Love Story 2050 - Movie Review

Director: Harry Baweja
Cast: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani
Rating: 1/5

Picture this. It’s 2050. The world’s transformed into a screensaver. There are airborne automobiles all over but filmmakers continue to build castles (read movies) in air. Robots have substituted companionship and are not just implanted with artificial intelligence but also embedded with fake feelings. Humankind emerge from holograms as customer care executives and you literally feel like calling for help. The heroine is red-headed but the director wins an empty-headed tag for serving us with a no-brainer. Product brands of today manage to survive four decades down the line and perhaps so will the standard of scripts that refuse to show any signs of upgrading.

Picture this. It’s 2006. Filmmaker Harry Baweja considers making a science fiction but assumes that the audience is too inexperienced to accept the genre unconditionally. So he manipulates an obsolete love story believing that the viewer would now digest the assorted subject more willingly. And in his flawed hypothesis he ends up with a muddled mess which is something between a lackluster love story and a semi-science-fiction. Add to it, neither appeals!

Picture this. It’s 2008. Harman Baweja attempts to make a dashing debut (literally) as he bangs his father’s swanky car. Daddy dear is a business tycoon who has no time for his motherless son Karan (Harman). Now how many times have we seen such banal bonding before? Nevertheless, real-life father Harry Baweja has all the time to launch his son (again literally, through flying cars) in a futuristic film which unfortunately isn’t ahead of its time.

The Story:
Karan meets Sana (Priyanka Chopra), chases, dates and sings with her, gets separated and reunites and attempts every possible act to stretch the screenplay till the interval. The director has dedicatedly devoted the first half merely for the love story. 2050 appears only in the second half where the techno-savvy world comprises of touch-screen gadgets and perhaps India is again ruled by foreigners as most inhabitants of Mumbai resemble firangs .

Sana dies in the first half and our hero is pretty sure that she will be reborn in 2050. His scientist uncle (Boman Irani) who is a confused combination of an astrologer-cum-astronomer reaffirms his faith. Uncle Frankenstein has designed a time machine which transports them into future. Sana is Zeisha now and suddenly the modern day sci-fi takes an ancient Bollywood turn with the reincarnation theme. This Karan has no Arjun but with just one song he rekindles memories of past life in his lifeless romance with Sana.

Meanwhile the director also inserts an archetypal villain though he chooses to keep his face covered for reasons unknown. This faceless bad man looks like the first cousin of Mogambo and suspiciously sounds like Gulshan Grover. Is Grover resorting to barely dubbing for films or did the director midways mistake his film to be an animation attempt? Expectedly, the villain is in search of the time machine which assures a climax combat with the hero.

The screenplay grilled by multiple writers is a clear case of too many cooks spoil the broth. The first half is long-drawn-out with a lousy love story while scenes are specially written in the second half only to accommodate brand endorsements. The special effects aren’t shoddy but not of the exceptional variety either. However that doesn’t affect much as the effects are almost relegated to the background while the romance takes preventable prominence. Moreover the visual graphics remind of several Hollywood films like The Fifth Element, Total Recall and The Star Wars series. Also the villain’s vicious intentions are clearly derived from Krrish .

Performances:
Of the performances, Boman Irani hams hysterically. Priyanka Chopra overdoes the Pooh image to irksome effect. Archana Puran Singh repeats her Punjabi act for the zillionth time. Harman Baweja, intentionally or unintentionally, has a strong Hrithik Roshan hangover in his looks, performance, body-language, mannerisms, action, dancing and dialogue delivery but surprisingly it works to his advantage. In the pre-climax party scene he also derives a lot in his act from Shah Rukh Khan. But a confident charm works to his merit.

Verdict:
Through the film, Harman keeps repeating a line ‘I don’t need luck, I have love’. Perhaps an overdose of love will surely make him seek some luck, now.