Date:05/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/05/stories/2008070558350200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Loads of style, imitation and little substance

Film: Love Story 2050

Cast: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra

Direction: Harry Baweja

If Imran resembles Aamir, and the resemblance is natural and understandable, it is quite the opposite here. Newcomer Harman Baweja seems to have cultivated similarity to Hrithik Roshan to evoke interest in his debut film.

He seems to make a conscious effort to walk, talk and even occasionally look like Hrithik. Harry Baweja, as the director, does not help his kid’s cause by even shop-lifting some of the sequences from Hrithik’s films. Se here we get lots of sun and sand, crests and troughs of waters, cliffs and the like. All a throwback to “Kaho Na…Pyar Hai” that gave Rakesh Roshan’s son a passport to frame.

Then the special effect scenes with a special science laboratory for experiments tell you the director watched “Krisshh” very carefully.

Hey, if only he had spent that energy in presenting his son in an original manner. Harman does all that is asked of him: flexes muscles, runs, no gallops, after the girl, even tries a Hrithik-like dance step or two.

That he does all this with confidence speaks of his talent. Pity he is not allowed to be his own man in the story.In a new trend for Hindi films, the film is not based in India but the first world.

This time it is Australia. Here Priyanka is at the race course watching guys bike their way to glory. Again, predictably, she challenges one guy to win it. Again, predictably, that guy is a hero, who also goes on to win it. That sets the stereotypical love affair rolling.

There is a twist: again nothing new.He is one side of the road, she on the other with an ice cream in hand.

You don’t need to be a Nostradamus to know where the film will head: the girl gets killed, the guy still pines for her.

Enter time machine, enter 2050. Enter the girl again. Yippie! Despite some novelty with the robots, the film falls flat. Forgettable music, non-existent director. And a lead pair that shows some spark but is usually hamstrung by the script.

“Love Story 2050” is lots of style with little substance, lots of imitation, very little to flatter the audiences.

Z.S.