First things first. On the reviewer's prejudices and preferences… I think Ranbir is the best emotive 'Actor' in 4 generations of Kapoor clan, including the venerable Raj Kapoor – one of the best film makers the world might ever see. Karan Johar as a film maker has never produced a 'bad' product, even if he doesn't aspire for landmark cinema. Pritam has once again produced track of the year, beating ARR fair and square. That coming from a sworn ARR fan, puts me far from a Pritam detractor. Not to mention a very credible Anushka, Aishwarya and a tech team that KJO can muster, I cannot be blamed for a high expectation from this Diwali release, advertised and reviewed as the 'top tear jerker' by KJO. Well if a Kapoor scion tweets – '"This is your tribute to Raj Kapoor & Yash Chopra films! Romance,Music and intensity." it is only fair that I expect elements of a Sangam and a Kabhi Kabhi, amalgamated and re-presented to the millennials. Alas, that was not to be! Spoilers ahead, if you care to read…

The high pitched Arijit melodies flooding your living rooms and cars for over a month, titillate you with what drama and tragedy might precede the overflow of emotion expressed by a brilliantly brilliantly shot RK in front of the mic. And pull off he does! Going from the aimless, to the involved, to the indifferent, to the despondent he is at the top of his game so masterfully displayed in the earlier Tamasha or Rockstar. In Anushka's ably acted heart-broken turned bubbly turned serious turned heart breaking role, Ranbir also has the perfect muse for the unrequited love – popularized as the 'self suffered' theme by KJO. Aishwarya as the gorgeous distraction, forming the Chopra-ish triangle is as good as she should have been, while the 3 Fawad scenes that created cross continental strife are also very well executed.

However all this brilliance in performances, in quintessential Yash Raj-ish music, in trademark production values, all still combines to produce a Vikram Bhatt caliber modern emo-drama that just projects itself in the big league because of all the ingredients, but stops disappointingly short. And what ingredients man, if a crooning agonizing RK in front of the mic wasn't enough, there's brilliance in some wedding scenes, elaborate poetic lines, a fantastic dinner table tripartite conversation reminiscent of the Sangam/Kabhi Kabhi eras, a lovy dovy cancer striken death bed of KHNH proportions, an Aashiqui-esque airport chase. You think of a Bollywood tear-jerker ingredient and KJO has packed it in a 2.5 hr script like a thoroughly entertaining T-20 match, not a heart stopping one-day-international and far from a poetic skill full test match.

The 'clinical superficiality' with which the deep relationships are narrated makes you feel painful, not for the emotion but for the potential that was never converted. You keep thinking of the gear switch, where a scene will have you awe-struck but it never comes. As I write this, I airplayed the Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam title track, just to verify if it gives the goose bumps that it did 17 years ago . Open it in the other browser window, to see what a frantically laughing Salman Khan running across a bridge can convey through the poignancy of the scene. Or an SRK staring at the NYC skyline with Sonu Nigam's best song and a mesmerizing piano track in background.

Unrequited love could never have been a new Bollywood story, from a Devdas 80 years ago to last year's Bajirao, they all have that theme in various flavors. But my dear KJO if only brilliant performances, music, shots would make a classic they would never fill the screenplay/writing column in the table! In the name of subtlety and the matter-of-factness, Karan has robbed the genre of its only consistent element, the tear-inducing tragedies. If that's your thing watch a repeat of any of your favorites, heck even KJO's past movies. If you want to see how relationships might transform to, in the T-20 age of facebook and watsapp, or just watch the best alternative to Shivaay this weekend, go rush for ADHM.

Sorry, Karan Johar as always puts more stress on the gloss rather than the substance, and the result is mostly a shallow film that would hardly ever ring true to thinking viewers. Obviously, it's the material that's quite lacking to begin with but the treatment is way worse. First, the incredible number of references to Johar's own films was absolutely annoying. That penchant for self-glorification has become quite a tedious motif in his films, and by the way, so have the other references to other Hindi films such as Chandni and the likes.

Above all, the biggest glitch here is the banality of the writing and particularly the portrayal of the relationships, all of which completely strain credulity. Not a single one of them rings true - not Ranbir's with his girlfriend, not Anushka's with her husband, and certainly not the friendship between Ranbir and Anushka, which is supposed to form the basis for the entire story but is highly unconvincing. The film tries to sell us an age-old formula of two people who are good friends, but one of them wants more, and it doesn't gel and lacks depth.

So what's the problem here? That I personally, and I'm sure many others, won't buy for a minute that a chance encounter in Europe and a few fun days spent together would turn two strangers into such good friends. Actually, even if it is possible, the script doesn't give it justice; the strangers' shared experience should have been much deeper than what this film showed us (more or less dancing to Hindi films and hardly one serious conversation) to establish a true, year-long camaraderie as required by the story. Eventually, it just doesn't make sense and lacks heart and realism.

The portrayal of the obsession, which is what this film essentially deals with (indeed, it's more about obsession rather than unrequited love), is handled much better. And even better is the entrance of a new character into this story, which helps refresh the entire mood of the film. But the film is twisted to no end, which isn't a compliment, and as expected, typically overlong. Moreover, some of the twists towards the end are so cliché and lacking in credibility it feels the director hasn't learned a thing about the growing sophistication of his potential audience.

Where the film does score is on the technical front, where everything is handled professionally. The locations and music are, as always in Johar's films, stupendous, and make for a fun cinematic experience despite the flaws. Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma sink their teeth into their half-baked roles and give much more than they get. The ultimate saving grace however is Aishwarya Rai, whose charismatic presence gives the film so much of what it lacks. It's not just her dazzling beauty, it's the depth in her eyes. I wish the film had more of this depth.