The film has been publicized as a youth flick with a major release in multiplexes. But IHLS has not found favor with the audiences. It seems the present youth have found it difficult to lap up a conventional run-of-the-mill, Bollywood rom-com.

Directed by Punit Malhotra, ‘I hate luv storys’ stars Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor in the lead roles.

The usual plot
Imran Khan plays Jay, a young man who doesn’t believe in love stories, while Simran (Sonam Kapoor) has her romantic ideas and believes in ideal love and a “perfect” relationship with her boyfriend, appropriately named Raj.

Jay and Simran spend time together, fall in love, one of them realizes it, and the other does not. The rest of the film is about the protagonists trying to get through situations, to discover each other’s love.

Problems with IHLS
Filled with clichés of a typical Bollywood plot, IHLS becomes a very ordinary love story.

The direction is amateurish and the pace of the film could have been shortened considerably without hurting the plot. There are some moments that make one laugh in the first half, but the second half goes downhill.

Imran Khan tries to make the best of his role and succeeds to a large extent, but Sonam Kapoor is stuck with such a one-dimensional role that she can hardly do much.

The treatment of the content needs to be given a fresh touch to make the audience sit up and take notice. The plot takes the usual route to a highly predictable ending.

IHLS at the box office and its overseas wins
Except in Delhi and few select multiplexes in Mumbai, the film has not taken a good advance opening. The opening at single screens was lower at around 30-50 percent, depending on location.

But ‘I Hate Luv Storys’ has scored in the overseas market in a big way. The first day in UK was around the £65,000 mark, while UAE was about $140,000. The film, released on Wednesday in North America, is reportedly doing fantastic business there.