Rockstar: Nothing Rebellious About It

Contrary to what most critics have been saying, Rockstar is a bollywood Masala Moive through and through. It has too many coincidences for it to be a decent film, and too many spoon-fed scenes to hold the attention span of a mature audience. But what sucks the most about the film is the namesake-ness of it all. Everything: From its Title: ROCKSTAR, Seriously?; To the basic premise of it being a love-story and still being called Rockstar: [to add insult to the injury] it's so down-right naive that at one point the protagonist is shown he “wants to achieve” a heart-ache, on someone's advise; To the lyrics --  of musically well composed songs -- It's all a mind-less jive. The films oozes of pretension and superficiality. To say Rockstar is made mainly for the crass audience who salivate on films like Dabaang-Bodyguard-Wanted-etc would not be inaccurate. But compared to the said "mast-mast" movies, Rockstar is well put-together.
Rockstar is rich in story-telling; week in story.

However, Rockstar has it’s moments – no denying that; but, the good ones are nullified with the over-the-top, uncalled-for and unexplained circumstances whose only existence, it seems, is to add sure-fire “commercial” components to the film. The film is not a – as the kids are saying – “awesome film”.

The first half of the film is strictly OK; one gets to laugh here and there, but the second half, in spite having the good songs, sucks the life out of the film -- It is too sober for it's own good. 

There are some decent aspects of the film that need special mention. Like keeping a single play-back singer (Mohit Chauhan) as voice of the protagonist – brilliant move, more so because the film-makers did not pull a “Farhan Akthar” and let the vocally un-gifted actors sing for themselves.  

The supporting cast actually had a say in the narrative, and boy, they have made themselves heard – Big Ups.

Also, the non-liner / flash-backing narrative style actually accentuates the screen-play and is not used as a just-like-that vanity stunt (unlike Dil Chata Hai, it wasn’t fully used in DCH anyways, but nonetheless.)

The boy, Ranbir Kapoor, I have been told, is a son of an Actor, does a decent job in-spite of he being a son of an actor. May be because the boy actually stars opposite the mighty Rahman, and not the silicon lipped girl, Nargis -- that is everything filmy she has, just a filmy real name. Rahman is the real-deal here. The Oscar-winning music director breaths life into the film, and the boy gives the film its pulse with his versatility.  

Another good point about the film is absence of a cheap-ass item number – No Mauja-hi-mauja bullshit -- It might have not been needed for Rahman’s magic turns your heart into an item girl anyway, a drunk item girl at that.  

The breath-taking cinematography provides a good back drop, and would have worked wonders had Rockstar been a tourism commercial of Parag (Prague), or Kashmir, or Himachal Pradesh, but unfortunately it is not, so the camera work doesn’t really do any good to the film, but, on the positive side, doesn't do any bad either.
However, this is where the good of the film ends.

The dialogues writing is sloppy to say the least; and the timing... – especially of the wall-flower of an actress – is sloppiest to say the most. Boy, this girl can't act to save her life, literally. All she can do is perpetually gulp air with great difficulty to show any and all emotions. My best guess for her being in the film is that the film-makers wanted Sonam for the role but due to Sonam’s increasing “haters base” took a safe bet and got a Sonam look-alike. Smart move, I could have said, for people don’t hate Sonam for her looks: it’s her voice that is unbearable, and her attitude (read: fake accent. Like the 80s chewing-gum chewing and simultaneously taking Molly Ringwald wannabe), God, an assault to senses; not that this NRI girl’s accent – or voice over is this case – is any different. But these are just the superficial draw back which might have been put in place / ignored to ensure decent box-office collection. But what makes me really NOT like the film is the way the director, or whoever with the strings (and definitely had No Balls), did not put any soul in the film. This is exactly the problem with Rockstar: it doesn’t have any fucking soul. It is all Glory: no bloody Guts. In simple words, it looks like a teeny-winy love story. There is no time spent on shaping the character(s), or the film’s most important aspect (the way it is marketed): the source of protagonist's rebellion. No dark sides explored. No venturing into the sense of in-justice being done. No showcasing of repressed emotions being converted into art -- lyrics, or music. Nothing. A lot of gold-ore stayed so. If Salman could sing in real life, Rockstar would have been his life-story, for Protagonist is just like Salman: famous for being famous. Same typical bad-boy traits (abusive, bad with the press and police), up-kept appearance (very un-Salman like, but still. You get the point), broken-heart bullshit, and as in the case of the film – little ability to sing. All traits to make soft headed girls go weak in the knees. How fucking Original.

Instead, a little time could have been dedicated into shaping the protagonist's character; on showcasing his metamorphosis – from being a emotional Vrigin to his disassociation for self, self-loathing; connection and sympathies, and the way they gets established with the neglected entities that require a voice to get government's attention: groups (Free Tibet, which is blurred. Grow a pair, Mr. Director), Aspects (Corruption etc.), Search of Identity. The way he picks-up the topic for his arts, what influences him, and how he gets influenced. Nothing. But, all we have is a sudden outburst of emotions, or Justin Beiber-ish songs, without letting the audience know as to where the fuel for the fire is coming from, or how one needs to burn oneself to make that fire. Also the presence of "sweet" songs kill the spirit of the film -- Tum Ho is nice romantic song, I have nothing against it, but Holy fucknuts, it's a r.o.c.k-based. ...Motherfucker. The saddest part is only love-lost crap-romantic nuances are highlighted without any regard for the internal journey that ensue after such personal, non-unique (unlike other-wise suggested in the film), tragedy which may rarely, but in most artistic cases, eventually, finds solace in supporting other broken things like societal injustices etc as compensation, and in the process letting the creative genius of oneself surface, and form art. Showcasing only the lovey-dovey part in this rebellion centric film gives an impression that the director is either too condescending to thinks that the audience cannot fathom shit beyond a lip-lock or that he is too chicken to go outside the cookie-cutter – for director's sake I hope the former is true.

But the final nail on this so-called Rebellion-Anti-System film comes when Rabir, who even after being established as a rich “Rockstar” in the film, and is the brand ambassador of Nissan – India in real life, drives a small Nissan to see a girl a dying girl. Jesus.Fuck. This is when the film loses all it’s respect. All it’s credibility. Only other “actor” who can stoop this low to further his brands without any regard to the integrity of the narrative is SRK. So if Ranbir, or any actor who wants to carve a niche for himself, needs to get rid of this SRK trend. And, as for the director whose film, people think, is path-breaking needs to check weather or not he has balls to go all the way. But you know what, fuck all that. Fuck how Rockstar disappoints for what it's not. As I write this, a realization is kicking in: that I am more angry because it all seems to be my fault. My fault all the way. It's not that film's idiotic but, it is I – for expecting something more than a run-of-the-mill love story from this mini Yashraj-ish director, who also has the penchant of casting the worst actress: Ayesha Takia, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukoe, the white Brazilian lady who played Punjabi pind-di-choori / young Neetu Singh.

The film will make it big in Bollywood for it has all the components to: beautiful locales, beautiful people, mind-less story, gripping narrative, romance, great music, and lack of heart and balls.

Rockstar is a stellar opportunity wasted. Fuck.

PS: Comparing this Popstar with Dev.D, the way lot of people are, is Blasphmey. Don't.

Director and Story: Imtiaz Ali

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri, Aditi Rao Hydari, Kumud Mishra, Piyush Mishra.

Lyrics: Irshad Khamil

Music: A. R. Rahman

Rating: 2.5/5