Only a movie can undo the damage caused by another movie. Rockstar healed the scars of Ra.One, Expectations were high from Rockstar due to Ranbir Kapoor, Imtiaz Ali & Rehman. Rockstar has not disappointed me, i must say.
Performances:
Ranbir: Rockstar belongs to him. It is one of his finest performances. He made transformation of a innocent (mistaken for rudeness sometime) jat boy to a rockstar so convincing. He is not loud, he doesn’t hold back either. He is in total sync with character. He looks charming, funny, and intense at different point. He makes you feel his pain & suffering through his expressions. With Rockstar he has left his contemporaries like Imran Khan, Shahid Kapoor & Ranvir Singh miles apart. Rockstar has arrived. Ranbir might get a title with the movie just like SRK got from Badshah & Big B from Shahenshan.
Nargis Fakhri : She is beautiful & a decent actress (or should I just call actor as they call now). There is nothing extra ordinary about her. Her transformation from a bubbly girl to depressed wife to suffering patient is somehow less convincing. May be due to lack of scenes to show the transformation gradually.
Music : Apart from Ranbir, A R Rehman & Mohit chauhan are other rockstars in the movie. Music is soul of this film & rightly so. Music is just outstanding be it songs or background music. Good music is quarter a battle won (if not half). Difficult to chose a fovourite from album where almost all the songs are good. Still Sadda Haq, Kun faya kun are my favorites.
Imtiaz Ali: Imtiaz seems to have a soft corner for delhiites & Punjabis (Remember Jab We Met & Love Aaj Kal). He know psyche of middle class delhiites in general & Punjabis in particular better than any other contemporary director. He treat ordinary story with maturity without losing its charm. His dialogues have always been the positive points, so is the case with rockstar. He stuck to his favourite gene & characters. Well Done!!
Shammi Kapoor: Yesteryear Rockstar is good in a short but important cameo. He is visibly full of life. Very few have such a charming smiling despite all the pain he suffered due to prolong illness.
Others: Others role (including nargis’ husband) are short. They don’t have much to do. All are just fine.
Duration : Guess Yourself (Hint: I spent as much time writing Rockstar review as i did watching it).
Plot: Janardhan (Ranbir) is a lower middle class boy of Hindu college with zero stage presence (read attitude) living in a joint family in pitamputra, diametrically opposite to him is heer (Nargis fakhri), a high class ‘neat & clean’ girl from St. Stephen who can mesmerize any boy around by her beauty & dance. They are literally class apart. A friend explains to Janardhan, who inspire to become next Jim Morrison how suffering, tragedy & heartbreak are common things in every rockstar’s life. Innocent Janardhan approach heer (hottest & coolest girl around) hoping that she will help him become a rockstar by break his heart. ‘Neat & clean’ Heer is getting married in few months. Before that she wants to break free & do things which upmarket nice girls can only think about like watching Jungli jawani & drinking Desi Daru. Janardhan becomes his partner in crime & help her achieve her goals. They become very close friend. Without any drama, she gets married & goes to Prague. Janardhan is thrown out of home, spent two months at nizamuddin Dargah which brings him closer to his music. He is spotted by shehnai maestro Ustad Jameel Khan (Shammi Kapoor) who recommends him to a top music company. He goes to Prague for concerts, his primary motto for going there being meeting heer (who has become a bored depressed housewife by now). After frequent meetings, long bike rides they kiss. As they are about to kiss much married Heer try to hold back saying ‘yeh galat hai’ but janardhan makes her agree saying ‘toh galat lag kyon nahin raha’.
Janardhan becomes Jordan. His popularity keep rising so does his passionate love towards heer. Heer decides to break up with Jordan against her own will to save her marriage. Post breakup in two years peroid heartbroken Jordan gets violent with media, goes to jail, do concerts everything that makes him even a bigger rockstar. Heer suffers from bone disease & comes to India, her younger sister brings Jordan back into heer’s life. Heer’s health improves as Jordan looks after her. After getting healthier she accompanies Jordan to a himachal concert, got pregnant & slips into coma. As jordan’s pain intensifies, his music gets better. Movie ends with beautiful lines by Rumi ‘Beyond all the right doings & wrong doings. There is a field, I'll meet you there’.
On the negative side, Incidents of Jordan getting violent with media are repeated many times (5-6 times I guess), some of them could have edited easily. One or two scenes are enough to make your point. Some locations looks familiar (Remember the snow clad road in the song yeh ishq hai from Jab We Met). Second half goes little monotonous. I will go with three & half star.
Performances:
Ranbir: Rockstar belongs to him. It is one of his finest performances. He made transformation of a innocent (mistaken for rudeness sometime) jat boy to a rockstar so convincing. He is not loud, he doesn’t hold back either. He is in total sync with character. He looks charming, funny, and intense at different point. He makes you feel his pain & suffering through his expressions. With Rockstar he has left his contemporaries like Imran Khan, Shahid Kapoor & Ranvir Singh miles apart. Rockstar has arrived. Ranbir might get a title with the movie just like SRK got from Badshah & Big B from Shahenshan.
Nargis Fakhri : She is beautiful & a decent actress (or should I just call actor as they call now). There is nothing extra ordinary about her. Her transformation from a bubbly girl to depressed wife to suffering patient is somehow less convincing. May be due to lack of scenes to show the transformation gradually.
Music : Apart from Ranbir, A R Rehman & Mohit chauhan are other rockstars in the movie. Music is soul of this film & rightly so. Music is just outstanding be it songs or background music. Good music is quarter a battle won (if not half). Difficult to chose a fovourite from album where almost all the songs are good. Still Sadda Haq, Kun faya kun are my favorites.
Imtiaz Ali: Imtiaz seems to have a soft corner for delhiites & Punjabis (Remember Jab We Met & Love Aaj Kal). He know psyche of middle class delhiites in general & Punjabis in particular better than any other contemporary director. He treat ordinary story with maturity without losing its charm. His dialogues have always been the positive points, so is the case with rockstar. He stuck to his favourite gene & characters. Well Done!!
Editing : Editing is good as films travels back & forth many a times & keeps you guessing. What happened to heer after that, where did Jordan go to keeps popping into your mind. Repeat monotonous scenes (like getting violent with media) could have been edited.
Shammi Kapoor: Yesteryear Rockstar is good in a short but important cameo. He is visibly full of life. Very few have such a charming smiling despite all the pain he suffered due to prolong illness.
Others: Others role (including nargis’ husband) are short. They don’t have much to do. All are just fine.
Duration : Guess Yourself (Hint: I spent as much time writing Rockstar review as i did watching it).
