I love Bollywood romances, and I absolutely loved this! The songs are beautiful (especially Dheere dheere). What I found just as moving as the songs is the depiction of a fantastically pure, innocent and passionate romance between the couple. It's so beautiful in its earnestness and intensity (which the less romantic among us will find very silly) that it's almost haunting.
A sensitive but impetuous young man falls in love with a withdrawn and shy orphan girl. Their love comes across all sorts of obstacles and, of course, overcomes them all. There are good themes about women empowerment, valuing love and relationships, and good winning over evil.
What I found really attractive throughout the movie is the haunting, yearning, love-filled gaze the couple has for each other. There are several scenes where they just gaze into each others eyes with such longing and tenderness that anyone who has ever loved will feel their passion themselves. Anu Aggarwal has these beautiful eyes that communicate both the ecstasy and pain of her love, and Rahul Roy has a soft-hearted passion in his tone.
Yes, there are mannnnyyyy deux-ex-machinas. The tears are always rolling. The bad guys are really bad, and the good guys are really good. But the movie recognizes and even indulges in its silly passion. Towards the end there is a line spoken to one who doesn't understand, perhaps also spoken to those who have groaned and winced and rolled their eyes through the whole movie -- "Yeh tu nahi samjhega. Yeh love story hai. Aashiqui." (You won't understand -- it's a love story. It's passion). It's a fantasy, and for that it's really beautiful -- a fantasy where goodness and badness exist only in purity; where love is good, and good conquers all.
