REVIEW - ROCKSTAR

So, finally the much (very) talked about movie released on an equally talked about date 11.11.11. Don’t know about you guys but I was eagerly waiting for this movie. I was excited about the Kashmir part of the story and being a Kashmiri Pandit, I was equally excited to see how the makers have shown a Kashmiri wedding  onscreen for the first time ever. So Friday night after pressurizing and bullying my friend I finally got the opportunity to see Rockstar.

I will be honest and say that I personally had a lot of expectations from the movie; I thought it to be the next big thing. But sadly it was a huge disappointment, really! The only good thing about the movie is the fabulous music by AR Rahman and a good display of acting skills by Ranbir and may I add only in parts! In most of the scenes (especially the ones with Nargis) he is soo irritating and screechy that you will feel like stuffing cotton balls in your ears.

Story basically is of a small town Delhi boy Janardhan Jakhar who dreams big. He is fond of music and Jim Morrison is his idol. However he has no pain in his life, a driving force which is found in the life of every creative person as per the canteen wale uncle is missing in his life. So JJ (as he is called by the canteen wale uncle)  decides to break his heart by proposing to the babe of the college Heer Koul (Nargis Fakri) who is famous in the college for breaking hearts. Somehow, somewhere the both of them manage to strike a friendship and enjoy watching desi porn in the small gali’s of Delhi and say cheers to desi daaru in some fort.

But before the friendship is even started the story suddenly shifts to the girl’s marriage and thankfully to beautiful scenery of Kashmir! From then the story rapidly moves from present to past and future to flashbacks. And somewhere in between apna hero is a Rockstar who forgets his commitments and recordings, shouts and screams for no particular reason and in every alternate scene you spot a group of policemen dragging and kicking him. Also in-between (before his Rockstar avatar) he is chucked out from his home for stealing or something. He ends up staying in Harzat Nizammudin dargah, where Shammi Kapoor who plays (Bismillah Khan) spots him and decides to give him a big break. And yea somewhere in the middle of it all he gets to go to Prague, where he re-meets  married Heer and they cross the line (as the actress puts it) and fall in love (I think, not sure though). Apparently Jordan (I forgot to mention that Rockstar is called Jordan!) has this magic touch which re-kindles Heer who is dying from some kind of a blood disease. Did I say you feel like killing yourself every time Nargis Fakri opens her mouth? So after a brief stint of extra marital affair Heer is sent back from Prague to Delhi, where she meets, hugs, kisses and accompanies Jordon on his concert tours without any objection from her parents because its improving her health you see!! After all this Heer gets pregnant and goes directly into coma so much so that now even the “magic touch” fails to revive her. Rockstar after this has longer hair and sings with more (unnecessary) pressure and pitch and also fake painful expressions. So that more or less end the movie and that is what Rockstar really is all about! No striking love story neither fight for any rights (Saadaa Haq you ask? I want to ask the same!)


I know the previous paragraph is confusing but it’s kinda deliberate, to give you guys a feeling of how the movie actually is! It’s even more confusing than that. It’s as if the makers first decided to make a movie, then midway they got bored and tried to quickly finish it and then again they got serious about it and so on. Everything thing happens suddenly in the movie,  be it Jordon’s Rockstar status, or Heer’s marriage or their feelings for each other.The movie has its share of good moments but they are very rare. The movie could have been made better and it would surely have left a deep impact on the audience. The only impact it now has is a slight headache. The only thing (apart from the music) which I liked about the movie were the pretty colourful Kashmiri dresses worn by the actress, can’t wait to go back to my hometown and flaunt my collection of Kashmiri Phirans and shawls!! Also an amusing presentation of Kashmiri Pandit wedding, what exactly were so many Muslims doing in a Kashmiri Pandit wedding? Could have been better though am not complaining. To spot it first time onscreen, I should be busier being all excited about it rather than finding faults!

My rating to this movie would be 2/5.

Acting wise Ranbir is Good, Nargis looks beautiful but as long as she keeps her mouth shut. The actor who plays Khataraji (canteen uncle) has done a great job. Also, a commendable job by Piyush Mishra who plays the owner some some music company. Other characters like the families of Heer and Jordon are forgettable. The star of the show is of course Mr Shammi Kapoor who sizzles in his last work on the silver screen.

WORDS OF WISDOM – AVOID IT!