
Love Actually
Six fabulous stories, woven together skilfully, set across Christmas, and all coming together so beautifully that it leaves a lump in your throat. Who didn’t cheer when Colin Firth’s led a mob to propose to the girl who didn’t even speak his language? Or cheer when the adorable kid raced across Heathrow to tell the singer he liked her? Or want to stand up and clap when Hugh Grant finally had his moment with Martine McCutcheon? And raise your hand if you’ve wished for a charming gentleman to say “You are perfect to me” using placards the way Andrew Lincoln did to Keira Knightley. Guilty as charged!

The Notebook
Ah, The Notebook! What can we say about this movie that hasn’t been said before? Not only did it give us one of Hollywood’s best real life couple (RIP Ryan and Rachel) but also cemented Ryan Gosling’s status as the most wanted man on Earth. Noah and Allie met, fell in love, shared THAT epic kiss, met many obstacles head on and completely changed the way everyone looked at love. And taught us an important lesson: Love is also dying together.

Pretty Woman
This movie makes it to almost every woman’s favourite movie list. Girl meets boy, have a way too fun night together, buy expensive clothes and jewellery, have an epic fire escape moment and love saves the day. Never has a fairy tale romance been told so charmingly and Julia Roberts (this movie made her Hollywood’s sweetheart) and Richard Gere are perfection together.

Titanic
Jack and Rose define love for all the people who left the movie theatre with tears after watching Titanic. Poor boy meets a girl from a different class, they dance, “sketch”, steam up the vintage automobile, run from the iceberg and as the ultimate love’s sacrifice, boy gives up his life so girl may live. Celluloid romances don’t get better and Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet deserved every accolade and more for this.

Casablanca
Casablanca is the ultimate tale of love and sacrifice. Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Isla (Ingrid Bergman) had a romance that one can only hope for. It had memorable dialogues, a story that is incomparable, two of the greatest and most charming leads and proved that love doesn’t necessarily mean being together. After all, there will always be Paris.
Written by Manasi Rawalgaonkar on 9th Feb 2015