Single Malt Straight Up, On the Rocks : Not Served Here

I have burned in solitude

And burning has brought its own solace

In more quenchless burning...

Long before Jim Morrison was born, a prominent exponent of Hindi literature “Agyeya” had written a two part book “Shekhar – Ek jeevani” and from which I take the liberty to borrow the above mentioned haiku-ish piece. 

What I seek is also seeking me. For me, the solitude is what I seek and it seeks me back. I wish to end myself in solitude; I want to burn my wings down. So that I stop my flight. I do not wish to seek refuge in the sky; I do not wish to kiss the clouds and then rip them apart with my wings. I just seek solitude, in my own self. I want to burn and destroy myself. And I do burn, the color black, the smell of burning flesh, the meat. The blood within veins boils a darker shade of crimson. I can’t distinguish between my bones and the particles of ashes any more. And I burn some more…seeking solace, finding none. And I burn some more…

My mind has been numb since I saw “Rockstar”. Before I went to see the movie, I waited and read at least a dozen reviews, tweets and re-tweets and Facebook status messages just to understand everyone’s perspective. However, none of them gave me any idea about the movie. Almost everyone said Ranbir/ Rahman/ Mohit Chauhan were rockstars, only Imtiaz could have made this, and this is Imtiaz kind of cinema. Seriously? How many 3 film old directors you know who already have their “own kind” of cinema?  Amidst a lot of confused praise, there were statements of dissatisfaction as well. First half is good, second half is not, what a waste of time, Rockstar sucks, Nargis can’t act, She has no expression, Rahman’s music is confusing etc.

No amount of critical appreciation, criticism, negative comments would have stopped me from watching Rockstar and it honestly didn’t, so I went for the movie. I had read Imtiaz saying that Rockstar is a story that is waiting to be told and nothing could have stopped it, including Imtiaz himself. I couldn’t have agreed more. Its time, Hindi films needed a film where “Happy Ending” (not to be confused with Happy Endings of That Girl in Yellow Boots) is not required. It truly was depicting what Agyega wrote “In more quenchless burning”. The burning wouldn’t end, till the time life exists and life exists because of the quenchless burning. Climax of a movie is usually purging everything for the protagonists; it’s a release, its purification, its detox. Rockstar defies that. Rockstar leaves you numb. Enough to not allow you to reach to a conclusion, to take something home. As my friend Utkarsh said “Rockstar... Is like the Indian Cricket team chasing a high score in early 90's. We would move too slow and realise it too late. Everyone would depend too much on SRT (read Ranbir) who would still stand amidst the ruins and score a breath-taking 100! But we'd lose the match. And eventually, we would walk out with a choice; remember the bitter loss, or a brilliant individual performance.” 

I, for instance, had to carry both home; a marvel of story-telling along with a story which fell short of time. While there was a lot for everyone to take home, my opinion is that Imtiaz had to take 90 minutes away from the film for inexplicable reasons. The story needed those minutes, those seconds for establishing the context of many little things, artists and scenes. If I was producing the movie, I would have gladly asked Imtiaz to add those portions back which otherwise his supremely able editor Aarti Bajaj had chopped out of Rockstar. In Jab We Met, everything that Kareena or Shahid did, had a backstory and hence nothing seemed out of context. To a large extent, even in Love Aaj Kal, the parallel track of Saif n Giselle was interwoven in the Saif-Deepika track which helped in justifying a whole bunch of situations. Unfortunately, the narrative of Rockstar was a little jumbled up and therefore a lot of things did not get justified nor they reached the emotional high which was a strength in Imtiaz’s other films.

When Rumi wrote - Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about. I think formed the basis of the movie narrative. There were things which weren’t spoken about in the movie and for average film-goer (including me) it was a setback. May be because we are used to brainless films like Ready or Bodyguard, we needed it. However, director chose to leave them and that is why there is dissent that is why there is a divide between viewers. Some swooned over the movie while some just found it waste of time. Fortunately, not many people have “haan, theek hai, achchhi hai” as reaction which otherwise is a disaster of a compliment for the film maker.

The film’s life is its music. After the disastrous CWG anthem and some really bad scores, like many others I also felt that Rahman is a spent force. He was producing mediocre music and though that music became popular, it was not the music that came from his heart. The “Shehnai” piece of Swades was lost. I am so glad that he found himself back. May be a little break did some good for him. He is a musical genius and there is no doubt about it but then I think he forgot that he wanted to make music because his heart said so. From the word go, the musical pieces are out of the world. Not only he composed some of the most difficult compositions, he brought back his freshness. I don’t care if people didn't like the music or had “higher expectations” from him; Rockstar is truly Rahman’s best score till date. Music that comes from the soul. As Rumi said, Poems and lyrics are the notations for the music that we are. This music is Rahman. Each song, each composition…many layers, sub –text, intricately woven pieces and instruments and for everything that he did to this movie, Rahman deserves all the accolades.

