Film Impressions

REVIEW: Rockstar (2)

RANBIR'S THE ONE

Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar may be one long, chaotic rehash of many films, adding to an unimpressive whole, but what it definitely does is establish once and for all, that Ranbir Kapoor is the leader of the pack of his generation of actors. Even of the character is plays is muddled and juvenile, Ranbir makes him believable, likeable and sympathetic.  The same can’t be said of leading lady Nargis Fakhri who is saddled with the one of the most irritating female leads in recent times, and coasts along with a weak smile and a pout.

REVIEW: Rockstar

RANBIR IS A ROCK STAR AND ROCKSTAR IS RANBIR

This review contains spoilers.

The alternate title for this review would be 'The Steady Decline of Imtiaz Ali', but we'd rather focus on the positive, since there's already very little to cheer about Hindi cinema. So, when a young star lives up to his lineage (unlike cousin Kareena, who is content playing brainless eye-candy in film after film) and delivers a passionate performance as a gifted musician made, destroyed and redeemed by love, it's heartwarming to watch. Ranbir is an absolute live-wire on screen, particularly after he falls in love and attains stardom as Jordan the singing sensation and doesn't know how to cope with it. It's another matter that India has never had a rock musician with the kind of popularity and crazed following that this on-screen artiste enjoys.

But we're willing to accept this leap of imagination. It's the rest of Ali's narrative that's problematic. Somewhere in the muddle is an interesting story that goes haywire at the screenplay level (spend more time on script and less on publicity for God's sake!), and the lead actress whose lack of acting skills makes matters worse.