Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, a 13th century mystic poet, once wrote:
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’
doesn't make any sense.”
And the first part of this verse is what binds the Movie discussed here – Rockstar – through itself and aptly so, at that. ‘How?’ You ask? Let’s see.
Clearly there’s huge leaf taken from ‘Heer Ranjha’ , the popular tragic love-story told from Punjab via various Poetic renderings. Not entirely, but still in part. Janardhan Jhakar (JJ, and later - 'Jordan'), a Jat boy, stands bewildered out of reverence for the poster of James Douglas "Jim" Morrison, pasted across his unplastered wall. Agog, as to how does one get it? That sound which he is told he lacks, that vibe which he is made to learn he can’t propagate, that depth which he is relentlessly made to believe to accept he just can’t touch. He wonders, and wonders a little more. Which is when a blindingly convincing character actor’s (Kumud Mishra) advice touches his ear-drums and the stone is striked across forever : He has had a pretty breezy existence. He is neither adopted, and never was molested. He suffers from no life-altering ailment. Bottom-line: He lacks tragedy in his life. And, misguidedly enough, he chalks up the courage to manufacture his own Heartbreak by asking the College heartthrob – a devastatingly cute, undisputed stunner and defaulted-ly unavailable Heer Kaul – out. Hoping that her rejection would catapult him to the place where sound leaves your senses as though they will make even the strings cry by rendering them a certain creed of pain which posses the required capacity. Unfortunately, that’s not what happens. Though what does happen, is another discovery altogether.
Heer is a presumed ‘Neat-and-Clean’, high-society damsel, who’s born with a silver spoon in her mouth and is about to marry a guy who too was, well, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Her life story, as she sees it, is already penned down with a water-tight screenplay in place alongwith a story-board predicting a bore of a post-marriage existence. And, to add the required spice, she wishes to precede this stated duration with 2 months of unbridled, all-gates-open indulgence of senses with her new found non-judgemental friend (Janardhan) – a kind of indiscriminated immoderation which includes gulping down country liquor, watching a B-Grade flick in seedy down-town talkies and asking ‘Sab theek hai na, bhai saab?’ to unsuspecting gents care-freely wetting away a common wall with Uric liquid by-product of human body.
And as it were to be, while scaling the foggy streets of the national capital to the scenic snow covered expanse of Kashmir - which is more-than-brilliantly captured by Anil Mehta's lens, they 'unexpectedly' and 'unintentionally' fall in love with each other. Only to later have Heer married in a most unconventionally covered wedding sequence on Indian Silver screen in like all times. And that’s where our Mr. Protagonist wraps himself up by the Namesake garb – Rockstar. Where he will watch himself transform from a school-boyish naiveté to an emotionally unstable, though a mature, tortured soul.
The movie after this point of time has to be rather experienced more than just being passively witnessed.
The movie, as it must be pointed out, has its share of shortcomings too. The script jumps way too much to-and-fro in time dimension for one. Secondly, the revelations of crucial, poignant movements - which are yet to arrive – in many a sporadically placed musical montages as Flashback and Flashforwards almost kills the effect one would have had had they been allowed to arrive only when they were chronologically slated to. The Original Soundtrack, composed by A.R. Rahman and enmeshed into Irshaad Kamil's soul-stirring words, when just listened to from point A to B, develops its own narrative and a story-flow which gets slightly marred by this story-point-hopping. Questions also would be raised upon the decision which directed the inclusion of Nargis Fakhri in the main cast. She fails to justify the casting judgment. One, at times, fails to digest that such a plastic character actually warrants such level of passion from a person highly, deeply, madly in love with her – A contrasting and amazing character portrayal by Ranbir Kapoor. Although, at times one, also, falls short of fathoming as to what exactly is Jordan so angry about? Is it the filial abandonment or the not so healthy bohemian food? Is it the dejections and rejections or the dichotomy associated with 'Fame'? One never gets it entirely.
Moreover, a major creative risk has been taken by making a mainstream cinema which deliberately leaves so many loose ends to be tied by individual viewer’s personal discretion. The place where one would lie upon the ‘Hate-It' to 'Love-It’ spectrum would be decided by where that person currently is in his/her personal life and what is his/her current take upon his/her surroundings which are either shaping them or are getting shaped by them. And that’s one more reason as to why this movie would leave the audience-set highly polarised. As mentioned, there is a mighty chance of having, at hands, two islands of extreme opinions getting pitted against each other.
But, for me, what pars all these musings is the kind of intensity and passion which Imtiaz Ali manages to attach to the undertone of this part Musical outing which is unprecedented in form and content. The volatility of Human emotion is laid bare and made available to be gaped at by a very honest attempt, hereto largely unseen. Some scenes would leave the prudes highly scandalized. And that’s trademark mitiaz Ali for you. The intricacies involved in the path traversed from ‘Want’ to ‘Need’ are set under a high-strength spotlight too. These minutiae make a certain point be reached - the point in time when ‘Love’ manages to leap over ‘Logic and lands on 'Instinct.' The point, where imagination triumphs over intelligence. The point, where the societal standards of wrong-doing and right-doing come crashing down. A point, where Angst, Rage, Jealousy, Guilt and Passion all come together to produce a humanely polished outcome.
Which is exactly why - to answer the question raised in the opening para - Rumi’s lines are so very essential to the narrative.
Overall, an amazing attempt at telling a story in a very different and unconventional way. And kudos to the fitting sound track and vocals by Mohit Chauhan which seamlessly becomes the protagonist's in the movie. Watch this one for Imtiaz Ali - a raconteur who has yet again managed to touch the untouched-yet. Watch it for Ranbir Kapoor - a 29 year old actor portraying the embodiment of a character who goes from being an awkward nobody to a stoic-when-in-public, massively loved and hysteria-inducing 'Rockstar' and with what panache! An 'actor', truly, is born. Watch it, above all, for understanding the depth of the phrase ‘Human Attachment.’
It's a differently made dish. If you are done having it, savor the after-taste. If you haven't yet, try it.
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