In Phir se udd chala, listen to the guitar piece and the “duuuuuur” sung by Mohit. You would want to open your wings and fly high across the globe…crossing the mountains, rivers, meadows and oceans on your way.

Jo bhi main, though a lyrical gem…Rahman put “ya ya ya” to it and made it the anthem, the rock anthem. The journey of Ranbir is shown through this song…and all that he stands for is beautifully depicted in the lyrics and the music.

Katiya Karun – Hard core Punjabi tune with that special “ting ling ling” and Harshdeep’s magical Sufi voice makes you dance. It’s the expression of joy and freedom. That’s what was portrayed. Remember Nargis walking up the people peeing on the wall just to embarrass them. What a thought, what a shot and what an apt situation.

Kun Faya Kun. He is the best person, seeing who brings the remembrance of God in you. A lot has been written about this song but the journey of Rahman the Sufi music maestro reaches a new high here. From Piya Haji Ali to Khwaja Mere Khwaja to Kun Faya Kun, Rahman’s immense faith in religion and God has traversed hundreds of hours spent at Dargahs. For me, who does not believe in God, the magical moment when Ranbir sings “Kajra Andhera teri Jalti lau” and looks up in the sky, that was when music became the language that God understands. Since Khwaja mere Khwaja song came alive on screen, the dhikr (remembrance) has manifested itself in the form of a dance called Sama. The dervishes clad in white clothes, with their hands held up in asking towards the sky. Rumi once heard the goldbeaters in a market hammering the gold. That sound which came from the beating resembled “la ilaha ilallah”. Upon the discovery, Rumi felt the rush in his blood, the rush of finding a day to day sound which reminds you of Allah. He started spinning in the circle with his palms stretched to Allah, calling him. The Sama represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to perfection. Turning towards the truth, the follower grows through love, deserts his ego, finds the truth and arrives at perfection. He then returns from this spiritual journey as a man who has reached maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation. Similarly, this song is a “wasilah” to reach the almighty. 

Sheher mein defines the anguish of a musician, a true blue musician. the voice of frustration. The voice of a bird struggling to spread its wings wide. I am sure Rahman must have gone through such situations in his life where morons of music have tried to teach him how to compose. Rahman retaliates with a song.

Tum Ko and Tum Ho are two sides of the same coin. Listening to Kavita Krishnamurthy after so many years and that too in such a pleasant voice…it was purely ethereal. This was another one of Rumi’s couplet -The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along. 

The world has praised and wrote long notes about this new age anthem for youth. I don’t want to write anything else about this song. The guitar riffs by Orianthi Panagaris are out of the world. No wonder she has won the Breakthrough Guitarist Of The Year 2010 by Guitar international magazine. A 26 year prodigy who played guitar for Michael Jackson’s “This is it” tour, she breathed life in to the lyrics. Trust Rahman to find such gems. Sadda haq, Aithey Rakh.

There is one song in this film that may not get its due because it’s a song that evokes strange and morbid feelings in you. It’s the cry of a lover. Aur Ho. This is a gut wrenching rendition by Mohit Chauhan, a coming of age song which speaks volumes of solitude and silence. The cocoon is opening up. A life which is called dilemma. Reason is powerless in the expression of Love and as I struggle to find the reason, I fail. As I see you in life, I see life in you. I can’t isolate you from myself. I can’t distil you out. Once again, the longing for love which has defied the sense, the sense of reason. It is love. I unshackle myself to feel it. I break the barriers and just feel love. As a mark of respect for the one who thought of Love.

But the high point of the album is a song called “Nadaan Parindey”. A lyrical gem. A musical gem. The call of the wild. The call within. It’s the rewind song. Each stop of life, each incident of life. When Louis “Sachmo” Armstrong sang ‘it’s a wonderful world, little did he know that the song that is so full of life in lyrics will be understood for the pathos in the journey of a life. With Nadaan Parideny, Rahman reaches the high of Pink Floyd. It’s Raag Deepak and Raag Megh Malhar. He has reached a high which is going to be impossible for any musician to reach. This is Koh-I-Noor of the album.

All the songs will obviously fall short of every single bit of praise if I do not mention the wordsmith Irshaad Kaamil. I find it really embarrassing to write anything about this man. Holding torch to light is not exactly anyone would dare to attempt. Irshad crosses every boundary this time, plays like a child in the green pastures of feelings and emotions. He carefully looks at each plant and then plucks the right words from the trees to make a beautiful bouquet which he leaves on the ground, for us to pick. As a mark of respect, I do feel that anything written about the lyrics and Irshaad for Rockstar will only spoil the feeling. Words are a pretext, the bond is between two people cannot be seen but Irshaad walks that thin line and re-defines Rumi. His words became the language. For Mohit Chauhan, I would only say that Rahman is making you what you are, just leave it at that.

