The story is set over a course of two years from 2007 to 2008. It starts in the later year in which we see Kabir (Zaheer Iqbal), a failed army guy, getting a call from his uncle asking for a favour. He's requested to handle a small school in a very remote area of Kashmir. Having 5-7 kids, the school was led by a different teacher, Firdaus (Pranutan Bahl) in 2007. Kabir finds Firdaus' diary in the school and he starts going through it.

NOTEBOOK is a love story that is made for those who believe in the divine power of love, a love story that challenges the typical romantic comedy motif of boy meets girl, fall in love only to break up and get back together at the end. NOTEBOOK is an experience that is refreshingly poetic, charmingly heartwarming, intriguingly soul stirring and everlasting that attempts to look beyond the naked eye.

Can picture-postcard images paper over misshapen pockmarks left on a film by a pair of rough-on-the-edges new actors finding their tentative way through a sloppy screenplay and going around in circles? If Notebook, Nitin 'Filmistaan' Kakkar's third film, is anything to go by, the answer is a big, resounding no. The callow lead pair, Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl, are called upon to exude unadulterated passion in an affected love story in which they do not physically meet until the very end of the film.

Suddenly, Kashmir seems to be Bollywood's du jour flavour for youthful romances. Or should we say, it's a return: Kashmir used to be the go-to place for heroes to slide down snowy slopes and heroines to pretend to be fine and dandy in their thin chiffons, as they slid right alongside. For many years, the beautiful valleys and slopes had vanished from our screens. Now they are back. A few months back there was Laila Majnu. Now comes Notebook, in which two debutants, Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl search for their true love.

Lets make it clear, Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl's Notebook has absolutely nothing to do with the Ryan Reynold's classic of the same name. If at all it shares anything then it's the romantic genre. Produced by Salman Khan, Ashwin Varde and Murad Khetani, Notebook is an attempt to make a 'feel good' love story with two fresh faces.

NOTEBOOK is the story of the bond that develops between two lonely teachers without even meeting each other. Kabir (Zaheer Iqbal) is based in Jammu and has quit the Army following a traumatic incident. He is called to Srinagar by an acquaintance who recommends him to join a school started by his father in Wular. The school's only teacher Firdous (Pranutan Bahl) has quit the school just some time back. With no other teacher there, Kabir agrees to join.

You can find love in the most unexpected places and situations. That's what happens to Kabir when he takes up the job to teach at a remote house-boat school in Kashmir. He discovers a notebook that the previous teacher, Firdous used as her diary and he falls in love with her emotions and passions. Featuring a truly innovative concept, Notebook is a film for die-hard romantics.

Notebook has an unremarkable lead pair, an underwhelming dull love story in which the actors don't share the screen for nearly the entire duration of the narrative, some of the most ravishing views of Kashmir yet, a bunch of adorable children and a soundtrack with a few good tunes.

Remember playing FLAMES on the last page of your notebook? The innocent love that was tucked secretly within the pages of the school books? Nitin Kakkar's Notebook draws you back to those times. When we didn't swipe right on Tinder to find love or slid into each other's DMs for late-night chats. Instead, we waited patiently day after day for them to make their way to the classroom.

There are perhaps only a few places on Earth that are as achingly beautiful as Kashmir -- the Dal Lake with boats snaking around, conifers calling out to the sky and a history that has blood splattered all over it. Set in the Valley, this is how Notebook begins as well -- with the death of an innocent, all seen through the haze of a dream.