What should be and how it should not be. Review on Rockstar

There is actually no reason to try and write something when it’s so late in the night and I am less on energy but an experience which was much awaited needs to be documented. The ironic thing about very much awaited and anticipated things is, in our mind we tend to glorify the experience even before it has happened. The trouble is, when and that’s mostly the case, such a thing does not meet expectations.

Recent times when I have seen any movie hyped beyond a certain limit, it has failed to really garner much critical acclaim.  Ranbir Kapoor’s  Rockstar unfortunately sails in the same boat. If you ask me to quickly give a remark about the movie, then I’d be confused. It’s really hard to push it in the bucket of well made movies, but you just can’t ignore it at all.

Even then if I try to summarize, then I’d say, the movie is a great example of what should be and how it should not be. A KISS fame or  Manowar famed type-face, in the word’s true sense, the title Rockstar does indicate a musical extravaganza. It is expected to depict something about the character, his psyche, his emotions, his understanding of the world and reasons of the perspectives. That’s exactly what should be and the movie truly delivers the essence. The struggles of JJ at the start of his musical career, sudden entry of his love and its departure giving the real emotions to his art is presented aptly. The movie makes a very good attempt at capturing his slow downfall into rage originating from helplessness of the situation. Unfortunately the essence eventually withers in the hands of the director in a comically amusing execution, that’s when we turn to how it should not be.

The idea and the reason are clear in the movie, but then how to present it on screen to effectively reach the audience is actually the skill of the director and I fear  Imtiaz Ali stumbles and even falls on his face in some cases. It’s expected and required to show some background about the protagonist, the reasons for his outlook about the world as he sees it. Sadly the director flows into the background significantly more, thereby reducing his focus regarding moving the story forward.  There appear a lot of repetitive dialogs, (remember Jungli Jawani) scenes which appear same, and overall, the movie sometimes bores you to death by the absolute inability of some of the actors to bring out the emotions.

This I believe is some kind of wake up call to the industry; it’s high time we should realize that there is utter deficiency of qualified young actresses to carry a movie these days. A movie which has a significant screen time for an actress can be seen miserably failing at almost each and every interaction with the leading actress Nargis Fakri. It’s time we understand that picking up a model from a remote country does not do the job. On the contrary it was a pleasing experience to see Ranbir Kapoor on screen; he was able to radiate the exact aura the film demands from Jordan. There are no other stars which have much importance in the story, but still  Piyush Mishra and Kumud Mishra do the job remarkably well, even  Aditi Rao Hydari excels in the short reel time she has. By now you’d wonder what it is in the movie that makes it worth a watch. The answer would undoubtedly be  ARR

The only reason the movie would keep attracting crowd a couple more weeks, would be the musical treat by A R Rehman. May it be a sufi song in the dargah, may it be a Punk Rock song in  Mumbai. May it be the amazing solo of Shehnai and Guitar, may it be a casual song at the background when Heer and Jordan roam around. The man really excels at what he does. The beats and theme of the songs exactly convey the emotion a song is supposed to deliver. From a movie titled rock star, the expectations from the music are much hefty and Mr. ARR leaves no stone unturned to get an ovation from the audience.

So that brings us to a conclusive comment of the post, should you or should you not pay a visit to Bad Boy Jordan. As I said earlier the answer is not simple, but I will go for ‘worth a watch’ rating. Also to register it again, the only reason the movie gets a good rating, is because of ARR. so I’d suggest, if you are true enthusiast of his work then go ahead, for others, a downloaded copy with best sound quality would serve the purpose very well.