Finally something has propelled me enough to blog beyond 140 characters ( ie on Twitter- not Facebook- it's not such a free space & I half-know 3/4th of the people, unlike Twitter where I do not know anyone, but wish to know all! )
Rockstar! Frankly I was really looking forward to this film & had decided I was not going to be disappointed. Here was a film, whose previews looked good, told a story and just looked strong- a well designed film.
So, in the theatre as it opened it started looking largely different from the preview assumptions I had made. It is garnering some rather strong Love/ Hate responses. It is really easy to hate given that it's long, quite abrupt, incomplete and quite bizzare at times - 10% of the people walked out 5-10 minutes before the end when it seemed beyond logical.
Coming back to my personal experience of watching Rockstar ( it is not a collective watching / common collective opinion kind of film). 10 minutes past, I realised that this is not the film I was expecting- I was here for the journey of a rockstar upto the point of his destruction, while he romances a girl & is heartbroken, thrown away from his house and all the bad things that contribute to his pain.
It was all that, but it turned out to be in a form of exploded, sometimes abrupt fragments in flashback, roughly in a chronological order. It was not easy to read/ understand as it progressed. But it is a strong film- and has no average reviews- People hate it and I am one of the people who Love it!
I guess people hate it, not because it was lower than expected, but it was not HOW they expected it to be. Fair enough, given the nature of the film.
Here is why I decided to LIKE Rockstar- sometime into the film I realised that I was just burdening it with my expectations of how the story should unfold. But I did not think the fragmented nature was an amateurish accident, but it was designed to be so. It is a very conscious effort from the director's (Imtiaz Ali) end to tell his story the way he wants to and was going to be very unabashed about being indulgent in his vision for it.
When did I decide to LOVE Rockstar? Was right at the end when there is a throwback to the scene where the two are alone in Himachal and the credits started to roll. The inconclusive, yet complete end when all those seemingly abrupt fragments start making sense & I realised that this wasn't about a rockstar's journey, but a love story. It is a film, which is as much a post-watching experience. For people who have loved it, it will play in their minds for a while because the bits and pieces are still coming alive and it's beauty turns deeper. And how beautiful is it to start with a quote that does not make sense then, and again to end on the same quote, which now sums up this story!
It is an imperfect movie- and I can love it for the plain fact that the director has not compromised or manipulated any bit just to be conventionally safe & it reflects in every aspect. The hitch was Nargis Fakhri and her injected lips, but she is very likable and someone perhaps just had to be plain, heart-breakingly beautiful to contribute to the intensity in the second- half.
This is a biased opinion and for a fair opinion, the review by RajeevMasand is good. A frank view by Mayank Shekhar as well. As for the extreme negative ones, they have not tried to look beyond the obvious and here are a few IndiaToday & NDTV . It is not a Loved by all film, but of those who do not like it just because it was nowehere near Jab We Met , I wish them a fresh perspective towards films.
A Tweet I quite liked about Rockstar
@Ghantaguy I'm not sure what 'love' is but I like Imtiaz Ali's idea of it.
Respectable Opinion
@Azmishabana Imtiaz Alis writing in Rockstar is surprising and unpredictable.tugged at my heartstrings..hindi cinema is finally coming of age..wow!
And there maybe a reason why people may suddenly flip towards liking Rockstar ;) - Icon Value!
@SrBachchan T 557 - Its late but not without cause .. just back from 'RockStar' and living in the brilliance of all - Imtiaz Ali, Ranbir, AR and Nargis
T 558 -Still with 'RockStar' and its beauty ..and now to be with family and its joys .. some of the pleasures of vacant schedules ..rare !!
In Conclusion, Imtiaz Ali on Rockstar, post all the response, dated 14th Nov 2011:
Ask him if he is trying to change the grammar of commercial cinema and he says, “I don't know about grammar. I just feel there is no need to fake your narration just to fit into the commercial formula.”
And I visit the Rockstarfilm site and find this cool trivia about Jordan's character- The Journal - A character sketch and persona detailing- very cool- it shows!
A Blog post about post movie discussion with audience & Imtiaz Ali
Rockstar! Frankly I was really looking forward to this film & had decided I was not going to be disappointed. Here was a film, whose previews looked good, told a story and just looked strong- a well designed film.
