In an otherwise uneven retelling of familiar longing in Love Aaj Kal (2020), there is a moment tucked away at the very end, after the story has exhausted itself, even after the credits have rolled, that stays longer than anything that precedes it. Kartik Aaryan stands beneath the balcony of the woman he loves, looking up with the hope that generations of lovers before him have carried. But the balcony offers no answer. No silhouette appears or hand parts the curtains. There is only and only absence. It is here it strikes you that after returning time and again to the tales of Romeo and Juliet, Heer Ranjha and Laila Majnu, stories that, in many ways, are variations of the same wound (much like most Imtiaz Ali’s films), this time, however, Ali finds a new note to play. Romeo is still standing beneath Juliet’s balcony. But this time, Juliet is gone and Romeo is to blame. He only claimed to love but never dared to truly love. It is this thought, this moment, that returns …