Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar (2011): Raises the bar of expression for it's actor and director

I know it’s too late to write this review, but in my case it is always like 'jab jaago tab saavera'...jab dekhoge toh hi toh express kar paaoge. 

A lot of constraints often stop me from watching a film in the very first week of its release. And I’m not someone who goes to a movie because of other’s perceptions…I know that would be a wiser decision…but when it comes to movies I just listen to myself and no wiser decisions come to me then.

Anyways coming back to the film Rockstar, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. The themes, the emotion, the cinematography and yes the music, for sure, all made it a wonderful experience. I want to say I had heard a lot of mixed reviews about the film, somewhat more permuting to the negative side. But after watching the film all I can say is that those negative reviews would have been more so based by those who took the movie’s director’s earlier ventures as a pre-notion in their mind to watch this film as well.

I don’t usually judge audience sensibilities, everyone has their own perceptions and I respect that. I don’t judge your judgment; you don’t judge mine…is what I go by. Anyways, I think that most people, who went to watch this film, had to pre-conceived notions about it before they entered the hall.

Firstly, after looking at the film’s posters and its name, they were expecting an artistic and brilliant look into the world of music and the image of a ‘rockstar’. They were expecting a film based on ‘rockstar’.

Secondly, most people went in holding a pre-conceived image of Imtiaz Ali’s earlier venture. Love breakup reunion drama sort of image, with candy floss romance and diversions.

Now these two notions were in themselves so contradictory in the mind of the audience that a few failed to understand and view the film objectively.

I’m not saying Rockstar is in any way a brilliant cinematic experience, or top notch of the lot, no. The film has its own fault lines. Some casting decisions, certain predictably dramatic portions, a bit of slope downwards in unraveling the plot that slowed it to a snail’s pace; this was all there too. But then again the film’s themes and cinematography and music just fills up your senses so well that you can over look certain parts of that.

One of my friends, Neelakshi, aptly commented on the film by saying; “The main (and only) problem with Rockstar is that the director was unsure whether to pitch his movie for the masala- loving audience who laps up movies like Bodyguard and Ra-One or whether to pitch it for the art critics. In the process, he might have ended up pleasing neither. However for me who falls into neither category the movie was thoroughly enjoyable.”

I too felt the same, Imtiaz Ali wanted to make film that was different to his earlier style, but he might have been unsure of how his traditional followers will respond to the sudden change of his direction, hence the visible fault lines in the plot.

For me the film is ruled by its themes. Themes of a tragic love story, theme of artistic expression and angst, and the theme of self destruction. Yes it might be true that Ranbir’s rise as a ‘rockstar’ starts after pain and heart break enters his life; but it is also true that this pain and heartbreak is not reason of his rise, these emotions unleash the creative expression in his heart and voice, that was otherwise resting as comfortably within him as his own life of comfort. The theme of self destruction is more prominent than all the other.

Ranbir Kapoor’s acting is just brilliant. After Ranjneeti, he has again proved his mettle as an actor very successfully as a Rockstar as well. Anyone anywhere who has watched the film has not stopped praising his acting skills and his constant upward growth as a performer. Nargis Fakhri is just a beautiful face, who shouldn’t have opened her mouth or moved a bit. She reminds me a lot of Katrina Kaif, just a face but moment you open your mouth it just shuns you off totally. Aditi Rao has a small role yet her remarkable performance in that too doesn’t let her get shadowed out. Piyush Mishra delivers a great performance as ‘Dhingra’. Shammi Kapoor’s short appearance is more about his expression through eyes, which are beautifully conveyed, and they just make you nostalgic about his presences in film industry and recent demise.

Music of the film had been a hit even before the film was released, after the film’s release audiences started loving the lesser played numbers as well. I enjoyed the songs ‘Nadaan Parindey’ and ‘Jo bhi main….’ And loved the musical bit with the jugalbandi between Shammi Kapoor on shehnai and Ranbir Kapoor on guitar. In the album it is called ‘dichotomy of fame’, an instrumental piece that I’m sure everyone would love.

I feel somewhere down the line the whole music team themselves enjoyed making the music of this film, and that is what is conveyed in its lyrics, music and vocals. Everything, I know a bit over rated, but for sure was a musical ecstasy for me.

                                        

I don’t want to get too much into the storyline here, because for that wiki is there. Also those who have seen it know what it is about and those who haven’t should definitely see it to know what it is about.

The film is, well everyone knows by now, not about ‘rockstars’. It is more closely related to ‘Devdas’ and ‘Dev D’. It is about an artist’s personal journey to self discovery and realizing that getting your ‘heartbroken’ is not just about refusal of a proposal; it is deeper than that, it is about blindly falling for someone and then realizing that you can never really hold on to them.

