General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Love Aaj Kal (लव आज कल) (2009 film)

Love Aaj Kal (लव आज कल) is a 2009 Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama written and directed by Imtiaz Ali, released on 31 July 2009, that tells two parallel love stories set in the present day and in the 1960s¹^•². It stars Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone as the contemporary couple, with Rishi Kapoor as the older narrator figure, and was the first production of Saif Ali Khan's company Illuminati Films, made with Eros Entertainment¹^•³. The film was a major commercial success, recording an India net total of ₹665.6 million (₹66.56 crore) against a production budget of ₹420 million (₹42 crore)⁴^•⁵.

Key fact	Detail
Release	31 July 2009 (Hindi; romance and drama)¹
Director and writer	Imtiaz Ali⁶
Lead cast	Saif Ali Khan as Jai Vardhan Singh and Veer Singh; Deepika Padukone as Meera Pandit; Rishi Kapoor as the older Veer Singh; Giselli Monteiro as Harleen Kaur⁶^•⁷
Producers	Saif Ali Khan and Dinesh Vijan, under Illuminati Films and Eros Entertainment¹
Music	Pritam Chakraborty, Salim Merchant, Sulaiman Merchant, and Daboo Malik⁶
Budget	₹420 million (₹42 crore), approximately ₹480 million (₹48 crore) including print and advertising costs⁵
India net box office	₹665.6 million (₹66.56 crore) lifetime; ₹80.2 million (₹8.02 crore) on opening day⁴

Spoilers

Story and structure

Box Office Mojo sums up the plot as follows: a romantic of the old school recounts his own love story to a contemporary young man fresh from a breakup with his girlfriend, posing the question of whether love has truly ever changed.⁶ Netflix's synopsis places the parallel stories of long-distance love in 2009 and in 1965².

In the present-day strand, Jai (Saif Ali Khan) and Meera (Deepika Padukone) are a couple living in London who part ways because their career goals pull them in different directions; Meera decides to shift to India⁸^•⁹. As she leaves, Jai meets Veer Singh, a Punjabi restaurateur who describes his own love story and tries to convince Jai to follow his heart⁸. The flashback strand follows the young Veer and Harleen in 1960s Delhi: he follows her rickshaw on his bicycle in Purani Dilli, and she notices her smitten Sikh suitor with a downcast eye and a demure smile¹⁰.

The Indian Express reviewer Shubhra Gupta, rating the film 3 out of 5, described it as shuttling between the two time zones of 'aaj' (today) and 'kal' (yesterday or tomorrow) as the twin sets of lovers ricochet between cities and conviction, with locations in London, Delhi, Calcutta, and San Francisco¹⁰. Her review judged the contemporary pair's relationship to be written more like friendship than ardour, noting that there was more longing in the older Veer's voice when he spoke of Harleen than in all the exchanges between Jai and Meera¹⁰.

Production and music

Love Aaj Kal was the maiden venture of Saif Ali Khan's Illuminati Productions, made in association with Eros Entertainment, and produced by Saif Ali Khan and Dinesh Vijan¹^•³. Imtiaz Ali served as both director and writer, with Natarajan Subramaniam as cinematographer and Aarti Bajaj as editor⁶.

The music was composed by Pritam Chakraborty, with Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant providing the background score and Daboo Malik credited with background music⁶^•¹⁷. A Dawn review noted that Punjabi beats and lyrics dominate the album, reflecting the Punjabi heritage emphasized in the film's 'kal' segment³.

Box office

The film opened to what the trade described as a stupendous start across multiplexes, with prominent multiplexes running 20 to 28 shows a day; first-day business was strong at multiplexes though weaker at single screens⁵. It collected approximately 650,000 Dirhams on its first day in the UAE, higher than the competing Kambakkht Ishq, and its Thursday night shows in Pakistan also outperformed that film⁵.

Per Bollywood Hungama's compiled figures, the film earned ₹80.2 million (₹8.02 crore) net on its opening day, ₹278.6 million (₹27.86 crore) by the end of the opening weekend, and ₹428 million (₹42.80 crore) in its first week, for a lifetime India net total of ₹665.6 million (₹66.56 crore) and an India gross of ₹853.3 million (₹85.33 crore)⁴. Overseas gross was ₹308.9 million (₹30.89 crore), giving a worldwide gross of ₹1.162 billion (₹116.22 crore) by that compilation⁴; Box Office India lists a somewhat higher worldwide gross of ₹1.195 billion (₹119.51 crore) and classifies the film as a hit¹¹. In the United States it grossed $2,430,083, with an opening weekend of $1,241,762 across 102 theaters¹². The Indian Express reported that the film's first three days generated ₹280 million (₹28 crore) net, placing it high in the year's box-office rankings after Ghajini¹³.

Reception and legacy

Contemporary reviews were broadly positive. Dawn's review called the film a lesson for those who think a commercial film cannot be classy or meaningful, praising its intelligent scene-division, witty dialogue, and performances by Saif Ali Khan, Rishi Kapoor, and Giselli Monteiro¹⁴. Rediff's box-office report noted that the film worked in multiplexes, with Saif's performance, the unique story, and the music cited as strengths, while the second half was criticized as an over-melodramatic drag¹⁵.

The film's standing has endured in retrospective discussion of Imtiaz Ali's work, and it was remade, also under the title Love Aaj Kal and also directed by Ali, with Sara Ali Khan and Kartik Aaryan, released on 14 February 2020¹⁶. Trade commentary at the time of the remake noted that the new version failed to impress audiences in comparison with Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone's 2009 original¹⁶.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026