Shahid Kapoor praises Saif Ali Khan

If Saif Ali Khan put a step forward to bury the hatchet between them Shahid Kapoor is not to be left behind. In a recent interview the Kaminey actor said that he had loved Saif's performance in Love Aaj Kal. Recently Saif had praised Shahid Kapoor and called him an immensely talented actor. This comes nearly two years after Kareena Kapoor dumped Shahid and hooked up with Saif.

Asked to compare between Vishal Bhardwaj Omkara and Kaminey, Shahid candidly said Omkara was phenomenal movie where as Kaminey was Vishal's first commercial venture. Shahid also added that Saif was brilliant with his performance in Omkara. Well seems like one major Cold War in Bollywood is finally coming to an end.

Saif Ali Khan wants to patch-up with Shahid Kapur!

Saif Ali Khan is riding the crest now as his debut production Love Aaj Kal has been received well. But instead of resting on his laurels, the actor-turned-producer says he finds a huge change in him.

He is no longer anxious about 'rival' film Kaminey releasing soon. "My film has already worked. I don't want to sound false, but now I realise that in the past I might have made an irresponsible comment of having been offered a role in Kaminey. But the fact is, I was not. Vishal (Bhardwaj) had just mentioned the film to me. I don't want it to be a personal battle any longer. We are all not friends (him, Vishal and Shahid Kapoor, hero of Kaminey) for obvious reasons but I do think Vishal is a fantastic director. I have only heard good things about Shahid, from others and also from Kareena. He is a strong boy. I have learnt early in life that one cannot benefit from someone else's failure."

Saif candidly admits that he has gone through some of the worst phases of insecurity but those are a thing of the past. "When Kunal Kapoor or any other director I have worked with didn't repeat me, there was a sense of insecurity. In the 18 years of my career, I have gone through angst. But now it doesn't matter. Like when Siddharth (Anand) opted for Ranbir Kapoor in his next film, I no longer felt bad, probably because I was successful doing my own production. I had the confidence to wish him best," he says.
There is one more major transformation in Saif's life. "I've become more Buddhist in my approach to my career. I realise that if I am doing well now, it's only a part of the cycle. This is transitory."

And Saif nurses a secret dream: "I want to lead the life my father (Mansoor Ai Khan Pataudi) does. He has been top of his game but he knew when to walk away and how much of it to take seriously. I absolutely adore his approach towards life. Not many know that my father has been the strongest influence on me. He is a tiger and it has always been his rules that he lived by."

It's unfair to compare Deepika with Kareena, says Saif

Actor Saif Ali Khan debut as a producer Love Aaj Kal hit the screen last Friday (July 31). Though movie has earned mixed reviews from viewers, it has definitely made a mark at the box office.

CNN-IBN's Rohit Khilnani talks to Saif about the movie and his future plans. Here is an excerpt from the interview -

Rohit Khilnani: You must have learnt so many things after producing Love Aaj Kal , is there something you feel you could have done in a different way?

Saif Ali Khan: There are two major things that I have learnt. First one is the importance of budgeting and the second thing is choosing the right director to work with.

Rohit Khilnani: When I am talking to other actors they are telling me that Saif is choosing his directors very carefully and smartly.

Saif Ali Khan: I think there aren’t so many directors to work with. Sriram Raghavan is the next director I am excited to work with next and Imtiaz was a fantastic experience.

Rohit Khilnani: I was trying for an interview with your mother (Sharmila Tagore) the other day but she said she is going to watch Love Aaj Kal. Tell us what did she say?

Saif Ali Khan: She is liking my work of late. For the last two years she has been very supportive and she was happy watching Love Aaj Kal.

Rohit Khilnani: Professionally, Deepika has worked wonders in the film but personally any point did you feel that Kareena could have been in the film and this scene she would have done a great job?

Saif Ali Khan: I think it is unfair to compare like this. Deepika is new and she has done remarkably well in the film. Kareena is on another level as an actor so there are many things she would have done differently.

Saifeena in no rush for shaadi!

Kareena Kapoor has been spending a lot of quality time with Saif Ali Khan. “I’ve been living in and out of suitcases. It’s so hectic,” she says.

Bebo was with Saif in Jaipur for a day and a half, then Delhi where he attended the premiere with his heroine, but she stayed back in the hotel room. Her logic is simple: She didn’t want to steal Saifu’s thunder.

