussing the other actors as they are all average at best. In fact, the represented characters are utterly annoying. The teddy robot Boo, was a badly implemented distraction from the film, and Sana's younger siblings, Rahul and Thea, were unnecessary to the overall plot, while Dr. Yatinder (Boman Irani) as far too silly to even be considered as a credible scientist.

The usual sex appeal of a commercial film is present, and remains thus so. Violence is minimal and arguable so terribly choreographed that you really could not call it violence. However the language department did contain a few blasphemous terms, and a surprising number of scatological terms, though it was in moderation.

If there is any positive to the film, it would be in the CG department. While special effects are never great by any means, Mumbai in the future is rendered quite beautifully, but more so during the night than during the day. But even the CG is not fully realized as it comes across as something out of a video game instead of a high-budget film production.

I will admit that Bollywood films are not exactly my cup of tea, but I have enjoyed, to some degree, all of which I have seen, especially loving the recent Sakar Raj. But Love Story 2050 is such a mismatch, that it's impossible to even understand how the film ended up so badly. The acting is not good, though sympathy must be given to both Chopra and Baweja because they didn't have a decent script to work with, and the production design was clearly not well thought through. Love Story 2050 has so much potential to be a worthy attempt at standing toe-to-toe with Hollywood, but doesn't even begin to scratch at this potential. Instead of the futuristic sci-fi flick which was supposed to hit cinemas, what has shown its place is a Bollywood film that will have even Indians embarrassed, and that is saying a lot.

5/10

Screen date: 04 July 2008
Release date: 04 July 2008