The story revolves around Rocky (Ranveer Singh) and Rani (Alia Bhatt) who have a chance meeting when Rocky, looking for his dadaji’s (Dharmender) long lost love Jamini Chatterjee (Shabana Azmi), meets Rani (who happens to be Jamini’s granddaughter). In an attempt to cure Dadaji’s dementia, as they try to get the two septuagenarians together, the inevitable happens and Rocky and Rani fall in love with each other. The trouble? Their families and backgrounds are as far apart as possible. Rani’s family is an upper-middle-class intellectual professional Bengali family in CR Park, Delhi, immersed in Tagore and the arts, music, and all other cliches you can think of when you think of the Bhadralok. Rocky’s family, is a super rich patriarchal Punjabi business family from old Delhi, with all its cliches you can think of. Knowing that their different backgrounds could create havoc in their relationship in the future, they decide to do a live-in with each other’s family for 3 months, with the aim to resolve this. What follows is a series of emotional and humorous incidents, towards the final happy ending that we all know is coming.
In many ways, the success of this film is pleasantly surprising. Because in 2023, if this old-school love story from my generation is working again, maybe the cynicism on love and romance in the movie-making of the last decade is beginning to wane. Rocky aur Rani is a classic Gen X love story from the 90s. Boy meets Girl. Boy and Girl fall in love. Boy and Girl have love ke dushman (usually the family). Boy and Girl get together to fight against the dushman. And love conquers all. Boy and Girl live happily ever after. This simple story, coupled with lots of retro references to old movies, and songs, is what makes the film eminently watchable and fun.
And what really makes the movie come alive, is the two main leads and the chemistry they share. Ranveer and Alia are a joy to watch both by themselves and when they are together. Ranveer, even with his stereotypical character, plays the part so adorably that you can’t help loving him, despite his very obvious in-your-face flaws, much like Rani herself. Rani, again, despite being a cliched intellectual Bengali character, is so vibrant and impactful, that you can’t help agreeing with the transformation she is bringing in Rocky and his regressive patriarchal family. And when together, their love for each other even though they are cringe-ly different (She tests his levels of knowledge by asking him where is West Bengal!!!), is so irrepressible that you can’t help cheering for them as they conquer their own limitations and then use that to conquer the family barriers to their love story. And to top this off, is the heartwarming presence of Dharmender and some glowing moments by Shabana Azmi, that add just the right verve to the movie.
While there were a lot of hackneyed lessons and messages throughout the story, championing progressiveness and inclusiveness, some of the new areas like the hypocrisy of the supposedly progressive intellectual society being un-inclusive to the less educated business Punjabi society, bring some freshness to the messaging.
But perhaps, the big miss in the film is not building the richness of all the other characters, played by some talented actors. All the others, including Jaya Bachchan evoking her inner Amitabh Bachchan’s stubborn patriarch from K3G, are less impactful and a bit too caricaturish, leaving us disappointedly distant from their side of the story. The character of Dhanalakshmi (Jaya) having built the business empire singlehandedly as a woman, had an opportunity to bring another feminist angle to the story, instead of restricting her to a narrow saas-bahu narrative. Similar opportunities are lost in Rocky’s mother and sister, who are just shown as uni-dimensional victims of a patriarchal home, or Rocky’s father, a uni-dimensional angry alpha man. Or Rani’s parents, playing uni-dimensional arty-intellectual-British-hangover Bengali parents. Alas, K-Jo!
The other big thing we miss from a classic Bollywood box office entertainer is a good soundtrack. The music is really not good. Apart from the very average Jhumka song and the retro songs re-sings, the lack of good songs to get up and cheer for, is felt profoundly in a love story movie. And is something that will reduce the life of the movie, after we walk out of the theatres. What a loss!
But, at the end of the day, what we get to see is a classic Bollywood Karan Johar fare that’s entertaining, enjoyable, and full paisa-vasool. It’s good old, loud, over-the-top, jhinchak, colorful, vibrant, full-on Hindi cinema that we last saw in Pathaan in Jan, and had almost lost hope that there will be more of in the year. Rocky aur Rani delivers to our fundamental need for the box office fix. Toh zyaada sochne ka nahi. Dekho, hason, thoda sa life lesson le lo, khaao, piyo aur khisko.
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