The Hindu : Karnataka News : Despite some novelty, this one taxes your patience

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Saturday, Jul 12, 2008
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Karnataka

Despite some novelty, this one taxes your patience

SOME SPARK: Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra

Love Story 2050 (Hindi)

Cast: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani

Director: Harry Baweja

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 son’s cause by even shop-lifting some of the sequences from Hrithik’s films.

So here we get 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 fame.

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

Hey, if only he had spent that energy in presenting his son in an original manner!

Young Harman does all that is asked of him — flexes his 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 that moves at a slow pace.

It all starts off as a routine love story. In a new trend for Hindi films, Love Story 2050 is not based in India but in Australia. Here Priyanka is at the race track watching boys bike their way to glory. Predictably, she challenges one to win.

Again, predictably, that is the hero who goes on to win. That sets the stereotypical love affair rolling.

Soon we have the hero chasing her all over — stadiums, malls, railway stations… Phew! How can one be so predictable?

There is a twist but nothing new. Just a reiteration of something that has been tried, tested and used innumerable times in the past.

She has promised him a kiss. He is on one side of the road, she on the other with an ice cream in hand. In comes the traffic… You don’t need to be a Nostradamus to know where the film will head: the girl gets killed, the hero still pines for her. Enter time machine, enter 2050. Enter the girl again. Yippie!

Sad. It is a film that taxes your patience. Despite some novelty with the robots, the film falls flat.

Forgettable music, a 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.

ZUS

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