Rockstar: It is difficult to sustain
a script for nearly three hours and even more so if a half is full of
contemporary froth and the later full of traditional melodrama. If you gel with
the first you don’t sync with the rest . This is the major undoing with the
film. A brilliant actor, a good looking (porcelain) actress making her maiden
appearance, some great sufi music ( AR Rehman) the presence of Shammi Kapoor
and Prague (cinematography: Anil Mehta)are insufficient to sustain the three
long hours. Specially not for an audience fed on the multiplex model.
At one stage in the film when the principle players go through the emotional
scenes, it is sad that we have a crowd that responds with crude comments. A
gender insensitive society is emotionally exhausted, its pretences crude, its
responses crass. Cat calls when some one is dying , even with in the precincts
of a cinema hall augurs danger. Are we just corrupt ( sorry Anna if you believe
this is only about politics and politicians) or are we a drained society ?
Rockstar builds its story on a stereo type. The bad boy image to a rock star is
perhaps as identifiable as the Shanker Sastry (Shankarabarnam) image is to
classical music. The central character JJ – Janardhan or Jordan (Ranbhir) is
the guy who has no inspiration and has never been stretched to challenge. A
peripheral desire to be a performing star leads to no where till he meets Heer
(Nargis). Caught up in a commercial circuit he soon sees the only way to meet
up with her is to sign a contract and perform in Prague. In Prague the star
grows, the man crumbles. The artist is accepted his life disintegrates. There
is almost a Paulo Coelho touch to the fabric. What lifts the credibility of the
film which perhaps is dealing with nothing new and not in a fashion very novel,
is that it effortlessly transcends a moral premise through the sheer intensity
of Ranbhir and the grace of Nargis.
The central character is etched with unmatched finesse , zeal and sincerity by
Ranbhir. This lad is a winner. He translates Shelly who said :
We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
Of saddest thought.
His sweet and pain combine is a marvel and a sheer delight to watch. Experience
a high voltage performance. If for nothing watch Rockstar for the star. He
single handedly wades though the script, its pulsating peaks, endearing moments
and yawning drifts. He takes you through them all and more. It is a tragedy
that an entire generation of audience can trivialize some heart wrenching
moments. You almost feel sorry for Ranbhir and then get to join him in the
hopeful scream : Nadan Parinday Ghar Aaja.
The conclusion may suggest a tragedy but it reiterates a Paulo Coelho thought :
If there is any possible consolation in the tragedy of losing some one we love
very much , it’s the necessary hope that perhaps it was for the best.
L.Ravichander.