An insider’s ode to mainstream Hindi cinema

It has been almost two weeks since Karan Johar’s return to the cinemas with ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ and it has been widely acclaimed as his best. For some it has reignited the love for mainstream Hindi cinema and reaffirmed their belief of the heights it can manage to reach while also hitting some socially relevant notes.

Karan Johar creates a symphony by bringing together all the elements of a mass entertainer and filling it up with progressive themes. It is an out and out Johar landscape with a new found sensibility. For the longest time, mainstream cinema was thought to be mouldable against societal values, seldom taking tough stances that would make its primary audience uncomfortable.

It was as if cinema was being guided by the already existing value systems prevalent in the world. Johar pulls that upside down and instils new waves to it through his characteristic expression. His aesthetics are no longer shackled in the traditional; but combine with the new-age thoughts. For that reason, through ‘Rocky aur Rani kii Prem Kahaani’, Johar seems to be spilling out his own heart in reaching newer vulnerabilities that were not approached hitherto.  

The film is a celebration of love and what it can do. Through the love of Rocky Randhawa (Ranveer Singh) and Rani Chatterjee (Alia Bhatt), the trauma of an entire generation is reversed. The incomplete love of their respective grandparents, brings them together to reimagine their own lives. With the introduction of these two eras that represent different ways of thinking, Johar intermingles and creates conversations between the two in various ways.

The film showcases conversations with the age-old traditional values that deny the existence of love between two people. Important conversations are intermingled with old Hindi songs that give a resolve. The songs bring out an electrifying presence among the characters and their choices. They are used to break away from the clutches of hyper-masculinity when Rocky dances to ‘Dola re’ at a public gathering, embracing the femininity inside. Or when Rocky’s mother stands up for herself in front of her abusive husband by using the lines from ‘Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai’ to her power. The songs are meshed with the narrative elevating the nature of the scenes, leaving a remarkable residue of how old school aesthetics drive away to make a point about progressive living. 

More than anything, the film is about change. Through the entire experiment of switching homes and living with your in-laws, we are brought closer the possibility of change even in the stingiest of minds. It shows how love holds the power to not only bring liberation to the ones involved in it, but also bring solace to those around. The film is an important statement especially for Indian families who have been a slave to their regressive mindset, not allowing any cherry to blossom with their rules on who to marry and who not to. 

‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ is an important film for Hindi mainstream cinema as it has managed to pull people back to the cinemas in large numbers. The theatres are echoing once again with the love for song and dance, and bonding emotionally with the characters. It is an important film for Karan Johar himself who has been a target of many trolls over the last few years. He makes his point through the film and how.

The film could prove to be a revival of mainstream cinema while at the same time being a cultural phenomenon with its loud and clear messaging. There are a few instances in daily life when you feel someone should stand up and for once speak any sense especially in the times of absurdity and rampant hate, we live in today. Johar takes up his old loudspeaker and stands tall on his own podium to sing a new song to his old tunes. Through ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani’, he invites you for engagement and leaves you all stunned and euphoric with its love-affirming ode to Hindi cinema and to life itself.