This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on March 6, 2012.
Despite my best intentions to see as many of this year’s Hindi language releases as possible, London, Paris, New York was the film I honestly thought about skipping. I actually don’t mind romantic comedies, but after seeing a whole series of them in the month of February (Hindi as well as other language films), I found myself really longing for something with a little more substance to it. As anyone who has heard my whining all over Twitter can attest to, the film I really wanted to see last weekend was Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar (featuring a Casa Totally Filmi favorite, Irrfan Khan). Alas, Paan Singh Tomar didn’t see a release here, so off Mr. Totally Filmi and I went to London, Paris, New York.
And if I’m honest? There was a good long moment when I wondered if I should have bothered. The film took a while to grow on me, getting off to a bit of a shaky start, with some eye-roll worthy dialogues and moments early on, not to mention a performance by Ali Zafar that had me feeling he was just trying too hard. Top it off with the fact that although I liked the music, I didn’t like the picturisations (I found them intrusive and would have preferred the songs just as part of the background score), and I felt the transitions between the different city segments somewhat awkwardly written.
But you know what? I’m not sure when it was or how it happened, but the film grew on me. Whether it was the delightful conversations between the film’s two leads, or the interesting arc their characters take, slowly I found myself entirely engaged, and willing to be incredibly forgiving about the things I didn’t love about the film.
London, Paris, New York tells the story of Nikhil (Ali Zafar) and Lalitha (Aditi Rao Hydari) who meet at the airport in London after Lalitha has missed her connecting flight to New York. The two start chatting, hit it off, and when Lalitha’s plan to stay with a friend (to save on hotel money) falls through, Nikhil suggests they stash their luggage and spend the night seeing the sights.
Despite the fact that the two of them couldn’t be more opposite – she is naive, bookish and idealistic, heading to New York to study politics, he is a free-wheeling charmer on his way to film school — the two of them, perhaps bolstered by the fact that they are alone together, free of family constraints, share their ambitions and thoughts as they make their way around London, and end up – if not falling in love, realizing they are very much attracted to one another. Lalitha doesn’t see the point of a long-distance relationship; but Nikhil impulsively buys himself a ticket to New York – in six months, he’ll come to New York to see Lalitha, and only asks that she meet him at the airport. The two kiss, and set off their separate ways.
But something happens, and Nikhil never makes that trip to New York. A couple of years later, however, he hears that Lalitha is in Paris on an exchange programme, and he sets out to find her. Their meeting starts out a little rocky – each of them has changed in the intervening years, and Lalitha – previously naive and a little homespun — is in full épanouissement, as they say in Paris. She’s traded her plait for a stylish haircut, and her simple clothes for sexy ones. Gone is the girl who couldn’t kiss Nikhil in London – this Lalitha is more rebellious, more powerful — she takes Nikhil to bed, and then promptly dumps him and walks out of his life again.
The film’s final section in New York finds Nikhil and Lalitha a few years on again, both of them changed and, it seems, more matured . Nikhil has finally made a film that matters to him; Lalitha has abandoned her wild child ways and is preparing to get married and move back to Mumbai and start an NGO. Once again, they spend a night together in New York, and once again, Lalitha prepares to move on and get on with her life, much to the distress of Nikhil, who is in love with her.
And that scene, on the Hudson River, where Nikhil pours out his heartbreak at the thought of Lalitha walking away from him once more – that scene right there took the film from one that was growing on me to a film I really liked and felt I’d perhaps underestimated a little. Up until that moment, I wasn’t really sure how I felt about Nikhil – sure, he was charming, but I wasn’t sure there was more to him than that. What that scene made me realize was that despite everything, Nikhil really did love Lalitha, had never stopped loving her no matter what she’d done to him, and on top of it, she inspired him to grow as a person, to stop running away and to take responsibility, to be true to himself, and to finally make something of his life that mattered to him.
And that scene also made me realize how interesting a character Lalitha was. Aditi Rao Hydari takes her from wide-eyed girl to a rebellious and refreshingly sexual being (whether using her sexuality to get back at Nikhil for what she sees as his infidelity is appropriate or mature is beside the point – she’s also an active and willing partner to him and totally unapologetic about it) to maturing woman. And yet, as we discover, Lalitha is far from a perfect heroine devoted to her hero. In fact, we discover that she’s capable of being very immature and very wrong in her dealings with Nikhil — he calls her a tease, and in some ways, he’s not wrong. Perhaps she’s not always aware of how her behaviour is affecting Nikhil, but she is at times kind of egotistical, assuming she’s the one who has been wronged and never considering Nikhil’s feelings or his point of view until he finally pours his heart out to her in New York.
London, Paris, New York isn’t a perfect film – but it’s an interesting debut from writer/director Anu Menon. Menon gave me two characters I actually came to care about, flaws and all (and I suspect I cared about them more simply because they *were* flawed); some remarkably pitch perfect moments; and one incredibly refreshing female character. And of all the romantic comedies I’ve watched in the last month, London, Paris, New York was by far the one that grew on me the most. Perfect? No. Interesting? Definitely.
Edited to add: go check out Dolce and Namak’s excellent analysis of London, Paris, New York. While writing up the film, I’d already been thinking I need to see it again, but that piece on the film convinced me that I do.