Boy hates squashy love stories, doesn't believe in love and all those things that come along with it whereas the girl is an immense believer in romance and is living her own perfect love story with a childhood friend. Boy meets this girl and don't get along but eventually love strikes! First for the girl but the boy rejects it explaining that he only thought of her as a buddy. Soon love strikes him too but by then it is too late. He tries to woo her back and ends up doing all those squashy things that he hated in the first place.

Punit Malhotra's debut directorial project, I Hate Luv Storys works well when it tries to poke fun at these elements but eventually falls in the same clichéd trap when it comes to delivering as a movie.

I Hate Luv Storys' main lead character, J (Imran Khan) tries to poke fun of all the mush and romance ideas that generate from Bollywood. Sarcastically, working with Bollywood's King of mush, filmmaker Veer Kapoor, he barely manages to keep a straight face about all that's happening around him. A total opposite of J, Simran (Sonam) joins Veer Kapoor's production as a set designer. As predictable clashes take place between the two but ultimately they end up becoming good friends. Gradually she ends up falling for, Mr. Wrong at the risk of dumping her loyal perfect Mr. Right Raj (Sammir). J refuses her. Hurt, she tries to get over her fixation for J and decides to concentrate on her relationship with Raj. But by then J has fallen head over heels in love with Simran and wants her back. How he tries to use all the tricks from the clichéd Bollywood references and much more to persuade Simran back, forms the rest of the movie.

First timer, Punit delivers big when it comes to giving the movie a fresh treatment in terms of narrative and style and laces it with some tremendously laugh out loud one liners. But as a writer, he falls short of offering anything new when it comes to the script.

Agreed, it tries to take a funny look at the romance seen through the archetypal eyes of Bollywood, by doing a parody of sorts on filmmakers. He includes his own producer Karan Johar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and even Aditya Chopra in it but one fails to recognize why Punit doesn't give a new viewpoint about the same in his own movie given the resources he had in hand.

The cheerful first half has its moments but the second half tends to drag, particularly since you can predict well in advance how and where it is all heading. But, full marks to his actors including the periphery ones, who keep it rocking with their perfect acts. Vishal and Shekhar's chart topping music also aids IHLS and lifts it above the average.

The inventive production design works well with the theme of the movie. Ayananka Bose continues to surprise with camerawork with each passing movie. She has captured the New Zealand locales superbly.

Imran Khan, after lackluster performances in Kidnap and Luck is back in top form and very much at ease playing a rom com lead. He adds more fun to his character with his body language and facial expressions. Sonam Kapoor is aptly cast as the dreamy lover girl and wows in her more modern city gal avatar unlike her first two movies Saawariya and Delhi 6 which presented her in a more cultural way. The chemistry between this fresh pairing is wonderful. Kavin Dave as Imran's office colleague is entertainingly good.

Sammir Dattani delivers his lines boringly. Perhaps he was asked to appear as a boring boy friend. But he does it well. Sameer Soni is fun with his take on Karan Johar and so is Aamir Ali as the hot shot romantic star of the movie he is shooting. Bruna Abdullah is smoking hot in her special appearance as Imran's flirt interest.

Overall, I Hate Luv Storys is a romantic comedy with some fun. It is worthy to see once.