Movie Review : Love Story 2050

Love Story 2050 (romance)

Cast: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra

Direction: Harry Baweja 



PRIYANKA Chopra makes a promise to boyfriend Harman Baweja in India's first full blown sci-fi film. She promises to give him a thandi-thandi kiss after feasting on some strawberry ice cream. Well, the kiss never happens -- the ice cream's bumped out of her hands -- and all that we are left with is a thandi-thandi film.



There is no passion, no action, no jaadu in this mega-budgeted futuristic love story. Even the special effects are more of the picture postcard variety -- vignettes from the future, where the Mumbai skyline is dotted with pink and purple highrises, flying cars, sky buses, shell houses and the sci-fi menagerie comprises a pink teddy bear, a female robot, a Harman-look alike evil android and a poor cousin of Darth Vader (was that Gulshan Grover behind the iron mask?). Of course, there's the old-fashioned oval time machine, chauffeured by a buffoonish Boman Irani with a bad hair day, as he push-buttons our hero to Mumbai 2050.



And thank God for that! For the only thing that works in favour of the film is the gawk factor. Curiosity about the futuristic vision does make for a few compelling moments, post-interval. Specially since the first half is a soppy tale of two lovers who swear eternal love that is abruptly cut short by a banal accident. Desperate lover boy follows his dear departed into the next janam where she's a red-haired diva, with a terrible dress sense, entertaining the world from the Mumbai skies. Of course she's forgotten him, but he's brought her old janam's diary along. So that, all it takes is a few flips of the dog-eared pages to rekindle the thanda-thanda flame.



Harman may have hogged the headlines for his Hrithik-like dance moves and resemblance. Ironically, he doesn't seem to have a Hrithik-like dream debut ( Kaho Naa Pyar Hai ). The actor actually struggles in the small emotional bits, while Priyanka Chopra displays nothing of her characteristic on-screen verve. Finally, it's the zero storyline that works against this sigh-fi film.