I loved the narrative style, the non-linear narration, was a good break from the few recent films I have seen. Also the open-ending is an interesting addition to Imtiaz Ali’s style of filming. It leaves a lot to audience’s imagination and intellect.  Cinematographer Anil Mehta provides a beautiful edge to the film, with his lens realistically and artistically capturing the beauty of Delhi, Kashmir and Prague. No doubt in that I would say he has a remarkable record of work with films such as Khamoshi: the Musical, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Lagaan, Saathiya, Kal Ho Na Ho, Veer Zaara and Wake Up Sid; in his kitty.

I would give Rockstar 4 out of 5. This is all for three reason’s; one being Ranbir Kapoor’s performance, two being its music that is just mesmerizing, and three for Imtiaz Ali for attempting something like Rockstar.

  

Directed By: Imtiaz Ali

Produced By: Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd; Eros International

Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Piyush Mishra, Nargis Fakhri, Aditi Rao.

Story By: Imtiaz Ali

Music Director: A.R. Rehman

Cinematographer: Anil Mehta

Bimal Roy’s ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ (1953): a socialistic realistic cinematic portrayal

THERE IS a great Indian director considered a master with his realistic portrayal of society, including its all bitter truths. A director who had a strong command over the narrative and his films were a true look into the era they were set in.

Leave all his other films aside; one of his most acclaimed works is Do Bigha Zameen (DBZ), a socialistic realistic cinematic portrayal. It is a story of an agrarian society slowly been taken over by industrialization and commercialization and vices that accompany it.

As author BD Garga remarks in his book on cinema, “His (Bimal Roy) indignation arises out of one man’s exploitation of the other, lack of human decency and social decay. He questions not so much the political structure as the moral base of the society…in “Udayer Pathey” and DBZ, he despises the deception of the rich…He was a romantic and an idealist to whom exploitation in any form - social, economic or religious- was unacceptable.”

In DBZ, Balraj Sahni showed a vast emotional range. He portrays the role of the peasant Shambhu convincingly that you can feel moved with every emotion that the character goes through. It was perhaps his best-known role as the peasant Shambhu and gives a performance of a lifetime. His realistic portrayal stands out all the more particularly when one considers him in real life being well educated and westernized. It is said he actually rehearsed for the role by pushing a rickshaw on the streets of Calcutta and interacting with other rickshaw pullers who were convinced he was one of them. Nirupa Roy and Rattan Kumar as his wife and son respectively compliment Sahni perfectly.

Every character in the film is a representation of a class, be it a poor farmer who considers his piece of land to be his mother, a lecherous and greedy landlord, a scared and protective wife and mother, a child who travels to a city and sees the trials his father goes through and tries to become a part of it. Other than these there are a lot of distinct characters- like a dying father who only wishes to see his son save his land or characters in the city; like a crude landlady who is soft in the core of the heart.

What is also attractive in the film is the composition of the frame that makes every shot almost as if a work of photographic art. Roy never looses the sense of realism from the narration of the story. The film is beautifully photographed by Kamal Bose.

The story of the dispossessed peasant and the landlord had been told many times before but in DBZ, Bimal Roy with his innate reserve and good taste chooses a much wider context in which to place his narrative thus looking at rural poverty at one end and the brutalizing effects of city life at the other end. DBZ is a sad and moving tale which Roy projects with much sympathy, understatement and simplicity and gives us a film that is very human and has great emotional depth.

The film is strongly influenced by the Italian neo-realist Cinema and particularly evokes De Sica’s masterpiece Bicycle Thief (1949) particularly in the scenes of the father and son in the city.

The film also has a high dosage of metaphors as images like the idea of a man running as fast a horse to support his living. Something that hits me while watching this particular scene is a similar type of metaphor from a different film. I am reminded of Naya Daur (1957), a film too based on the ideas of change in the society. There it’s the negatives of industrialization and modernization and machine culture that displaces human labour. In that film it’s the horse-cart driving labourer as against the machine cars.

A moderate commercial success, the film won Roy much critical acclaim and awards at the Cannes and Karlovy Vary festivals. To quote the News Chronicle on August 17, 1956. The film also went on to win Best Film and Best Director awards at the inaugural Filmfare Awards. But perhaps the biggest compliment for the film was a comment made by Raj Kapoor. On seeing DBZ and being much moved by the film he had exclaimed, “How I wished I had made this film!

Here is a scene from the film that is particularly the start of it all...especially should be seen by those who haven't seen the film so far....

There are a lot of excellent dialogues in this movie, but this scene has one of my favorite dialogues so far:

Sambhu: zameen toh kissan ki Maa hai hazoor....Maa ko baich doon?

Zamindar: Arre rehne de. Zameen par mill lagg jaane se Maa Baap bann jayegi....

Do Bigha Zameen (1953)

Director: Bimal Roy

Starring: Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy, Ratan Kumar, Jagdeep, Murad, Nana Palsikar

Producer: Bimal Roy

Writers: Salil Choudhury (story), Paul Mahendra(dialogue), Hrishikesh Mukherjee(scenario)

Music Director: Salil Choudhury

Cinematography: Kamal Bose

Editing: Hrishikesh Mukherjee