Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is a definite comment on love. It just doesn't showcase love as one singular feeling of passion and greatness. Instead it breaks love down into several individual feelings. Some platonic, some sexual and some mature. The very fact that this film successfully portrays love and its various facets with such deftness and control is its true success. In the end, it does falter a bit, the end to Ranbir Kapoor's and Anushka Sharma's love story feels like a cop out.

Karan Johar movies may have set the benchmark for the portrayal of glamorous lifestyles but they also unfailingly offer a kaleidoscope of emotions. The latest release of the 44-year-old director - 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' - has successfully managed to touch the hearts of the audience with its interesting storyline and brilliant performances.

Do they set the screen on fire with their combustible energy? No. They totally lack fire. They're like water, going with the flow. Which, incidentally, is the larger point of this deeply personal film (in a very mainstream space) that, more than anything else, looks at how relationships are being redefined - where you can't tell between love, casual sex, friends with benefits, or friends without benefits anymore. Does the point ring true? Hell, yeah. Does it seem belaboured and terribly repetitive after a while? Sadly, yes - a film appears lengthy for how long it takes to tell a story anyway.

At a recent panel discussion at the Mumbai Film Festival, the experts and audience rued that contemporary Hindi cinema has lost connection with its core, and that filmmakers are increasingly cloning western narratives and tropes. I have to confess, while I don't have any issue with the item number and heroine replacing the vamp, and I don't miss villains with the distractingly large mole on his face, I do miss the good old colourful song-and-dance Bollywood movie. And that's where the Khans, Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar score - or at least did.

AE DIL HAI MUSHKIL is a roller coaster ride between lovers, which mirrors the ups and downs of their lives. The film starts off with the introduction of the singer Ayaan Sanger (Ranbir Kapoor) giving an interview, wherein he talks about the inspiration behind his successful singing career. The story, then enters a flashback that has Ayaan and the free spirited Alizeh Khan (Anushka Sharma) meeting at a night club.

Karan Johar, who is known for his candyfloss love stories, made his debut as a director with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998, a story about love and friendship and now, in 2016, Johar comes full circle with Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which explores the same themes as the aforesaid film, but with dignity and maturity. Set in London, Lucknow, Paris and Vienna, 'ADHM' is about Ayan Sanger (Ranbir Kapoor) and Alizeh (Anushka Sharma), who meet at a club and after a hilarious unsuccessful attempt at a fling, turn into good friends, though Ayan falls for her hard.

Remember the exuberant genie in Aladdin who fulfills our deepest desire and show us magic we didn't know exist? Ultimately, he just wants to be set free. That's when he'll be his happiest. Love is a lot like that. It thrills, it inspires, it heals, it hurts and it's always dramatic. To love is to experience a constant state of flux. It's not possible to calculate or contain this sentiment, but an inherent need to control everything we feel compels us to define it constantly.

Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, an unconventional love-and-friendship yarn narrated with flair and feeling, certainly isn't only for dyed-in-the-wool romantics. It is an infectiously buoyant, emotionally engaging and superbly acted drama that could disarm even the most inveterate of cynics. The film combines Johar's avowed fondness for old movie songs and "jolly good Bollywood" conventions with an alternative take on a super-rich young man's idle but necessary search for elusive love.

If there is one thing Karan Johar is massively guilty of, it is using references from his own films. He has been pardoned by all for a long time now. But there's a limit to even that. Johar's latest film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in lead roles, is a victim of his methods. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is a mish-mash of his own films; from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to Kal Ho Naa Ho and everything else in between.

Ayan (Ranbir Kapoor) and Alizeh (Anushka Sharma) hook up at bar in London with no agenda whatsoever. They instantly click and there are sparks flying already. Alizeh has a deadly past with her long time boyfriend Ali Fawad Khan) breaking her heart, Ayan on the other hand is a emotional wreck at handling any relation. After the two get close, Ayan falls for Alizeh and is certain that it is love. To his disdain, Ali returns to Alizeh's life and she gets married to him.

Let's get this straight. Karan Johar wants his films to look beautiful. He works toward gleaming, polishing and grooming his locations and actors as though he were building a Taj Mahal for the gen-Y to rest its reposeful romanticism. 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil'(ADHM) is one good looking film with actors who epitomise human beauty. True, they strive helplessly towards reaching the inner core of their being to obtain a spiritual centre to match that abundance of physical beauty.

Karan Johar and his team must thank all the controversy around their film's release for creating a huge buzz, because otherwise Ae Dil Hai Mushkil boils down to little more than a mash-up of all those clichd dreamy films that are high on cinematography and melodrama but low on realism.

When I opt for a Karan Johar film, I want the stuff that he does best - the impossibly beautiful people, the lovely foreign locations, the humungous homes, the songs-and-the-dances, the zardozi and the flash - in spades. What I also want is the heightened emotions and the messy love you-hate you-can't live without you moments that he manages to create in his most felt work. He has to make me feel enough so I can keep the glitter at bay.

There's a lot of good news, and only a little bad news, so let's start with the former. With Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Karan Johar has let go of the "candy" but retained the "floss", resulting in a beautiful-looking film that isn't bereft of logic. Ayan (Ranbir) and Alizeh (Anushka) strike up a friendship after meeting at a bar. They're Bollywood-crazy goofballs who sing cheesy '80s songs, poke fun at each other's partners and fit into each other like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. But Ayan wants more from the relationship.