Love Aaj Kal

Star(s): Deepika Padukone, Saif Ali Khan, Rishi Kapoor, Rahul Khanna, Giselli Monteiro
Songs/Dance: The song ‘Dooriyan’ was shot in several locations in London. ‘Twist’ was shot in Leadenhall Market and a night club in London.
Indian/ International Crew: Production design at London has been credited to Andrew Munro. The credits of the film carry names of several crew members across departments and a list of vendors who supplied services to the production team in London. These include suppliers for junior artistes, dancers, and musicians, secondary and extra casting agents, casting agents, walkie talkie suppliers, and transport.
Language: Hindi
Executive Producer/Line Producer Executive Producers: Andrew Heffernan, Kamlesh Kumar, Shwetanjali Rai Line Producers (London): Chris Martin and Ellott Meddings
Director/Producer Director: Imtiaz Ali, Produced by Illuminati Films and Maddock Films

Film Location Analysis

By Shikha Jhingan

In Love Aaj Kal, London becomes the site for conversations between two generations of Indian men on their diametrically opposed perspectives on love and commitment to relationships. Imtiaz Ali gives us a cosmopolitan and trendy view of London as a place of consumption and youthful interactions between men and women as equal partners who make decisions about the course of their lives without any family involvement. Surprisingly, Jai never speaks about his parents or extended family. In this regard, Veer Singh becomes like a friendly surrogate father for him.

The youthful, free-spirited character of Jai is identified with London’s nightclubs, shopping arcades, dance bars, and diverse community. Jai’s mobility and his desire to travel are highlighted through his attire, swagger, cool attitude towards friends, and his car. The restaurant where he hangs out with his friends is a youth-friendly place with pan-Asian decor and is shown as ‘The Chowk, Eastman Colour.’ When Jai and Meera break up with each other, they decide that they must invite friends for a breakup party. This scene was shot at the Carlton Mitre Hotel in Kingston. In another sequence, we see Jai at Rivington Street, Shoreditch, London, where his office is located.

Several outdoor locations also help to foreground Jai’s cool attitude. The song ‘Twist’ opens with a shot of Jai driving in his red convertible. The radio jockey from Sunrise Radio Station introduces the track. As Jai starts jiving, the rhythm and groove of the songs get amplified. He stops at a traffic signal, and we see the occupants of the car next to him also grooving to the song. Jai turns up the volume, acknowledging the other listeners as they start swaying to the beat. The cars start moving, and we cut to the Leadenhall Market where a DJ is tuning up his machine; the camera now zooms out to show a collage of moving bodies with the performers dressed in colourful clothes as jokers, samba queens, opera singers, traffic boys and girls, Greek theatre performers, Bhangra dancers, as well as hip-hop dancers. In the second half of the song, the scene shifts to a nightclub, where we see Jai hanging out with his friends. This was shot at Cafe De Paris in London. In the behind-the-scenes video of this song released by the production company on YouTube, Bosco-Caesar informs the viewers that the dancers for the film were hired from different parts of the world, including Jamaica, Morocco, France, and Spain.

The sequence is important as it is where Jai meets Jo (Florence Brudenell-Bruce), an English woman, and they start seeing each other. The disinterest in this new relationship, however, coexists with his desire to know more about his surrogate father’s past romantic life and an inquisitiveness about Meera. Though Jai is physically present in London, his interest seems to be geared towards India, where Meera now resides.

An important scene in the film was shot at Heathrow Airport in London, where Jai goes to bid his farewell to Meera on Veer Singh’s insistence. As Meera leaves, Jai asks Veer about his romantic story. The airport becomes a liminal space where Veer tells Jai about his youthful days. The flashback takes us to Delhi, where we see an impassioned romance brewing between Veer and Harleen (Giselli Monteiro). Veer tells Jai that he could do anything just to catch a glimpse of the girl he loved, even though he was not sure if she even cared for him. The thread of Veer and Harleen’s story is again picked up at his open-air restaurant in London, where we see Veer and Jai framed against a bridge. This leads us to another flashback.

Bridges, airports, markets, and parking lots in London are important sites that are explored as settings for the narrative. In a sequence, when Jai is talking to Meera on the phone from his place, we get to see his bachelor pad with unusually slanted geometric patterns and a modern setting. Like Jai’s own life, London emerges as a liminal space that will ultimately lead him back to India to seek Meera.