Review of Rockstar (2011) by Thakur S — 18 Nov 2011

This movie released the day after "that" day in Cape Town. And watching it was no less a roller coaster ride than "that" fateful day. It too had spoonfuls of good bordering on extraordinary with a generous sprinkling of pathetic.

40 years down the line, the fourth generation RK should be doing good to remake Rockstar 2, a tribute to his dad's career defining performance. For an actor that young, to carry of a role so loud and flamboyant, with so much poise and dexterity, without once caricaturing it, requires a special talent and Ranbir Kapoor is definitely one.

What more can we say about A R Rahman that hasn't been told. He is a genius. Here he paints one of his most eclectic scores, a brilliant fusion of sufi, folk, rock and classical. It just grows on you slowly but surely. He is the undoubted show stopper.

And theres the other side. Perhaps Imitaz Ali was so intimidated by the talent around him that he screwed up his core strengths, writing, and that too badly. The screenplay, especially in the second half meanders from one pothole to another, aimlessly, The scenes are repetitive and it required extreme patience to sit through it.

But the movie definitely belongs to Nargis Fakhri. She is already a rage on in the e-world, butt of all the clichéd bad acting jokes (One of them suggested she made Katrina Kaif look Audrey Hepburn). So lets just say she is bad. Its difficult to point out whose fault was it : Imtiaz Ali for such gross mis-casting or Nargis Fakhri for actually believing she can pull it off. My appreciation for acting as an art increased manifold after watching this film.

A movie which had the potential to be an epic, was ultimately reduced to a pretty run of the mill film due to shoddy writing and acting.