As director Imtiaz Ali brings back his 2009 film Love Aaj Kal on Valentine’s Day tomorrow with a story of “today’s love”, The Woods got thinking about some of our favourite romances which could do with a makeover, or at least a “today’s twist”.
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
You either swear by Raj and Simran or swear at Raj & Simran and the entire motley crew that made up this film 25 years ago. So, let’s change things up. First, no Simran will get stranded with a Raj these days unless she really wants to. Uber and Google Maps to the rescue, always. The tale of a mischief-maker falling in love with the quiet girl and rushing to her in India can well be changed — a road trip through Europe where the two fall in love and the girl takes the boy to her “bauji” back home. Woman power, all the way. We get to feast on the same beautiful frames of Europe and this Raj & Simran get a happy ending without Raj getting walloped on a train platform in the middle of nowhere by the big, bad guys.
You’ve Got Mail
You can’t not but love this film about warring bookstore owners by the day, and Net-pals by night. But in this day, hardly anyone gets by without a steady supply of Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and not to mention Kindle. How about today’s Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox — still warring — trying to get back readers out of their websites and into bookstores by the day? By night, meaning to get one-up on the “enemy” they slyly check each other’s social media accounts and actually find the other to be a loveable person, albeit in the other aisle. And who knows, maybe both find each other on Tinder as well. Swipe right, we say, and live happily ever after with Brinkley the dog still yapping away.
Roman Holiday
A princess runs off from duty and assignments for a day, runs into a journalist hunting for a story — does the end need to be bittersweet with the two walking away with memories and not each other! Surely, today, they can date having met through mutual friends, introduce each other to their families, royal and otherwise, and get married in a beautiful ceremony. Feels close to reality, enough, for a royal couple? We think so.
Hum Tum
If Imtiaz Ali can rethink one of his own Saif Ali Khan starrers, so can we. Cartoons Hum and Tum are still fighting today, after 16 years, and Karan & Rhea are still in love. Their daughter is a teenager, in high school, sitting next to the same baby boy who was in the cot next to her in the hospital. The kids can have their own like-hate-love-hate-love story set over the next 10 years to finally find happiness with each other. Like Rhea and Karan, a.k.a. “Hum Tum 2”, or like Zoe and Veer, who we’ll meet this Valentine’s Day.
