IMDb LinkSynopsis:Janardan, born and brought up in the very middle class locality of Pitampura in Delhi, has a larger than life dream – becoming a rockstar! But all he gets from his reluctant audience is ridicule and humiliation. He's at his wit's end when he realises that all musical stars have one thing in common and that is tragedy. They have all suffered painful heartbreaks to become what they are. Alas, there is no pain in Janardan's life – it is an oasis of peace. Unless he does something drastic, he will never become a rockstar. Heer Kaul is the undisputed diva of the college campus – beautiful, talented, arrogant, rich and unavailable. She has broken many hearts. Janardan hopes she will break his heart too. He sets out to woo Heer with the sole object of getting his heart broken.
When it comes to this film, I am of two minds; the parts I loved, I loved greatly, and I really disliked the disappointing second half. I watched this film in an afternoon show, and I am glad I did so, because this film was way too long for its own good. If I was to dissect the goods and the bad, I would start by praise for a Very promising debut from newcomer supermodel
Nargis Fakhri who was good especially in the fluffy non dramatic scenes of the first half, but her lack of experience shows in the latter half when her scenes demanded a lot of drama and vulnerability, where she didn’t have the acting chops to carry them, and the writing is not that strong to begin with. She is also stunning and so beautiful to look at, so there is that. But the one I was disappointed at the most was
Ranbir Kapoor who is usually charismatic and great, but in my opinion gave his weakest performance in this film. He had the same dumb expression throughout the film, and I did not buy him as a rebellious rock star, he started as a wannabe, and did not convince me he is a legitimate one even by the end of it. The plot by the second half became utterly stupid, and his actions are just puzzling, ruining his lover’s life by his actions and being so clueless and unaware of their consequences. If you thought
Saif Ali Khan was annoying in
Love Aaj Kal, wait till you see Ranbir here. And what made the film even worse by the end was the tragedy which added insult to injury to its starlet. It really devolved and fell off of the rail, and you can mark that from the intermission point. In contrast, the first half is fun and exciting, full of life and energy.
The Kashmir portion of the film is amazing and visually arresting. I loved every second of it.
Imtiaz Ali is a very talented director when it comes to visuals, and has a great eye for that. He makes a great use of his locations in Kashmir, Delhi, and Prague, and his song and dances are exciting and joyful, he has proven that with every film he makes. Furthermore, his films feature great music, the best in my opinion of their contemporary Bollywood releases, but his writing, especially in this film is inferior to his direction. That and the pacing of his film, which judging by its running time of almost 3 hours, meant to be grandeur and epic, but it lacks the substance and meat that sustains that. The film can easily be trimmed and lose 40 to 45 min without losing any of its artistic value. He tries to jump back and forth in time to make it interesting, but at its core, the story is very predictable and conventional.
This film start film scene is a concert for a Bollywood “rockstar” in a sold-out arena in Verona of all places. If that doesn’t make sense for you then welcome to the world of this film, where beautiful people become rich famous and glamorous and fall in love just because the film say so, and because it is so distractingly stunning to make you realize there is no there there.
My Rating 3/5
