Surely not a fairy tale love story.

Rating: 8/10 (15 March 2016)

Imtiaz Ali has again succeeded in giving a love story different from traditional Bollywood fairy tale love stories. This movie aligns with the concept of his previous movies like 'Jab We Met' and 'Love Aaj Kal'. But love story is not the only thing that this movie offers but it is hell of a ride of a jouney of life of a 'Rock star'.
The lead character (Ranbir Kapoor) is confused and puzzled in the beginning like the previous movies and a failed singer/ guitarist looking for fame and success but doesn't know how to get it, until he receives an advice from his friend that every great artist has a story, a story of pain behind his success. That exactly is the concept of the movie and the rest of the movie gives the details of how he fell in love and felt his shares of pain to become a 'Rockstar'.
How the story unfolds sometimes makes the viewer confused and many of the people don't get the concept of the movie and don't relate to it. The first half of the movie unfolds his college life, his desire to become a rockstar and also his new friendship with Heer (Nargis Fakhri) in humorous manner which later gets pretty serious and complicated as Heer is about to marry. The second half unfolds more about his music life after Heer leaves his life and he is thrown out of home. Music becomes his way of expressing himself and love story gets more and more complicated when meets Heer in Prague during his music tours.
The director has surely woven the love story like no other but script is not very strict, so much things keep happening leaving the audience baffled and thinking "what this movie is really about?" Imtiaz Ali has tried to give so much in one movie that it gets a little hard to digest In other words the the movie doesn't unfold very smoothly.
Ranbir Kapoor surely looks like a rockstar and has done the job the perfectly well, it showed all the hard work he had done learning with A R Rahman in his studio. The scene where Ranbir (JJ) yells while while getting beaten really looked genuine and really sends shiver down your spine. All other actors also did well, the loose end being the debuting lead actress Nargis Fakhri.
The music given is excellent as expected from A. R. Rahman and is on par how much is needed in music based movie like this and vocals of Mohit Chauhan really brings out the pain of the rockstar.
The movie loses its direction a little bit after the interval but overall the movie is worth watching not just as an entertainer but also as a one to be inspired from. Imtiaz Ali has prepared a dose of pain to be felt.