“From an oafish North Delhi [ Images ] boy, sporting what looks like Big B’s [ Images ] hand-me-down sweaters from Trishul, fishing for heartbreak at his mentor’s suggestion in order to acquire a cool image like his idol Jim Morrison to an unshaven, troubled, defiant, long-haired music sensation with a peculiar, rustic wardrobe, the making of Janardhan Jakhar to Jordan is an offshoot of his fickle equation with the woman he loves.
Imtiaz chooses to keep it strictly about Jordan and his disastrous coming-of-age, blurring every other character or event in his life that doesn’t take the story forward. The disjointed narrative cuts back and forth between flashbacks to present, across various locations — Delhi, Kashmir [ Images ], Prague and Rome — in a perennial state of winter, to sketch a deliberately haphazard picture of its wounded hero.
Things aren’t always so bleak. As a matter of fact, a major chunk of Rockstar is brimming with a wit and chutzpah that is characteristic of Imtiaz’s street-smart, local-flavoured humor.
Among its many laugh out loud moments, is one where Ranbir walks into the college canteen with mock sadness written all over his face. He believes he’s successfully achieved Mission Heartache following an altercation with the campus hottie, Heer (Nargis [ Images ] Fakhri). And what are the first words to come out of the despairing fella? ‘Itni si chutney mein do samosa khaon mein?'”
“Like most Imtiaz heroines, Heer is a closet drifter who wants to engage in every conceivable wild activity from desi porn to desi daru (country liquor) before she heads for a decidedly conservative lifestyle in Prague. Newcomer Nargis Fakhri ,who plays her, is a breathtaking beauty with a fair amount of screen presence. And even though her voice is dubbed by a grating someone else and her reaction while watching Jungli Jawani is akin to a school kid enjoying the circus, Nargis exudes a muted confidence and vanilla quality that is reminiscent of an earlier Katrina Kaif [ Images ].
The youngster shares an explosive chemistry with her co-star, which makes the impulses of their characters, however morally questionable, easy to believe and accept. Kudos to Imtiaz for handling the intimacy and rush of their most sexual urges with elegance and sensitivity.
Together with Nargis, Ranbir pays Shammi Kapoor (making his final movie appearance) a beautiful tribute that celebrates the verve of the late legend and the dramatic scenery of Kashmir (Mehta’s spectacular, snow-clad aerial shots of the lost paradise are alone worth the price of admission). The Yahoo star has not more than five scenes but every time he shows up, it’s a moment to devour and cheer in awe and admiration.
Rockstar isn’t entirely above flaws though. The irregular narrative could do with some smooth editing avoiding the uneven, jerky feel to the proceedings.
At some point, Jordan’s deterioration starts to slip into a well of incoherence and stylish albeit long-winded symbolism involving guitar-in-flames and slo-mo vomit cutting to nifty shots of a shattered Jordan delivering a high-adrenalin stage act or entering a cheekily-documented scrap with the ever-snooping paparazzi.
But this figurative yet electrifying ambiguity only adds to the enigma of Jordan and his offended heart that glowers at everyone for his previously desired misery. Now that he’s truly in a rotten place, he doesn’t know what to do. This chaos of the mind is perceptively captured in a scene where a crushed and confused Ranbir explains his bewilderment to his sympathetic but powerless mentor turned manager ( Kumud Mishra is a revelation).”