Saying all this, I would like to draw attention to what I found was required in the film. It definitely required 90 more minutes. It was a 2 hour 40 minute film when it should have been at least 4 hour long. The journey was haphazard and the sequences were hastily put. Single Malt deserves to be served ‘On the rocks’, any watered down version will kill that drink in its entirety. The mild intoxication doesn’t work for me, either I am drunk or I am not drunk. So now you know when you would add water to dad’s whiskey bottle after stealing a peg, you were committing a crime. Not of stealing but diluting the drink. This drink got diluted because of whatever reasons best known to Imtiaz. Not that the drink was not enjoyable, but it should be straight up and “on the rocks’.

My point of view

1. Ranbir’s love for music finds no justice. His attempt at college competition and talent shows needed more time. A little more humour, a little more justice.
2. We couldn’t establish if Ranbir was a hit singer or not. We don’t see him struggling, getting rejected in a painful way. His attempts were way too casual.
3. Ranbir’s equation with his family left a lot more desired. While his horny sister in law finds a conclusion towards the latter half, his brothers etc. were just ignored. Remember JWM, two bit roles were scripted for Kareena’s family and Shahid’s family. Also, the dialogues which established Shahid’s equation with his father who was never shown in the film added to the story.
4. The interaction with his cronies in college canteen and Khatala’s entry needed more drama so that another angle of personality where he trusts everyone would have come across well.
5. Nargis Fakhri as Heer needed more screen time to be established as college hoity-toity. She is shown walking around and she has not back story as a “hottest chick” in the college. That fact needed establishing a little more before Ranbir actually decides to fall for her.
6. An outstanding sequence between Nargis and Ranbir during his first introduction to her. However later, Ranbir’s reactions every time she is around or she walks by were so very forced and un-natural. Probably those were longer scenes edited due to time crunch. Ranbir, the Jatt boy, the guy who is not afraid of singing for people at bus stop suddenly goes wobbly kneed without reaching the emotional high and drama.
7. Now, many people did not like the way Nargis acted. I can understand it because it was her first movie and the role was not author backed. How she finds Ranbir’s goofy reactions funny and hence decides to confront him was weakly scripted. Why would any hot chick walk up to a Jatt boy and tell him to stop being nervous. Something didn’t sit well here.
8. Jangli Jawani sequence definitely needed justification. What a wonderful thought the whole sequence is but again time crunch made it look a little off track. The whole planning of going to a B grade adult movie in a shady theatre needed better writing. It fell short of being a milestone scene in Indian cinema.
9. The whole drinks scene also fell short of time.  Booze buying, haggling for price, shady places in the night to buy liquor, reaching home in drunken state, sneaking in respective rooms, facing family members etc. would have made this more entertaining.
10. I am personally not a fan of Bucket List and probably “List banate hain" didn’t work for me. Also, it was left mid-way somewhere so it just didn’t have any impact. Many small bucket list “tick offs” were required before Nargis asked Ranbir to come to his wedding.
11. A sequence where the two of them are travelling together to Kashmir for wedding may be by train (the baraat) or even biking to Kashmir from Delhi could have established Nargis’s family gradually accepting Ranbir as her friend. One hastily edited shopping sequence was not enough.
12. The wedding scenes I am sure were mercilessly chopped and poorly edited. From the two of them sneaking out for a bike ride in the morning to coming back and suddenly seeing Nargis in the bride avatar was haphazard. Nargis’s family is absent, groom is absent, groom’s family is absent, and bride’s friends make a single scene appearance where Janardan becomes Jordan. Why she chooses Jordan needed justification. It would have made such a wonderfully romantic backstory for the two to fall in love.
13. The two never separated from each other. While it would have been a typical filmy “Judai” scene but that separation had to come for Nargis to lose interest in her life in Prague. That separation had to come for Ranbir to feel the void of his love.
14. Ranbir was an adult in the movie and yet his family objects to his trip to Kashmir. Of all the Jatt families that I am aware of, the boys are supposed to be brattish. One of my dear friends was a Jatt (he is no more) and his scooter had a Stepney cover which read; “JAT – Just Avoid Them). Road trips in college are one of the most common things for boys, why would anybody in the family take such strong objection. How did Ranbir’s family come to know that he has gone to attend Heer’s wedding? How did they know who Heer is? Many questions unanswered here before he was thrown out of his house.
15. The whole making of “Shahar” album was also hastily wrapped up. The two music directors could have added a little more than spice to Ranbir’s frustration of singing mediocre songs and later of refusing it. One high point of an artist’s frustration was lost.
16. Shammi Kapoor needed more screen time. For him to recognise the talent of Ranbir, his only reference point was Kun Faya Kun and the gleam in Ranbir’s eyes. To establish the fact that Shammi Kapoor could recognise the latent volcano, the interaction with Ranbir was little too light. Ranbir also needed strong dialogues in the scene instead of making fun of classical music only.
17. Ranbir’s growth as a Rockstar, becoming a people’s phenomenon and such a rage is something which thoroughly lacked in the film. As a viewer, I wanted to know how he became a Casanova, why he was touted as the bad boy of music. I wanted to feel the pain; I wanted to travel with him. I wanted to attend his concerts where he was having sex with a fan backstage and police raids the place. I wanted to see him going on stage in an inebriated state, substance abuse, his groupies, his drunken stupor in which he is rattling off poetry which is beyond everyone’s understanding, his brushes with law, fights he picked up with his fans and media….but in a lot more detail than it was shown. The pathos needed build up. The peak was non-existent.
18. While he agreed to sign any contract with the music company for a trip to Prague, he never thought of going to Prague before that? Strange! The details of one sided contract could have made people feel for the artist as he signed for obscene terms in the contract.
19. When he meets Nargis in Prague, she just agrees to hang out with him without bothering to inform her family. They visit shady dance bars, they go out drinking and yet her husband or anybody from her in-laws have no reaction to it. Waiting for Ranbir to break in to her house and then let her husband realize the equation was a little unbelievable.
20. Nargis agreeing to be a volunteer at the musical event, with no connection what so ever, at the insistence of her sister in law, was another unbelievable point. Willing suspension of disbelief was suspended a little too far.
21. Another thing which I did find a little bit strange was the interval. Interval usually divides the movie in to two halves. Interval is where the high point of a film is captured so that people keep wondering what is going to happen next and they come back all charged up. The interval came after a kiss while it would have been a better moment if interval had come when Nargis collapses.
22. Second half of the film is interesting but this is the journey of the Rockstar after his real heart break and that’s when I wanted to explore the dark side of an artist. I wanted to see that Jim Morrison promise here and I found it in patches. I could not connect with scenes emotionally and I did not feel the pathos of the artist. I just was a bystander, watching him go through a phase of his life where his popularity is sky-rocketing through the roof. He seems to have immersed himself in music to avoid pain. I don’t feel the pain at any moment in this part of the journey.
23. Nargis had a sister. Unbelievable. She also had a father who comes for a dialogue or two with nothing believable in it. When Nargis wakes up from her bed and starts fighting with Ranbir, the camera couldn’t capture the drama. Again, emotions were in a limbo, and it was left to viewers to feel them, who obviously couldn’t connect.
24. The scenes where Ranbir’s magic touch has helped Nargis heal also needed more screen time for people to savour the drama. The poetic scenes were missing in the film.  When Rumi says: “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” I want to believe it but the barriers needed to be broken and not physically but emotionally. The hug sequence, the kiss sequence needed a little more sensitivity and music to heighten the emotion to transcend to the viewers.

