Oye Ranbir Puttar! Aye le Twadda Haq. Rab Rakha!

Rating: 9/10 (26 January 2012)

No Ranbir snorting cocaine, no blurred-skin-make-love scenes with Fakhri, no breaking guitar on the stage and no family regretting the decision to throw-out their maverick kid. Yeah it was disappointing because Imtiaz Ali repeated scenes one after another and like our innate expectations there were no happy endings. Lastly, why on earth should the movie be called Rockstar, when it definitely looks like a love story more than an evolution of a legendary musician?
Rockstar isn't an ordinary fare by any measure barring the rather explicably missed transition of a Delhi boy from being a complete asshole to being Jim Morrison. It's a biographical of sacrifice, love & loss from the eyes of a musician, a real eccentric one. Yes, it's not a happy story, it makes you hate the guy, then love him, then hate him some more. By the end of it, you realize that your own emotions towards him are as frivolous as his mood swings. What makes Rockstar a real winner for me is undoubtedly the blend of the story with Rahman's genius musical stroke.
"He set out to conquer the world without knowing a dime about it and in return he lost everything he had. Now he pleads himself to return home – Oh Naadaan Parinday Ghar Aa Jaa!"
Rockstar has been shot like a dream with those hair-raising scenes bathing in sepia, slow- mo shots, the mystique love of Prague and the subtle yet perfect use of documentary-ish footage.
In North India, we have a popular term called "Ainvayee" which quintessentially means out- of-context. Believe me, there are no "Ainvayee" moments in those two hours and more than thirty minutes. This is what makes us Bollywood aficionados keep the faith.
In good taste, the Kapoor scion is a wand of acting genius. Never in the movie has he made himself look awfully bigger than the situation or his co-stars. His pain, his trauma, his fighting his inner demons is as real as it gets. To quote Neetu Kapoor & myself, Ranbir Kapoor is to Raj Kapoor what Sachin Tendulkar is to Don Bradman.
"I have all there is to ask for but my heart is filled with anxiety and a burning sensation". Not to forget, Nargis Fakhri who is a million times more gorgeous and a better actor than Siddharth Mallya's Girlfriend. She is totally smoking. By the way, whoever thought of casting Shammiji & Piyush Mishra, needs a Patiala pat too.
At last, a humble mention for Imtiaz Ali. You have created what a bastard child of Yash Chopra and Anurag Kashyap would have made. Here's a double toast to you and the writers who made sure that there are no dialogues for the obvious.
"Poetry & music only come out of broken hearts. The path to the top is full of insufferable pain."