So, in the theatre as it opened it started looking largely different from the preview assumptions I had made. It is garnering some rather strong Love/ Hate responses. It is really easy to hate given that it's long, quite abrupt, incomplete and quite bizzare at times - 10% of the people walked out 5-10 minutes before the end when it seemed beyond logical.
Coming back to my personal experience of watching Rockstar ( it is not a collective watching / common collective opinion kind of film). 10 minutes past, I realised that this is not the film I was expecting- I was here for the journey of a rockstar upto the point of his destruction, while he romances a girl & is heartbroken, thrown away from his house and all the bad things that contribute to his pain.
It was all that, but it turned out to be in a form of exploded, sometimes abrupt fragments in flashback, roughly in a chronological order. It was not easy to read/ understand as it progressed. But it is a strong film- and has no average reviews- People hate it and I am one of the people who Love it!
I guess people hate it, not because it was lower than expected, but it was not HOW they expected it to be. Fair enough, given the nature of the film.
Here is why I decided to LIKE Rockstar- sometime into the film I realised that I was just burdening it with my expectations of how the story should unfold. But I did not think the fragmented nature was an amateurish accident, but it was designed to be so. It is a very conscious effort from the director's (Imtiaz Ali) end to tell his story the way he wants to and was going to be very unabashed about being indulgent in his vision for it.
When did I decide to LOVE Rockstar? Was right at the end when there is a throwback to the scene where the two are alone in Himachal and the credits started to roll. The inconclusive, yet complete end when all those seemingly abrupt fragments start making sense & I realised that this wasn't about a rockstar's journey, but a love story. It is a film, which is as much a post-watching experience. For people who have loved it, it will play in their minds for a while because the bits and pieces are still coming alive and it's beauty turns deeper. And how beautiful is it to start with a quote that does not make sense then, and again to end on the same quote, which now sums up this story!
It is an imperfect movie- and I can love it for the plain fact that the director has not compromised or manipulated any bit just to be conventionally safe & it reflects in every aspect. The hitch was Nargis Fakhri and her injected lips, but she is very likable and someone perhaps just had to be plain, heart-breakingly beautiful to contribute to the intensity in the second- half.
This is a biased opinion and for a fair opinion, the review by RajeevMasand is good. A frank view by Mayank Shekhar as well. As for the extreme negative ones, they have not tried to look beyond the obvious and here are a few IndiaToday & NDTV . It is not a Loved by all film, but of those who do not like it just because it was nowehere near Jab We Met , I wish them a fresh perspective towards films.
A Tweet I quite liked about Rockstar
@Ghantaguy I'm not sure what 'love' is but I like Imtiaz Ali's idea of it.
Respectable Opinion
@Azmishabana Imtiaz Alis writing in Rockstar is surprising and unpredictable.tugged at my heartstrings..hindi cinema is finally coming of age..wow!
And there maybe a reason why people may suddenly flip towards liking Rockstar ;) - Icon Value!
@SrBachchan T 557 - Its late but not without cause .. just back from 'RockStar' and living in the brilliance of all - Imtiaz Ali, Ranbir, AR and Nargis
T 558 -Still with 'RockStar' and its beauty ..and now to be with family and its joys .. some of the pleasures of vacant schedules ..rare !!
In Conclusion, Imtiaz Ali on Rockstar, post all the response, dated 14th Nov 2011:
Ask him if he is trying to change the grammar of commercial cinema and he says, “I don't know about grammar. I just feel there is no need to fake your narration just to fit into the commercial formula.”
And I visit the Rockstarfilm site and find this cool trivia about Jordan's character- The Journal - A character sketch and persona detailing- very cool- it shows!
A Blog post about post movie discussion with audience & Imtiaz Ali
2 comments:
wow, do you review movies by profession? that was one of the best reviews of Rockstar i've read so far and I couldn't agree more to you. Although after expecting a lotttttt from Mausam n then after watching it, wanting to kill myself, I've stopped expecting anything from a movie now. I no longer assume anything about the script. I just listen to the soundtrack, if it seems appealing I go ahead n watch the movie, believing that the director would have done justice to the music.
Speaking of Imtiaz Ali, I could trust him any time! I loved the passion he displayed in the character... be it for the music... or the girl with hideous lips... it was fabulous to watch (and it was very real-life like)
Hi. Thanks! Yes, definitely a strong film.
Post a Comment