Revisiting Rockstar

I watched Rockstar again today. Actually that’s again and again. The DVD has just released and I watched it once with documentary from Imitiaz Ali and Ranbir Kapoor and once without.

This is late for a review but I had to write this anyway because this movie is special. So let me not call this a review – it is an ode to a film that has shaken me up every time I have watched it. I’ve been thinking about why that is –What is it about this movie? I am not completely sure yet… I don’t think it’s a movie you connect with because you relate to the characters or a movie that brings back memories.
You may or may not have been part of a love like this or a journey like theirs but this is movie unfailingly reaches out to a space within you and not only makes you feel everything that Jordan and Heer must have felt but makes you imagine that you have been through it with them – all their heartbreak, pain and overwhelming emotion becomes yours. And here is my salute to Ranbir Kapoor and Imtiaz Ali for making that happen. Very early in the movie when you see Janardhan getting advise from Khattara-bhai on how to become successful and the necessary pain you must feel to get there you make a connection to this “halka aadmi”. From there his journey becomes your journey.. all of it - his failed attempts at impressing a girl he is not even interested in, his friendship with a girl so out of his league, his inability to grasp how ahead of him his emotions have gotten and his overwhelming all consuming love.

I think the greatest disservice done to this movie was its title, leading you to probably believe what I did before I watched it – that it would be about a Rockstar’s journey from being a nobody to fame to the expected final debacle, with alcohol and drug abuse thrown in for good measure. Rockstar is about a journey but thankfully not the journey I described above but a far more real journey… The journey of a boy who does not even like drinking – he only pretends to drink throwing a little alcohol on his face and collar and then acting drunk. This endearing confession in the beginning of the movie - cut to – the latter half of the movie where Jordan is drinking from a hip flask and throwing up at parties.
For me ‘Rockstar’ was all about these transformations.
A boy who has nothing to complain about, who doesn’t know the meaning of pain to a man who has been thrown out of his home, lost the only person who he is “set” with and whose pain becomes the anthem of a generation.

And Oh the music! Nothing has played on my mind more than this set of songs – they are songs that have lifted me, flared me up and soothed me. Never has music played such a role in telling a story in Indian Cinema before. God Bless AR Rehman and in some of these songs – truly, God is AR Rehman.

For me the most beautiful moments in the movie were - the moment in Kashmir before the wedding when Heer asks Janardhan to hug her and insists that he really hug her, the conversation on the day of the wedding when Heer answers a question even before he asks it, and then leaves it hanging when he does ask it. The moment when he meets her in Prague and asks her to come with him, she says a lot of things about her health but he already knows she is meant to come with him and come she will. The foresight of experience when Shammi Kapoor’s character sees Jordan and recognizes him for what he is – a bada janwar, who will not be caged in mediocrity and the constraints of society. The meeting after she comes back to India and admits that all she wants is to be hugged by him – I have to say truly, the hugs were so beautiful and so much more spectacular than even the kisses… The hospital scene.. and so many more.

This movie was special also for the little little touches that make a movie stand out -> the orange rockstar sweater in the 1st half, the powder on Khattara bhai’s neck, the beautiful authentic Kashmiri wedding. All so beautifully done!

And Imtiyaz Ali, what a stroke of genius to come up with a story that has such a remarkable ironic touch to it. Jordan is her medicine with his magic touch but he is also her illness. His love will make her feel life and also cause her death.

But I have to admit, I wished for more. I really wanted one cathartic moment when Jordan breaks down and weeps for all that he has lost. Some may feel like this would be too much but for me the build-up of this angst that Jordan was going through was too much, I would have loved for a moment of release for this character (and for us). Also this is clearly pain that will bring you to your knees and I would have liked to see that happen physically to Jordan.

I know a lot of people who didn’t like the movie and really didn’t see what the big deal was – and then there were others like me who were just in love with the movie and everything it made them feel. In that sense, this is a true cult movie – you may / may not have a hit but you have created a very loyal fan base. It’s a movie I want to watch again and again and always privately – because of how exposed parts of it make you feel. I am still on a mini journey of my own discovering things about the movie and the music.

(Back to viewing the Bonus DVD now.)