Film

Love Aaj Kal

Name: Love Aaj Kal
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 2009
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Rishi Kapoor, Rahul Khanna, Giselli Monteiro

Other titles called Love Aaj Kal: the 2020 film.

Romance

A romantic comedy that toggles between two love stories—one modern, one from the 1960s—exploring whether love changes across generations or stays fundamentally the same. It's visually lush, emotionally messy, and deeply invested in the question of whether ambition and love can coexist. For anyone who's felt torn between their heart and their dreams.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy romances built on wistful memory and the bittersweet ache of choices made too young, with a playful, song-filled warmth that lets heartbreak breathe.

Skip it if you want a tight, fast romance; at 128 minutes it wanders, and its nostalgia and musical interludes can feel indulgent if you come for quick emotional payoffs.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a little over two hours, with the patience to let two timelines unspool at a gentle pace, and a willingness to be sentimental without apology.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Jab We Met2007

A road-trip romance with similarly fractured timelines and a protagonist learning what they actually want. Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor have genuine chemistry, and it finds real tenderness in romantic confusion without getting sentimental.

But The resolution feels pat, and it traffics in the same Bollywood relationship patterns that Love Aaj Kal does—which means if those frustrate you here, they will there too.

The Fault in Our Stars2014

Two young people grapple with whether love survives when the world is actively working against it. It's funny, heartbreaking, and takes both characters' ambitions and fears seriously instead of forcing one to sacrifice for the other.

But The emotional gut-punch is deliberate and sustained—this is not a feel-good movie dressed up as one. If you need your romance light, step back.

Cocktail2012

Another Saif Ali Khan romance about a man caught between two versions of himself and two very different women. It's glossier and more conventionally structured, but shares the DNA of questioning what commitment actually means.

But It's significantly more conventional than Love Aaj Kal, which means if you wanted something messier and more philosophically ambitious, this smooths over the rough edges.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Love Aaj Kal

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Before Sunrise1995

Both films are structured around the idea that the real drama of love isn't the meeting or the breaking up, but the endless internal argument about whether ambition and partnership can coexist. Both trust dialogue and stillness over action.

Two strangers meet on a train and spend one night talking through every possible angle of whether love and life can align. It's almost entirely dialogue, and it's the purest distillation of what Love Aaj Kal is trying to examine—less romance, more philosophy. Linklater treats the question with real seriousness.

But There's no plot in the traditional sense—if you need incident and resolution, you'll be frustrated. It's just two people talking for eighty minutes.

Kalank2019

A period romance with the same visual ambition and emotional entanglement across timelines. It's interested in how class and circumstance shape love, and the ensemble cast does real work with conflicted characters.

But At nearly two hours fifty, it's exhausting in stretches, and some of the emotional threads get tangled rather than resolved. Your patience will be tested.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani2013

A romance that actually cares about both people's individual goals and whether they can want the same future. It's funny, gorgeous to look at, and Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone feel like real people making real choices.

But The second half softens its edge—if you want a romance that stays uncomfortable and unresolved, this eventually chooses comfort.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil2016

Karan Johar's most honest film about the gap between who we love and who we can actually be with. It's painterly, melancholic, and refuses easy answers about whether love conquers practical reality.

But It's genuinely sad in places—emotionally taxing rather than escapist. Some viewers find it self-indulgent; you have to be patient with its grief.

Bachna Ae Haseeno2008

A sharper, funnier take on the same era of Bollywood romance. It's lighter than Love Aaj Kal but with enough emotional intelligence to keep it grounded, and the three-woman structure gives the film multiple perspectives on what love means.

But The gender dynamics are dated even for 2008—women exist partly as lessons the male lead needs to learn, which will irritate if you're already frustrated by that in Love Aaj Kal.

Dor2006

A period film that's genuinely about two women's agency and choice in a world that doesn't offer them much. It's tender without being soft, and it asks harder questions about sacrifice and love than most Bollywood romances.

But It's slower and quieter than you might expect. If you want the sparkle and music of mainstream Bollywood, this strips much of it away.

Raanjhanaa2013

A small-town romance that asks what happens when love is one-sided and whether it can survive if it has to change shape. It's emotionally frank in ways Bollywood usually isn't, and Kunaal Roy Kapur is superb.

But The first half drags, and some viewers find the emotional manipulation heavy-handed. It takes a while to earn what it's asking of you.

(500) Days of Summer2009

Both use fractured timelines and parallel love stories to ask whether the problem is the relationship or the people—and whether knowing the answer helps at all.

Released the same year, this is what happens when you make a romance that refuses to let either person off the hook. It's funny, painful, and genuinely about how two people can love each other and still be incompatible. The structure jumps around time like Love Aaj Kal, but to say something darker.

But The male lead is sometimes unbearable—the film knows it and doesn't apologize, which some viewers experience as the movie endorsing his behavior rather than critiquing it. If you need to like your protagonist, leave.

Rang De Basanti2006

Like Love Aaj Kal, it's structured around the collision between youthful idealism and adult compromise, using parallel timelines and multiple kinds of love to ask whether you have to choose between your principles and your happiness.

An Aamir Khan film that's ostensibly about a documentary-within-the-film but is actually about idealism meeting the world and asking what you sacrifice when you grow up. It's energetic, angry, and genuinely argues with itself about what love (romantic, patriotic, fraternal) actually costs.

But The second half shifts into political thriller territory, which some find tonally jarring. It's also long and tries to do several things at once—not all of them equally.