... But I Luv Love Stories ... My Thoughts on I Hate Luv Stories

...It's films like this that remind me why I love Bollywood so much...

***SPOILERS***

As Simran {IHLS} says, "...यह फ़िल्मी दुनिया, रोमांटिक कहानिया ..."  This is everything I have come to love, obsesses, and expect from Bollywood films.  Of course the occasional thriller, comedy, and drama grab my attention...but what I have gotten from these films is exactly that...the melodramatic love stories that have filled my world with fantasies and possibilities.  Obviously I never expect any Raj + Simran, a la DDLJ, type of romance to occur in my life, but the possibility of it is what makes these films so inviting, exciting, and just plain addicting.

Now onto I Hate Luv Storys, I really enjoyed this film, but let's be honest who doesn't love romantic comedies???  Especially when you have a fresh jodi like Imran and Sonam. IHLS is the story of a girl, Simran {Sonam Kapoor}, who is infatuated with love stories.  Simran whom is also living a real life fairy tale life with the perfect boyfriend, romance, and life.   

Unlike J {Imran Khan} who is of course the total opposite of her, who hates the type of love stories that are recycled for audiences over and over, and Gasp! he doesn't believe in love!  I know...how shocking!  Of course like in every love story opposites always have a way of attracting each other, and this story is no different.  

But I think that what made this film just a little different from other romantic films are the clear references they make to classic love stories that most of the audience has grown up with.  Yes, i've read some of the negative reviews that say that because most of the DDLJ types of refrences made in the film don't work is because they are so overused nowadays thanks to film camps like Yash Raj and of course Karan Johar's Dharma Productions.  

Maybe it's just me, but every time I get a reference to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai or any similar film I squeal like a school girl, just because I got it!  Plus!  I was so glad I had seen Sholay just days prior to watching this film...I  got all the Gabbar and Dhanno references!!!

{P.S. The only thing that really ticked me off during the film was the fact that songs had no subtitles!  Arg! I Live for English subs!!!}


My Top 3 Moments in the Film:

3.  The very beginning was already an indicator that I was gonna really enjoy this film.  The narrator was none other than the King of Romance himself, Shahrukh.  Not only that there was a sort of mini montage of different scenes from some of the most romantic films such as: DDLJ, Fanaa, etc.  Khan's voice help set the mood!

2.  When J follows Simran with the little fan.  There's this moment after meeting, J and Simran become friends and start hanging out and blah blah, but there's this super cute moment during the song, Jab Mila Tu, where J does all these typical filmi gags, and of course one of those is the wind blowing the girls hair.  Which is a super classic move!  

1.  As Raj said in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, "...you have seen enough Hindi films to know that a girl and a guy can never be friends.  After friendship comes love, pyaar, ishq, mohabbat."   So of course J eventually falls for Simran, follows the very same stereotypes of those romantic stories he loves to hate.  He has this daydream sequence in which he sings a song.  What makes this so funny is how he finally accepts that he in fact is in love and went through all these stereotypes in order to finally figure out that yes, he is in fact in love.