It's not just a biographical film, it's a beautiful poem on screen!

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 2019)

So this movie certainly calls for comparisons with another film that came out last year. When I had seen the first trailer for 'Rocketman', my initial reaction was "Wow, now there's another 'Bohemian Rhapsody' - style movie coming out. I don't think I would watch it in a movie theatre". I thought this not because I didn't like Bohemian Rhapsody; in fact I had goosebumps throughout that film! But honestly that was because I'm a huge 'Queen' fan and a major part of that film was literally a series of scenes showing the composing / recording of the greatest Queen songs followed by recreation of some of their iconic stage performances of those songs (a total fantasy for a fanboy! :p ). But I'm not a "fanboy" of Elton John. I do love 4 or 5 songs of his ("Can you feel the love tonight" is one of my all-time favourites), but there was nothing strong that would excite me for this movie. But looking at the very positive critical response for this film, I decided to watch it, with a fair amount of skepticism, on the big screen. Boy, I was wrong to doubt this film from its trailer. This film's approach is very different from Bohemian Rhapsody. Rocketman is a very well-crafted film with brilliant direction, some gorgeous set-pieces and camera-work, and a flawless work by the lead actor. Taron Egerton completely merges into Elton John's character and delivers an outstanding performance, which I liked even better than Rami Malek's Oscar winning performance last year. The first 10 mins of the film itself captured my full attention and I knew then that I'm in for a very refreshing experience. This film feels like an epic poem portraying Reginald Dwight's story in a very personal and emotional manner. Unlike "Bohemian Rhapsody", where the purpose of the songs were limited to entertaining the audience (mostly fans), here, Elton John's songs (recreated, and sung by Taron himself) serve as a device for storytelling: the film-makers cleverly use the musical-style approach to depict happening of events, and passage of time. Sure, there are sequences where people burst into singing and dancing, but all of them feel to serve a narrative purpose, rather than mere entertainment or extension of the film's run-time. The film does feel to drag a bit in between because we are quite familiar with the framework of a biopic of a huge star. Moreover, we have revised this arc only last year. But here the usual tropes of a film about the rise, fall, and comeback of a star are interwoven with strong thematic elements of loneliness, longing to be loved, and embracing one's true self, all of which make Rocketman a much deeper film that I had imagined!