“Rockstar is an oxymoron of a motion picture. It merges two movies which do not melt together. In its title character it mixes two personalities which cannot be the same person. Ranbir Kapoor’s Jordan is projected — and spelt out many times — as a Jim Morrisonesque figure who takes great pleasure in showing his middle finger to the world. He is also the same Jordan whose mere presence can revive a dying girl back to the pink of her health.”
“And here lies the dichotomy of Rockstar. It’s about a Devdas (Nargis Fakhri’s Heer being the Paro here) who chose to express his romantic pangs and pain through music and lyrics rather than drown himself in sex, drugs and alcohol. But this rebel really has no cause to wage a war against the world.
Perhaps the film’s music composer, A.R. Rahman, understood Rockstar better than its writer-director Imtiaz Ali and so when you hear the songs on your iPod, you realise Jordan is actually more of a seeker. Even in the angriest track that is Sadda haq, it’s almost a complain, rather than a revolt, as Irshad Kamil writes: “Tu kaate mujhe… Kyun baate mujhe iss tarah?”
Rockstar takes off on an electrifying note. The first few images of a bruised Jordan almost hurtling onto the stage in front of a sea of people in an old European city is a dream opening riff. And then we flash back to Janardhan Jakhar, almost a dodo from Delhi jis mein “woh baat nahin hai” and whose guitar is almost smashed up like Goopy Gyne’s tanpura.”
“But then Rockstar’s an Imtiaz Ali film. Where lovers always meet at the wrong time and have to traverse long distances for their romantic yearnings. So, just like Viren and Aditi from Socha Na Tha, Aditya and Geet from Jab We Met, and Jai and Meera from Love Aaj Kal, Jordan and Heer struggle to discover their perfect world.
Cue for the emergence of Jordan the rockstar, who, like The Social Network’s Mark Zuckerberg, feels empty from inside despite all the fame and adulation. And that somewhat vacuous internal conflict never ever translates to that rabble-rousing troublemaker we are shown on stage.”
“Nargis Fakhri is quite a mess. Make no mistake, she looks fetching throughout but every time she opens that wide mouth and that long jawline is at work, the moments lose their music.
Ranbir is very good but before every headline (some bought, some believed) claims that the Kapoor boy has arrived, you should know that he is capable of much, much more. He has given two of his very important years to Rockstar and compared to Shahid (Mausam) and Shah Rukh (Ra.One), this is undoubtedly a wiser decision but this is still not that big act, that giant leap.
The Shammi Kapoor cameo — those eyes twinkling with so much life — is agonisingly beautiful.”
Tags: Ranbir Kapoor Reviews
