WARNING: Don’t go to watch Rockstar if you tick any of the boxes below:
• You don’t like movies that make you think
• You like to be spoon fed every point and subtlety is lost on you
• You expect movies to have a proper start, middle and an ending in an episodic way.
• You need your movies to end in a ‘climax’ where ‘something big’ happens (like that awful communal-riot-ferris-wheel-white-horse bullshit in Mausam).
• You just listen the tune and not what the lyrics are saying
• You have the attention span of a MTV music video.
The rest of you can safely watch Rockstar which, while not perfect, must be one of the most honest musical-love stories to come out of Bollywood this year.
Ranbir (JJ or Jordan), an aspiring musician gets thrown out of his house after a row and his family refuses to take him back. Ever.
If you wondered why they were so cruel just because he wasted his time with his guitar and refused to join the family business, then you’ll have missed the interplay between him, his loutish brothers and his overtly affectionate bhabhi.
When JJ snaps at her, he confirms all the suspicions that the brother must have always known but denied. For a patriarchal north Indian man, the loss of face there is worth abandoning his brother because to admit his wife was at fault would mean he himself wasn’t man enough to satisfy his wife.
Subtle sub texts like these run all through Imtiaz Ali’s movie. After Jab We Met and Love Aal Kal this must be one of his best.
JJ is told that like all true artists he can only be great once he knows pain and heartbreak. For this he singles out the stunningly beautiful and rich Heer from the posh St. Stephen’s and then courts her with such tactless blundering that he is convinced he will be rejected and heartbroken enough to become a great artiste.
Here I’m sure it’s no co-incidence that Nargis in this movie is named after one of the legendary doomed pair Heer-Ranjha.
Again for a hindi movie, its nice to see that its not love at first sight for both of them. For him she’s just a means to his end. For her, after the initial shock and disgust, when he tells her that he actually doesn’t like her, he becomes a welcome and safe distraction from her impending wedding.
They gallivant around Delhi and then Kashmir (brilliantly captured by ace DOP Anil Mehta) and just before her wedding day she realizes she may just feel a little more than friendship for him.
She has menhdi on her hands, its cold, she asks him for a hug, and then a longer hug and in that embrace she is a goner.
On her wedding day, as she sits before a mirror, clad in her bright red Kashmiri Pandit wedding dress, he comes to just say hi.
The next 5 minutes is one of the best written scenes of the movie,
“How am I looking?”
“Very nice” he says with a lump in his throat.
“Do you want to ask me something?” she volunteers
“Huh??”
“Because if you do, I’ll tell the truth today” she dares
He pauses, unsure of what to read in her words and also of what he is beginning to feel.
“Yes” she replies for both of them, to the own question in her mind with a finality that sets up the rest of the movie.
Jordan, from that moment, you realize is doomed. Doomed to be consumed in the unexpected and unattainable love.
Stunning scene. No drama, no hysterics, nothing said out loud. And Yet…
The movie belongs to 3 people. Ranbir, Rahman and Chauhan.
Ranbir is spot on as a performer and while not good looking in the conventional way he has talent to spare in spades. Just imagine the much better looking Imran in this movie and you’ll know how badly wrong it could have gone. Here he channels both gaucheness and angst and as the end credits roll you can almost feel his pain and loss. Look more closely and you’ll realize he also makes you understand the conflicting lure and the frustration that comes with Fame.
Nargis looks stunning and acts decently but is clearly out of her depth in many scenes. Kareena was Imtiaz's original choice before Ranbir came on board. If only they werent cousins. What an explosive talent fest that would have been.
AR Rahman, not only scores the music for the movie but also the background score and this must be his best score since Delhi 6. I remember a couple of months ago, I’d read a magazine (Tehelka or Open) which had cleverly gotten a rocker to review the music. The fool’s contention was that the music was a fake rock album. Now if Rahman was releasing a rock album called Rockstar with 14 rock numbers it would be understandable to review it like a rock album. But here the movie maybe called Rockstar but the story is about the evolution of a small town boy into a rockstar and every song is spot on. And as the cliché goes, the songs grow on you over time. Tum Ho (both versions with Kavita Krishnamurthy and Mohit Chauhan) must be one of the loveliest tracks this year. And even more haunting when watched in the context of the film. If Sadda Haq sounds so good, its no coincidence because the guitarist on it is the Aussie girl Orianthi who apart from being the lead guitarist for Michael Jackson was also named by Rolling Stone as one of the 10 best female electric guitarists.
Kun Faya Kun is a worthy follow-up to Khwaja (Jodha-Akbar) and on a quiet night listen to the jugal-bandhi between the shenai and guitar and its ebbs and flows. Divine.
Mohit Chauhan: If lucky, singers get to shoulder the burden of the entire album and make it their own and here Chauhan faces the challenge and comes out a winner. He sings every possible type of song in the album. Finally this talent gets his due.
Here, he is to Ranbir, what Asha was to Rekha in Umrao Jaan and Lata to Meena Kumari in Pakeezah. He becomes Jordan's voice.
The first thing you hear over the titles (in Ranbir’s voice) and the last thing you read during the end credits (in English) are the immortal lines of the 13th century Persian poet Rumi.
“Pata hai, yaha se bahut door, galat aur sahi ke paar, ek maidaan hai. Main waha milunga tujhe.”
(Out there, beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.)
If you get the essence of those 2 lines, you’ll get what Rockstar is all about.
