India Masala

Rockstar: Ranbir, Rahman are the stars

If you want to watch the rockstars in action in Imtiaz Ali’s “Rockstar“, look out for the “Kun Faya Kun” number in the first half — both A. R. Rahman and Ranbir Kapoor are at their best here — the lilting melody of the song and Ranbir’s range of expressions remind you of how good the two are at what they do.

They are the stars of “Rockstar” — the reason why you leave the movie with a somewhat positive feeling. Everything else, including the script, the direction and other performances are found wanting, much to your disappointment.

Director Ali attempts to chart the tumult that tears apart an aspiring musician, Janardan Jakhar, aka Jordan played by Ranbir Kapoor. Janardan belongs to a regular middle-class family and, as he himself says, has lived a remarkably ordinary life, except for his love for music and his desire to make it big. On the advice of his college canteen manager, who tells him that all great art comes out of pain, Janardan decides to propose to the beautiful Heer, the most popular girl on campus, and then feigns heartbreak when she rejects him.

When that plan backfires, the two become friends, and Heer, who is soon to be married, makes a list of “crazy things” she wants to do before she “settles down”. Of course, as in most Imtiaz Ali films, both characters realise they have fallen in love with each other — after one of them is married. Janardan becomes Jordan, gets thrown out of his house, develops angst and grows a beard.

There really is no story after this point and it becomes a chronicle of Heer and Jordan’s doomed love story. There are some lovely moments and the songs are shot beautifully, but there are two major problems with this movie. And I do mean major. One is that Ali cannot seem to decide whether he wants to make a love story or a story about a rockstar. As a result, it becomes neither — both aspects get diluted and do not help the film.

Also, the reasons for Jordan’s angst aren’t built up well enough, so his dishevelled, bitter, angry avatar is a bit unbelievable. The incidents that lead to Ranbir’s anger and bitterness are hardly valid and most of them seem blown out of proportion, and a little too forced.

Ali tries to go a level up and likens love and music to a spiritual experience and the montage at the end is evidence of that, but the pace of the film and its many loopholes in the plot don’t.

Anjaana Anjaani: Suicidal story

Making a film with just two characters and about their journey towards love is a concept that has worked quite well in the past.

The Ethan Hawke starrer “Before Sunrise” and its sequel “Before Sunset” come to mind immediately. These films had at their centre a great love story between two very interesting people and their interaction with each other itself was enough to take the story forward.

It is of course entirely to the credit of the director and the scriptwriter that he can achieve that.

And no matter how many foreign locales director Siddharth Anand shoots in and no matter how American his characters talk and act, he doesn’t come even close to creating that kind of interest and sympathy for them, or his film for that matter.

“Anjaana Anjaani” is about Kiara and Aakash, two very whiny people who meet each other when they are trying to kill themselves but by the time they change their mind, you might want to do the deed for them.

They spend the two-and-a-half-hour film driving around the desert and swimming in freezing water, pretending they are friends, when you could have saved them that trouble and told them they were going to fall in love in the first five minutes of the film. Their exchanges are childish to say the least and have none of the freshness and originality you might expect from a film that is anyway re-hashing an old formula.

Both Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra share a good chemistry on screen but give the sense that they are trying too hard to make up for the listless script. The last scene especially is so bad it is cringeworthy and both actors ham it up like there is no tomorrow.

Raajneeti: An epic nicely retold

First things first, “Raajneeti” is not about the first family in Indian politics even though some characters might resemble familiar cardboard cutouts.

So don’t go expecting some dope on a reality which is much stranger than fiction.

This film is a costume drama with white kurtas and cotton saris replacing wooden swords and bling bling battle dresses.

It is a re-telling of the Mahabharata restating it in a not-so-modern but certainly contemporary politics — somewhat like Shashi Tharoor’s “The Great Indian Novel”.

So if you go looking for Karna you will find him within the first five minutes of the movie and Ranbir Kapoor’s character will turn out less like any politician dead or alive and more Arjuna-meets-Michael Corleone from “The Godfather”.

Once the characters have been established, the thrill of watching doesn’t lie in what is going to happen next.

For that you know already.

Rocket Singh: Underdog does win but barely

We all know that feeling. When you are just out of college and fresh into a new job with no experience whatsoever, just a burning desire to do well.

Ranbir Kapoor captures a bit of all of us in Harpreet Singh Bedi, the protagonist of “Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year”. He is wide-eyed, eager and flabbergasted, all at the same time, as he tries to negotiate his way around the snake pit that a corporate office can sometimes turn into.

Not for him the ambitions of joining an IIM or working in a high-profile firm. He is happy with a salesman’s job in a computer firm that pays him 15,000 rupees a month.

Director Shimit Amin builds a loving portrait of his protagonist and Kapoor brings such honesty to his performance that you are rooting for Harpreet within the first 15 minutes of the film.

We follow him on his first field visit with his boss and urge him on as he learns the tricks of the trade. We sympathise with him when he gets the worst seat in the office and is generally ignored by the rest of the office. We’ve all been there.

