Past to present: Imtiaz paints two shades of love
Over the years, he has intrigued audiences and also regaled them with his passionate, inimitable and dazzling takes on the emotion called love. In his next, Love Aaj Kal, Imtiaz Ali has again revved up the romance by traversing two different eras – one set in Udaipur in the early ’90s and the other in modernday Delhi. But despite the two eras and disparate characters, the core remains the same. As Imtiaz puts it, “There is innocence, passion and impractical idealism in both characters, but in different ways, so we concentrated on one of them at a time.”
In the 1990s segment, Kartik Aaryan plays Raghuvendra aka Raghu, and carries an innate small-town innocence. He is fascinated with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and the “idea of first love with his high school sweetheart”. “He is extremely passionate, romantic and impulsive too,” says Imtiaz. On the other hand, the modern-day Kartik or Veer is a software programmer in Delhi. Makers call him a “romantic at heart”, who is an “idealist” and looks for a “certain honesty and meaning in his relationships.”
Ask Kartik about it and he says: “The two roles are very distinct, in terms of the way they look, react and relate to people around them. Veer is a modern guy, somewhat geeky and socially awkward, while Raghu represents any teenage boy who has grown up in the ’90s. Raghu is dramatic and animated as he goes through the excitement and thrill of first love, while Veer is sure of what he feels for Zoe but is too inarticulate to express it to her. So, they are different when in love. Therefore, understanding them required not only getting into the skins of their individual characters but also an understanding of the different time periods where their stories are set.”
Imtiaz concurs, saying while working on/shooting the two parts, he “didn’t compare one with the other”. “Even when Kartik played Veer, he was not thinking about Raghu and vice versa. While training, we worked a lot on the body language of both the parts so that Kartik walks, talks and behaves differently while portraying them. He has played both the parts with great energy and even the unit felt like they were working with two different actors while shooting with Veer and
Raghu.”
There is innocence, passion and impractical idealism in both characters, but in different ways.
IMTIAZ ALI FILMMAKER