It’s been quite a long since I’ve written a review for any movie. Still let me try this time around for Rockstar.
“Pata hai, yahaan se bahut dur.. Galat aur sahi ke paar.. Ek maidaan hai. Main wahaan milunga tujhe!”
This is how Imtiaz Ali’s latest directorial offering Rockstar starts. Use of these lines of great Persian Sufi Poet Rumi sets the tone for the movie. And then a Ranbir Kapoor, in his long-hair, “Rockstar” look, full of arrogance and attitude, takes center stage in a concert where fans have flocked in by the thousands for a glimpse of him. You wonder if this is going to be another Imtiaz Ali masterstroke. And to be very frank, it did turned out to be a master-stroke for me. If not an exact one, it was a well crafted one still.
With movies like JWM and LA, Imtiaz made quite a reputation for himself. And on the basis of this, I went for Rockstar. Other reason that pulled me upto the cinema-hall was the music of Rockstar. The music has already created a platform for this movie. And it had to since it comes out the kitty of Living Legend A.R. Rahman [I think it’s right time we start calling him a LEGEND]. To say huge would be disrespectful towards my extent of excitement actually. A R Rahman’s stupendous and intoxicating music was the main reason I would say.
Let’s talk a bit about storyline. Janardan Jakhad (Ranbir Kapoor) is a Haryanvi-Born-In-Delhi simpleton/geek who aspires to be a music star [rather a rockstar like Jim Morrison] and loves music passionately. But all he gets for his music is ridicule and laughs. His family doesn’t support his ambitions and his college canteen owner thinks he lacks that one tragic feeling of loss and desperation, which all successful artists have in common. He is told that only a broken heart can yield brilliant music. And so, quite stupidly and innocently, he goes up to the most sought after girl (but soon to get married to some high class man from the Czech Republic) in his college – Heer Kaul (Nargis Fakhri), and tells her that he loves her. I won’t go into much detail, but this is the best part of the movie. They become more than good friends, as she realizes his innocence and plain goodwill at heart. He goes wherever she wants to go, whenever she wants to go, even at the risk of his passion for music. She renames Janardan “Jordan” – a name which he keeps forever after, much like their estranged relation. Jordan later gains immense fame and popularity, but his mind never gets the happiness he seeks. His music becomes popular, but he becomes a portrait of everything “negative” in the scoiety. What happens further is the part they would blame me for dishing out “spoilers”.
The concept and the story of the film is quite innovative and intriguing. The best part is the complex screenplay. Yes, the screenplay is complex and it is still Imtiaz Ali’s film. Probably the most complex one from him so far. Rockstar has a perfect screenplay that is needed for a film that tries to show the dilemmas and complexities of its central character/s. The relationship between the two main leads has been established with great honesty and sincerity, typical Imtiaz Ali way. The ‘gand machana’ sequences might remind you of JWM and Geet [Kareena’s character in JWM]. Still, somewhere it won’t connect with the Indian audiences on the basic level. Also, people will be bit disappointed because Imtiaz is known for a unique way of story-telling female character establishment. Here he failed moderately in story telling as many scenes are having a feel of chock-up which adds to the woos of already dragging movie of some 2hours 50minutes and Imtiaz failed miserably to establish Heer’s character. Remember Kareena and Deepika’s characters in his previous two ventures? And the open-end. Well, it must have been a tough call for Imtiaz to go for an open-end because keeping the desi audience in mind, I personally would not have vouched this idea. It takes lot of guts to do so with such heavily expected project.
Another best part [apart from ARR] was Ranbir Kapoor. Boy! What a brilliant performance he gave! He swept me off my feet. Giving 101% to a character is something too difficult at times. And Ranbir must be lauded for his genuine effort. I felt sad for his character during the tragic moments. This in itself speaks a volume about his performance. It seems like JJ’s character was written for him only. The way he first played a Delhi geek and then a psycho Rockstar and then finally a mix of these two shows that he is growing exponentially with each film. It’s not that easy to hop between two personalities in the same character. And looking real doing that is something of a new challenge in itself. Nargis Fakhri looks very beautiful, no doubt in that. Even her she emoted perfectly too. But she badly needs to work upon her accent. Her dialogues delivery is too labooured. I know the dubbing was done by someone else, but still I could make out that accent through lip-reading. Others in the supporting lead did a good job too. Especially, Piyush Mishra had couple of awesome funny sequences [like the one when was having the body-massage!]. Aditi Rao Hydari looked pretty. Kumud Mishra was good too. Shernaz Patel carried-on from where she left in her previous project Guzaarish.
Now, coming to the main part. Rockstar is going to be a musical. This was what Imtiaz had said while the film was announced. And when he announced that its ARR who is going to compose music for it, then the expectation from the album got totally a new pull. Nobody today would even dare to judge him. That’s why I used the term “LEGEND” above. His music is like a scotch. It won’t get you high at the word ‘go’ but it will slowly start affecting you. The same is the case with the album of Rockstar. Man! Wattay album I tell you. There are 14 tracks in the album. And each one is more captivating than the last. But surely my pick would be ‘Kun Faaya Kun’, ‘Saadda Haq’ ‘Naadaan Parindey’ and ‘Jo Bhi Main’. Also, with this album, Irshad Kamil seems to have established himself well in the industry. From here onwards, he would be the one I would be looking forward to listen to. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of Mohit Chauhan. But still I feel that he gave a dimension to the character of JJ. The picturisation of the track ‘Jo Bhi Main’ and ‘Naadaan Parindey’ gives you a feel that you are actually watching some live rock show. While, Kun Faaya Kun gives the whole atmosphere in the cinema-hall a Sufi touch. Also, ARR's background too blended with the movie brilliantly.
Finally, on a scale of 1 to 5, I’m going to give 3 honourable stars to this film. 3*/5* 0.5* for Ranbir, 0.5* to ARR, 0.5* to Irshad Kamil, 0.5* to cinematographer Anil Mehta, 0.5* to Imtiaz for his effort and 0.5* to Shamsher Kapoor for his last on-screen appearance! [Come on, itna “saadda haq” to banta hai Shammi Ji ka!] ;)
Reason to watch it- Go for seeing Ranbir portray a journey of a man who gets himself into a shit. A journey of local Pitampura geek to the world renowned music star. May be to watch Jungli Jawani too!
