Up In The Air
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00:00 Outlook brings to you excerpts from its latest issue titled "Love Virtually".
00:05 Ahead of Valentine's Day, Outlook's latest issue explores the many kinds of love,
00:10 from online dating for the youth and dating for the elderly,
00:14 to the otherworldly and unrequited love.
00:17 The issue also looks at how the concept of love has evolved
00:22 at a time when the divide between communities of different faiths is widened by politics.
00:28 "Up in the Air" by Satish Padmanabhan from Outlook,
00:32 in which she talks about the film "Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan".
00:35 The film is about today's youngsters and the smartphone.
00:38 So many apps to chat, to share, to make friends and yet, such lonely lives.
00:44 "Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan" is said to be the Dil Chahata Hai from 2001,
00:49 of Gen Z, or whatever they are called now.
00:51 Should it be Gen Zero, they contain everything and nothing.
00:55 20 years ago, with India well into the economic reforms era,
01:00 Dil Chahata Hai tried to mirror the ambition, confusion
01:03 and the emotional atyachar of the youth of that time.
01:06 Well, at least a certain kind of youth, South Bombay,
01:10 with a penchant for designer clothes, hip sun shades and sharp haircuts.
01:15 Now the characters of "Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan" are Dil Chahata Hai stars Aamir Khan
01:20 and Saif Ali Khan's children's age.
01:22 And grappling with the same confusion and torment of growing up,
01:26 but with one big difference,
01:28 the smartphone and the many social media apps loaded in them.
01:33 The film devotes a lot of screen time to frenetic fingers sliding on a smartphone screen.
01:39 It's the same gang which has made this film too.
01:42 Farhan Akhtar was the director there, he is the producer here.
01:46 Along with a pair of Zoya Akhtar, casting director in Dil Chahata Hai,
01:51 and Reema Kakpi, the golden girls of OTT in India,
01:55 Made in Heaven, Dahar, The Archies.
01:58 The lyrics are by Javed Akhtar for both films.
02:01 Works from this table, Dil Chahata Hai, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, rock on.
02:06 Let's call it the Akhtarverse.
02:08 Come with a certain quality assurance, of certain sensibilities,
02:13 but also a certain predictability.
02:15 The envelope pushed within decent limits, but always short of breaking out.
02:20 Scratches on the surface, but never a deep cut.
02:23 The actors are easy on the eye, the sets lovingly designed.
02:28 The lighting always moody, the camera unobtrusively recording it all.
02:33 The music foot tapping, the songs here may grow on you,
02:37 but Dil Chahata Hai had more alluring numbers.
02:40 Ahana, played by Ananya Pandey,
02:42 Imad, played by Siddhan Chaturvedi,
02:45 and Neel, played by Adarsh Gaurav, are childhood friends.
02:49 And BFFs now.
02:51 Their second names are Singh, Ali and Parera.
02:54 But that they are like Amar, Akbar, Anthony is incidental,
02:58 not germane to the script.
03:00 Ahana is an MBA type, slogging away in a corporate cubicle,
03:04 where her original presentations are suitably stolen by her superior.
03:09 Imad is a stand-up comic, though it doesn't seem he needs some money to survive.
03:14 His generally well-off, his mother who died when he was nine, has left him a tidy fortune.
03:20 Ahana and Imad also share a house.
03:22 Neel comes from a poorer background,
03:25 but lives in an equally well-designed and appropriately lit house.
03:29 His father's tight tees and mother's house coats only hint at their middle-class lives.
03:35 The three are carefree, just goofing around,
03:38 all taking baby steps into their careers and adulthood.
03:43 For this and more, read the latest issue of Outlook.