Searching for India's first so called Rockstar

Rating: 6/10 (23 November 2011)

India does have an underground rock culture, but it has not been able to generate a mass appeal that rock music enjoys in the west and rightly so. India is the land having its own traditional music culture and if there is any place for another music culture in the commercial music industry, it has been hijacked by the pretend to be anything industry Bollywood. It churns out music that appeals to vast majority of people but does not create music stars as they are not photogenic for an image obsessed industry. Hence even a musician's music and voice has been legitimately hijacked by publicity whores of Bollywood.
Speaking of image, rock music artists somehow have etched an image of him standing with an electric guitar on stage with rest of the world swooning or jumping over whatever tunes the musician spews out or in case of Bollywood's latest offering 'Rockstar'; India's latest teen heartthrob standing with a guitar in his hands pretending to play it and spew out some catchy music sung by none other than A R Rehman. Nothing wrong with it and largely effective even without providing concession to Bollywood over details of the art form they are pretending to show exists in India.
Rockstar is directed by India's commercial film-maker Imtiaz Ali, who won the license to make whatever he wants jackpot when his rom-com movie 'Jab we met' became a blockbuster and middle class India's favorite go- to movie. Thankfully, he has not miss-used his freedom like Sanjay Leela Bhansali and has been able to keep a semblance of depth in his work. The movie about a rockstar (stage name Jordan) rising from the abyss of India's lower middle class is a delight to watch mainly because the characters have been rooted in reality. His inspiration to be a rock star and his rise as a musician has moments of truth and go a long way in diminishing the gap between reality and fiction.
But one very important of the movie fails to lift itself above fiction. Nargis Fakhri's Heer as Jordan's love and reason for many angst ridden songs efficiently fulfills her goal to turn her character from fiction to farce. As the movie focuses its complete attention on the romance between Jordan and Heer, it desperately tries to cling on its hope on Ranbir Kapoor's performance and Rehman's yet another perfect score. But Nargis never really is able to act her way through a very important character in the film and evaporates all hopes of making this a memorable film of 2011.
More blame has to be taken by Imtiaz Ali for his casting fetish for fare skinned foreign born models who are never ambitious to become an able actor. They use this golden opportunity to further their goals to maximize profits for being fair skinned in an increasingly insecure middle class India. But if Imtiaz had any short term goals for the film, I guess they have been achieved with the satisfying box office run. As far as India's Rockstar is concerned he also is lost after a little while into the second half of this movie. Rehman though composed some impressive array of tunes does not really gets a grip of the rock culture in India as it won't have a mass appeal. But rock music becomes just an excuse to confirm the super star status of Ranbir Kapoor.
Whereas the movie is concerned, it is not at all the farce that was achieved in 2008 with 'Rock on!!' and is far more polished than that misguided middle class dream wagon. 'Rockstar' has its moments in the first half and has its disappointments in the sad final reel.
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