Laila Majnu is a love story, but nothing like anything you've seen before. It's about the love that, if not inexistent, is rare. The famous Persian legend that tells the tale of an unending love between Laila and Majnu is rehashed in this contemporary version by Sajid Ali. Written by his superbly talented filmmaker brother Imtiaz Ali, Laila Majnu is a story that will take you to a different realm of love. With a bit of faults here and there, the film is a must watch, for Bollywood has long been short of such love stories.

What do you say about a film that contains the most exasperating thirty minutes as well as the most enthralling thirty minutes of the year? For anyone vaguely abreast with the legacy of romance in contemporary Hindi cinema, it might hardly be surprising to learn that Imtiaz Ali is involved here. Of course he had to be the co-writer of a love story that has been told so often over so many generations across so many mediums.

The eternal love story of Laila and Majnu has fascinated people over the centuries across several countries. In Bollywood itself, some 4-5 films have been made on the lovers, that too since the time of silent films era. Now Imtiaz Ali presents a film on this topic directed by his brother Sajid Ali in association with Ekta Kapoor. Imtiaz is known for his intense love stories and has shown obsessive characters in the past and Laila-Majnu's tale is also on similar lines.

In his 12th movie as a writer, Imtiaz Ali introduces his brother Sajid in the modern update of the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi's virgin' love between the 7th century Bedouin poet Qays and Layla, in India's 10th movie on the star crossed lovers - LAILA MAJNU that continues to give an example of 'dewangi' (madness) for your beloved more on craziness, pain and suffering then devotionally/spiritually sufi.

The unrequited love story of Laila Majnu, said to be of Arabic origins, has over eons fired the imagination of masses the world over. It's one of the most-told tales both in the written as well as in oral form. Films have been made on in before too. There is a 1953 version starring Shammi Kapoor and Nutan and a 1979 version starring Rishi Kapoor and Ranjeeta.

The movie starts on a very awkward sequence where the guys in Kashmir stalk Laila (Tripti Dimri). Introduced as a girl who has a reputation of dude-magnet in the city, Laila is quirky & wants to live her life at the fullest. Enters Qais Bhatt (Avinash Tiwary), son of the rival of Laila's father & a charmer.

The ancient Middle Eastern folktale of Laila and Qais (a.k.a. Majnun/Majnu, The Obsessed One, The Crazed One) is so deeply embedded in the Indian cultural consciousness that it has been adapted by film makers in various languages right from the silent era. In this latest retelling, writer-director Sajid Ali - whose famous sibling Imtiaz has co-written the film and is its presenter - chooses contemporary Kashmir as the setting.

In Sajid Ali's directorial debut Laila Majnu, Shaw's wisdom is intertwines with a far older source of star-crossed love to occasionally stunning effect. The 140-minute movie, written by Sajid Ali and his brother, the director and perennial romantic Imtiaz Ali, sticks to the broad contours of the original Persian romance even as it makes key departures.

There is only one true love in this film, and that is what Imtiaz Ali surely has for brother Sajid. For, no one goes from a dud called Jab Harry Met Sejal to a bigger dud like Laila Majnu but for some true brotherly love. Unless it is the lack of ideas. Jab Harry Met Sejal married the titles of one of Hollywood's most effervescent romances, and that of Imtiaz Ali's best work. Laila Majnu goes back more than 2,000 years.

Laila is a free-spirited girl from a conservative family who firmly believes in living for the present. Qais, a spoilt brat, falls head over heels in love with her. Their families, however, are warring over property, which leads to self-destruction, pain and bleeding hearts.

Laila Majnu has a fair bit of this. Directed by Sajid Ali from a script by his illustrious brother Imtiaz Ali, here is a romantic drama that has the capacity to surprise. This is no small feat considering we have known of the age-old Persian legend about the star-crossed lovers for longer than we can remember, and it has been interpreted by artists as far removed as Rishi Kapoor, Orhan Pamuk and Eric Clapton.