Bolly Volley Volume 6

A monthly shower of Bollywood previews, reviews and my unsolicited views

By Arup Raha

As I start writing this new edition of Bolly Volley trying to recall what I liked and disliked about the two major Bollywood films released since the last edition (Ra.one and Rockstar), the only words at the top of my mind are —

Editor's note: the remainder of this column was lost when the site migrated, and the columnist's original verdicts on these two films are not recoverable. Rather than invent them, here is what this edition set out to cover — the two biggest Bollywood releases of October and November 2011, reviewed in brief.

Ra.One: Bollywood's costliest gamble

Shah Rukh Khan's superhero epic Ra.One, directed by Anubhav Sinha, released on October 26, 2011, at the start of the five-day Diwali weekend. With a budget of roughly ₹150 crore including publicity, it was the most expensive Indian film ever made at the time — a nine-month marketing blitz, brand tie-ups, merchandise, video games, and visual effects that were genuinely a technological breakthrough for Indian cinema.

The film opened to the largest international theatrical release for an Indian film to that point, and high expectations. What audiences got was a spectacle that critics found visually impressive but dramatically hollow: reviews were mixed to positive, with praise for the visual effects, action sequences, music, and the performances of Khan and Arjun Rampal as the villain, but criticism of the script, direction, and screenplay. Commercially it became one of the year's top earners without quite becoming the game-changer its budget promised.

Rockstar: the music carried it home

Two weeks later, on November 11, Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar arrived with a different kind of ambition. Ranbir Kapoor played Janardhan, a Delhi Jat boy who dreams of becoming a rockstar like Jim Morrison and finds that fame demands suffering — opposite newcomer Nargis Fakhri, with music by A.R. Rahman.

Made on a budget of over ₹60 crore and shot extensively in Delhi — St. Stephen's College, Connaught Place, Nizamuddin — the film opened to about ₹11 crore on its first day, strong at multiplexes though softer at single screens. Critical reception was mixed: Ranbir's performance was appreciated almost universally by audiences and critics alike, while the film itself divided opinion. Rahman's soundtrack, with Mohit Chauhan on vocals for nine tracks and "Sadda Haq" becoming a youth anthem, was the one thing nobody argued about. In the years since, Rockstar has grown into a cult classic — the rare film whose reputation improved with age.

Unsolicited views

Two films, two theories of what Bollywood should be. Ra.One bet that Indian cinema could buy its way into the superhero age with money and machinery. Rockstar bet that a tortured musician with a guitar and a broken heart was the bigger risk — and the better investment. A decade and a half later, which one are people still humming?