I Hate Luv Stories Review

There have been two movies which released with high expectations – ‘Raavan/Raavanan’ & ‘I Hate Love Stories’. The former came from a proven stable, and so had high expectations and the latter although not comparable; did have a small amount of expectations on it. The expectations ought to be high. However, the public hated the movie but I liked it. Most of the arguments have been covered in this blog and this one. I am not denying the fact that there are no flaws in it. There are numerous numbers of flaws one can spot in that movie. Despite all that I loved the movie and so did I like ‘I hate love stories’. Let me re-iterate – Like not Love 😀 and I liked the movie because of the story only!

There is a saying that “Don’t judge the books by its cover”. However this movies title attracted me much and so did the beautiful soundtrack. However, I didn’t heed to it. I did wait for the feedbacks and reviews. Initial feedbacks suggested that it was trash. However later on I did get some good reviews. Not great ones though. I decided to see it on my own and make my own view.

It is a cliché movie, filled with obvious things. If you see the trailers, you get the complete story. It’s all about a simple girl falling in love with a jerk who doesn’t value love, despite her being engaged to ‘The Prefect Guy’ . No points for guessing that the guy also falls in love with her. What is the problem with the story? Well this is a little different. How come such a story filled with lovely songs is hated by all? The makers committed the same mistake that was done by the makers of ‘Love Aaj Kal’. Much bigger one this time! I would call it bigger this time because they didn’t learn from the mistakes committed in ‘Love Aaj Kal’.

The most essential and the core ingredient involved in making a movie are the actors. The casting director has done the same mistake here also. Wait! Is there such a concept in India? Well, I must say a big NO! This is the age when all the big studios of Hollywood are flocking to India. When will Bollywood grow up from the craze of Big stars! Imran Khan as well as Sonam Kapoor killed the movie. In case of ‘Love Aaj Kal’ it was just Deepika Padukone who killed it. This time, however there is company. This is not a movie that runs with great dialogues and sceneries. This is a movie that is all about subtleness and ‘feel’ factor. If the actors can’t impart that, then the movie falls flat.

The movie was devoid of faff and was straight to the point. The dialogues, scenes, setting and songs were ok. However the garnishing which is the important part was missing. It was not rocket science that was being shown. It is something that can happen to anyone including you and me. This is a movie that came from a production house that has slowly started moving from the cliché love stories. They have given us some good movies like ‘My Name is Khan’, ‘Dostana’, ‘Wake up Sid’. Forgive them for the ‘K’ series movies. I guess we can forgive them this time as it is the fault of the actors.

Coming to the supporting cast, there are only two (can be three) actors involved. The first one being Samir Soni, who is well known in soaps. He is also devoid of emotions and matches the lead actors in ‘hopelessness’. There is Samir Dattani as Sonam’s fiancé who is just about ok in the limited role. The star of the movie is Kavin Dave whom we know from the Sprite ads. He is the same as in the sprite ads, goofy. His role is limited but he catches the attention well.

That leaves us to the lead actors – Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor. Both have god fathers and have films in their genes. Both are young. However, they have to grow a lot. They have screen presence, but once they open their mouth they cause terrible damage. They can’t emote nor can they deliver the dialogues properly. I have seen actors grow up over the time and becoming better. I would give them the benefit of doubt.

To sum up, ‘I hate love stories’ is a movie which is technically perfect. Good story, decent lines, nice locales and awesome music; which takes the score to 3.5 on 5.  The 2.5 of this goes to Punit Malhotra and his team. 1 complete point goes to Vishal – Shekhar for the wonderful and memorable music. However, the shoddy casting and the pathetic acting drags the rating down to 2 on 5. I would recommend you to watch this movie when you are free on cable or on DVD.

Final Rating: 2/5