Kareena also spent a day with Saif's parents the Nawab of Pataudi, Mansoor Ali Khan and his mother Sharmila Tagore. However, both Saif and Kareena are dead against this constant insinuation that the only thing discussed at such family interactions is their marriage. While it is deeply acknowledged that Saifina will eventually tie the knot, both are not in favour of shaadi talk all the time.

“I got married the first time around when I was 21,” says Saif adding, “because everyone around felt it was so cool for me to be married. This time around neither Bebo nor I are going to rush into anything. We’re together, and that’s blissful enough.” Well the marriage pundits had better learn to hold their horses...

Saifeena ready for Marriage?

Bollywood's most talked about hot couple Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan are in no rush to get married.

Recently the couple spent some quality time with Saif's parents. But according to the duo all this doesn't mean that marriage is the only thing their families constantly discuss. Infact the couple is tired of people insinuating that they are tying the knot soon.

Fans of Saifina obviously can't wait to see them get married. But both Bebo and Chote Nawab rubbish the rumours of their wedding in the near future.

Saif w'd have kissed SRK if were casted in Dostana

Saif Ali Khan has reportedly said that he would have kissed Shah Rukh Khan if both of them were casted for Dostana. In an interview by Rajeev Masand for NDTV Saif said that Dostana was enjoyable.

On the question if kissing scenes are hard to film, Saif said, "Saif Ali Khan: I think that's a good question. See if there is a kiss - there is nothing much to do. I think it is much more dramatic when you don't kiss. I don't think there is a kiss in Race. It's like almost a kiss. So you can touch here and there or kiss in different places and you are pretending. I don't think it is like in America where you have proper full on kissing and tongues and bodies touching - and I don't even like saying tongues on TV. It sounds so...I think we watch films with our parents and children and somewhere as Indians we cringe a little. That cringe factor needs to be avoided. Like for example in Ek Haseena Thi, working with Sriram Raghavan was good because it was a scene where the girl gets up from the bed wrapped in a sheet and you see her legs and the guy looks ripped and sits up in bed and lights a smoke - in the good days when you were allowed to smoke - it's great and suggestive and beautiful."

Review: Love Aaj Kal

After giving two great & beautiful movies, Socha Na Tha & Jab We Met, director Imtiaz Ali appears to have hit a snag with Love Aaj Kal. The movie is watchable but feels heavily compromised. The romantic drama could have worked wonderfully if it hadn’t tried to be funny in the first half. Even the second half doesn’t work as the laughs dry up. We have poignant moments interrupted by touches of lets-tickle-the-audience humour, as if India can’t take a drama straight up.

Love Aaj Kal opens with a break-up - Saif Ali Khan & Deepika Padukone are parting ways with utmost cordiality, deciding indeed to have a break-up party to celebrate their rediscovered singledom. The girl leaves, the boy stays back and is then coerced by Rishi Kapoor, a genial London cafe owner, to say goodbye at the airport. Rishi drives Saif there and thrusts a bouquet into his hands, and Deepika’s delighted as she leaves. Kapoor then, on Saif’s insistence, starts telling him his own love story, and the film then narrates both romances side by side.

Imtiaz uses a very interesting device by casting Saif himself in the Kapoor flashbacks: Kapoor tells Khan how the boy reminds him of his youth, and so the Sikh Saif isn’t Kapoor as he used to look, but Kapoor as both he and Saif can visualise him as the tale is narrated. It’s a clever move even though Saif struggles rather laughably with his Punjabi early on in the film, and it doesn’t help how the narrative inevitably flips back and forth between that and the overslanged Lay’s-salesman Saif of today. A good move overall, though.

Imtiaz is one of the most promising filmmakers in the country today but his songs abruptly interrupted the proceedings which he earlier managed to weave in seamlessly into his narratives. The dialogues are still his biggest strength, but here the conversation is so peppered with Hinglish in an obvious attempt to connect with the kids that it doesn’t wash - Saying ‘aapka angle kya hai?’ for ‘what’s your angle?’ just doesn’t work, sorry.

Love Aaj Kal is a harmless, watchable film — sad, because it could have been truly special. It has its moments in the first half, while the second half is an over-melodramatic drag. Or have I missed the point, and is Imtiaz making an incisive comment on the nature of Bollywood masala, saying be it today or yesterday, our romances stay as cheesy as they are breezy?