Rockstar Ali

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2012)

Imtiaz Ali knows how to start a movie and holds the audience till the end with all the conviction. His research on some iconic figure like Johnny Cash and Jim Morrison was complete which he loosely spun around his college days from Delhi. The Director from Patna had all the right flavors of a college and canteen. Rockstar is more of a story about the fall from the Rise that never was. The movie is well portrayed like the tastes of Devdas or DevD pitched around with guitar instead of alcohol. The subtleness of drug and alcohol is remarkable with Ali's direction. Ali, known for usual Bollywood romantics has come out of his age and getting perfection. although he missed on some minor glitch but the package is delivered.
The movie starts with a flashback and goes to Delhi university where you find a devoted music lesser known artiste, so naive and gullible that he actually goes out to find a heartache and comes back to canteen to eat a plate of samosa. Janardhan aka Jordon aka JJ played by Ranbir kapoor is a jat but has mannerism of a Bihari, must be inspired by Ali's college days. The movie soon goes out to Kashmir and Himachal with superb camera of Anil mehta. The lighting and original locations were shot perfectly. However there was no closeup shot of the protagonist to capture his emotions. The director (may be smart enough) to ignore this and focus on the frame rather than close-ups. The movie rolls down to trips to strip clubs and red light district. Like always Ali's heroines are over chirpy and ready break the stereotype roles. Pakistani American Nargis Fakri is very fresh and delight to eyes. She has got expressions which Katrina misses, and can go beyond her status. Nargis is very easy to the character both as exquisite and fragile. She was also easy with the philosophy of Ali and did full justice to the character. I must not be surprised if I see her one day as leading lady of Bollywood. Her ducky lips so unique that you may not notice the bad dubbing for her mouth delivery. Ali de-focused all other characters, esp Piyush Mishra. Kumud Mishra did suit the role but the movie was more about Ranbir and his muse Fakhri. Shammi Kapoor looked very justifiable as a portray of Ustaad Bismillah khan and his eyes were so good. Indeed a great tribute to the legendary actor. A movie about a Rockstar is incomplete without the superb music department. AR Rahman stood tall on the giants of Mohit Chauhan,Irshad Kamil. The music was blended with the movie so tight that it flow together. "Sadda Haq" is an example of true rock and so is the "Hawa Hawa" of lost Czech legend with superb mix of impulsive lyrics. Irshad provided the soul to the Rockstar, while Rahman did the rest. It's one of the best from Rahman in recent times. Mohit is good with different moods and he definitely rose to new genre.
The movie has some not so good explanation about why Indian media will hunt a lesser known artiste and I have not seen any Rockstar with so much fan following in India and abroad who sings in Hindi. The chemistry between Ranbin and Fakhri was just shown sparking with a sleazy movie invite. The theft of Rs 5 lakhs was never satisfactory to throw out Ranbir from the ancestral home.
The opening lines of movie was right on the spot to set the expectation.