But this is where Harpreet Singh Bedi stops being ordinary. When he complains against a client who tried asking him for a bribe, Harpreet is reprimanded by his boss, who asks him “not to spoil his relations with clients”.

Our hero is put on notice, barred from making client calls and humiliated by colleagues.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani: Ranbir saving grace

You hear the words Rajkumar Santoshi and comedy in one sentence and you immediately think — “Andaz Apna Apna”.

Fifteen years later, Santoshi is back with another comic caper, this time starring Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif.  But if you are expecting another “Andaz Apna Apna”, you will be sorely disappointed.

This film has almost nothing going for it and if it weren’t for some funny moments in the first half and the brilliant comic timing of Ranbir Kapoor, it would have sunk into oblivion.

Ranbir plays Prem Shankar Sharma, a loveable but good-for-nothing young man who runs something called a “Happy Club” (the purpose of this club is unclear).

He meets Jenny (Katrina Kaif), falls in love and spends the film’s first half wooing her. This is the half that is funny in parts and will make you laugh. Unfortunately, it is all downhill from there.

Jenny, it turns out, is in love with Rahul (Upen Patel with an atrocious accent) but cannot marry him because Rahul’s father is a politician afraid of losing ‘Hindu’ votes if his son marries a Christian. Our filmmakers are inventing newer obstacles in the path of love.

So Prem puts aside his “prem” and sets about helping Jenny get hers. The second half has some funny moments, like the scene between Prem’s parents, but otherwise the script wears thin.

Wake Up Sid: A whole new formula film

Bollywood has always survived on the formula — the elusive secret to making a successful film that combines elaborate sets, melodrama and of course, dancing around trees. Then multiplexes arrived and we were told it was the era of niche films, ones that didn’t go by the formula.

Films like “Wake Up Sid” are well on their way to becoming a meeting point between the old and the new, and becoming a whole different genre of films — the formula multiplex film.

Now that the multiplex audience in India is such an important part of the movie going public, there are a lot of films being made with them in mind and most are now beginning to stick to a formula.

Have an urban hero (preferably young) confused about life, throw in some college scenes, smart dialogues and a disco scene or two.

Make the aesthetics such that they appeal to the yuppie audience and there you have it — the formula to make a multiplex film.

Let me also add a disclaimer here. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to make a formula film. After all, many of Bollywood’s biggest hits have followed the formula but they have also had that something extra. “Wake Up Sid”, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona Sen Sharma doesn’t always pass that test.

Kapoor plays Siddharth Mehra, a spoilt rich brat who has no aim in life except — do nothing. He meets Aisha (Konkona Sen Sharma), elder to him and in search of “independence” in Mumbai. The two soon strike up a friendship. When Sid fails in his exams and his father decides to crack the whip, our protagonist decides he is better off living on his own. He lands up at Aisha’s house, hoping to make it in the real world, but soon realizes he isn’t equipped for it at all.

More than ‘just good friends’ in Bollywood

“We are just good friends” has to be the most overused phrase in Bollywood (or even Hollywood) for that matter.

A couple of years ago, each time rumour mills started working non-stop about a “friendship” between celebrities, the two concerned parties were sure to come up with a statement about how they were just good friends.

Of course, there are a lot of Bollywood stars who are genuinely good friends, but cast your mind back to Aishwarya-Abhishek or Lara-Dino and you will see a lot of “we are good friends” statements before the relationship was “outed”.

I do see some change in this attitude though, and Preity Zinta is a good example.

Bachna Ae Haseeno: Ranbir comes out shining

Dreamy locales, designer threads, wedding sequences, racy numbers and a happy ending — Yash Raj Films finally got the formula right.”Bachna Ae Haseeno” has all this and more. It’s a formula film no doubt, but it has its heart in the right place.

So when you are introduced to Raj Sharma, an incorrigible flirt and lovable rascal with a serious commitment phobia — you kind of take to him immediately.

He meets girls, makes promises of everlasting love and then disappears. First, its Mahi (played by Minissha Lamba), a sweet Punjabi girl he meets on a trip to Switzerland, then Radhika (played by Bipasha Basu), an ambitious model.

Third time around, our hero is struck really hard — when he meets Gayatri (Deepika Padukone). They drive around Sydney at odd hours, dance around exotic beaches (watch out for the beautifully shot ‘Khuda Jaane’ track) and of course fall in love. Now here comes the twist, which of course we won’t tell you.

Let me just say that a turn of events prompts Raj to revisit Mahi and Radhika to make amends. The rest of the film focuses on this mission.

It’s obvious right from the first frame that this is Ranbir Kapoor’s film through and through — and he comes out shining. His first film (“Saawariya”) didn’t showcase his comic talent and it’s quite obvious Kapoor has lots of it. He pulls off the scenes with the right amount of goofiness and innocence.

The three leading ladies perform well and look great — Yash Raj heroines always do, so that’s not a big surprise. Deepika and Ranbir’s chemistry is crackling on screen but Bipasha and Ranbir also make a great pair.