There are many such things which I found were required to add to the story line but when you are trying to travel light, you cannot add a sleeping bag, sweaters and jacket even though you are travelling north in the Kashmiri winter. I needed more time. I required more time. I wanted the movie to go on for another 90 minutes and hence when the end titles came on screen and the song was being played, nobody believed that the movie ended. They were glued to their seats in the hope of something magical popping out of the screen. Definitely not hoping for a happy ending but still something…difficult for people to point finger at but for me, I definitely needed more. I wanted the Rockstar to reach the zenith. To out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field. Where I wanted the two of them to meet. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.

While I still think that Rockstar is the best Imtiaz has been so far but because he chose a new heroine who will need to take a long journey with Imtiaz to understand the nuances of the character, it will be a while before you get another marvel from Imtiaz. Nargis is no Kareena Kapoor and this was a role that she did. She was a natural when she was exploring her wild side in the film but in emotional scenes, she needed a lot more patience, a lot more reference points to become a believable and more relatable character. She is beautiful and sexy in a new way, wish we could relate to her emotional outbursts in the similar fashion. For me, even Deepika was a lost choice when she mumbles “ye nahi hona chahiye” and “ye galat hai” after she gets married to Rahul Khanna. Nargis in emotional scenes was pretty much like that. Abrupt, random and lot less believable. She didn’t portray the role of a girl “caught on the wrong foot” when Ranbir appears at her doorstep in the night. 

The film belongs to Ranbir and nuff said about it. 

In toto, this single malt whiskey was diluted and I neither felt drunk enough nor felt sensible enough to savour the taste. Probably needed a straight up “on the rocks’ from Imtiaz.