Finally, Karan Johar does it, finally. It's taken time, but this is without a doubt his best film. I thought his best film would probably come when he finally tones down the high melodrama that often prevails in his directorial efforts. But no, not only didn't he give it up, he actually embraced it wholeheartedly and in the process created a film so whimsical and animated you can't leave it. Indeed, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani is a full-on emotional melodrama, but one that celebrates and remains in sync with its great spirit of joy, its musical abundance and cultural diversity, maintaining a deep connection to its Indian roots as well as the heritage of popular Hindi cinema, while conveying positive social messages through glossy entertainment.

The film is a visual extravaganza, and it's shot so well that in some parts it reminds you of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's films. The setting is highly luxurious and glossy, and the amount of money and effort put into creating some of the exteriors and the overall production design is quite evident. Some of the sequences, like the wedding ceremony, the Durga Puja party, among others, are absolutely stunning in their photography and style. Also noteworthy is the fact that finally a film by Johar isn't set in New York or London, finally a film that embraces its own Indian culture, particularly the diversity of it, and above all embraces the Hindi film format, showing that masala isn't a derogatory term for cheap potboilers, it could be a perfectly legitimate form of art, too.

The narrative style is just fully musical, and I can't think of a better way to have music as your main means of communication on film. Indeed, music comes everywhere, in the middle of the streets or a random conversation, even in the middle of a fight. The film totally celebrates Indian popular culture and it does so completely unabashedly. Some of the original numbers (including "Tum Kya Mile" and "Kudamyi") are stupendous and they're obviously wonderfully shot, but the nice original songs put aside, the film recaps numerous classic Hindi songs throughout its duration ("O Saathi Chal", "Hum Tum", "Abhi Na Jao", "Aap Jaisa Koi", "Aaj Phir Jeema", "Dola Re"), making it quite a fun nostalgic ride and a tribute to Hindi film music.

So, what this film is about is quite obvious, I believe. Rocky and Rani fall in love and their idea to bridge their cultural differences is to reside each in the house of the other for a period of three months. Both come from wealthy families, but his is a traditional, conservative Punjabi family led by his grandmother, a domineering matriarch who keeps a firm hand over everything and every member of the family. Rani comes from a liberal Bengali family of intellectuals and academics who love poetry and high culture. It is obviously a stereotypical portrayal, but it's passable. The hostility toward the two in each house exists, albeit at varying degrees depending on the particular members of the family, but it becomes a nice journey to learning and self-discovery for all.

Interestingly, instead of deepening the contrast between modernity and tradition, this film fosters a common ground between the two, finding creative ways to make them meet in the middle, which is exactly the kind of balance politicians in the world should do but never grasp. The film incorporates a strong feminist voice, while also defying gender stereotypes and prejudice. While the messaging is a little too obvious and a tad preachy at points, it's never extreme. The principles it promotes are most basic: equality, respect, and the right to self-fulfillment. At the same time, it strongly attacks the ever-restrictive rules of political correctness, and the weird phenomenon of the cancel culture, a terrible substitute for education and social change through teaching.

Now it's pretty obvious that the film isn't to everyone's taste. The dialogue is overtly emotional and exaggerated, with heavy music playing in the background and the camera focusing on crucial moments in amusing ways, exactly the way it's done in the most casual of soap operas. The way the families from different ethnic sectors are portrayed is also quite caricaturish. BUT it also depends on the context. Unlike Johar' Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), which was an awful film for many reasons, particularly because of its attempt to make a serious film through the most shallow scenery, childish dialogue and the most convoluted of situations, here the context is everything and the foundation is so wild and traditionally melodramatic that much of it is forgiven.

The film stars two of the top stars working in Hindi film industry today, Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, and both are wonderful in etching out their starry turns while still capturing the human core of their characters. Bhatt is exactly the right combination of the new Indian woman who knows her mind but also has her values intact, and she is wonderfully expressive and charismatic. It is Singh though, who keeps everyone on their toes. His flamboyant energy remains unmatched and is quite infectious, and even in the most melodramatic parts he manages to immerse himself in the dialogue and the character's emotional condition. The two have great chemistry together, which is very filmi but quite credible within the film's context.

But the show also rests on the towering presence of its veteran players, especially Jaya Bachchan and Shabana Azmi. Bachchan obviously hardly ever hits a wrong note in a role similar to what her husband played in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001). Her character does veer into caricature, especially in her permanent frown throughout the film, but it's so much fun. She nails every second of Dhanalakshmi's imperious presence, vicious stubbornness, and non-nonsense attitude. Her dynamic with Alia reminds one of Dina Pathak's rapport with Rekha in Khubsoorat (1980). Azmi is wonderful as her polar opposite, portraying with great delicacy and depth a character that could have been sidelined as just another grandma-filler part, but she gives it so much meaning.

And so do the other players. Dharmendra does really well in a relatively small part. As his son, Aamir Bashir, an excellent actor in his own right who is quite underrated, plays the male version of his mother exceedingly well. Tota Roy Chowdhury as Rani's father who doesn't abide by the rules of gender roles and keeps his love for Kathak dancing alive, is excellent. His dance is fantastic. Bit parts by Kshitee Jog and Anjali Anand as Rocky's mother and sister, are very good. It is Churni Ganguly, however, as Rani's eloquent but condescending, high class and touch-me-not sort of woman, who is the best of the character actors, and she grows as a character. Overall, 'Rocky and Rani' is wonderful entertainment. It's not a perfect film, but its heart is in the right place and it works.

Through this film Karan Johar tries to teach his audience to be more progressive and let go of stupid old traditions because they were not right in the first place and have not improved our lives in any way. It's good to talk about all these things, I just wish Karan Johar himself followed what he has preached in the film, because looking at the title of the film, it seems Karan still believes that changing the spelling of a name will actually make his film a success.

WHAT'S GOOD :

1. Ranveer Singh was easily the best part of this film. His flamboyant portrayal of Rocky Randhawa was extremely entertaining to watch and the movie would have benefitted a lot if he was the main focus of the film. Not for a moment does it feel like Ranveer is forcing himself to act and also he never feels out of character. Once again Ranveer proves how good of an actor he is and it goes without saying that he is an absolute joy to watch on screen.

2. Every scene involving Dharmendra was truly worth watching. The veteran actor has a charming screen presence and even at this age can act better than most of his co-actors. The emotional impact of the dialogues delivered by Dharmendra was more than any other actor in the film; I just wish he had more scenes in the film.

3. Tota Roy Chowdhury's performance was easily the best among the supporting actors of the film. The scene where he reveals his story to Rocky was extremely heartwarming to watch and of course his dancing was phenomenal throughout the film. Aamir Bashir is an extremely underrated and unfortunately a very underutilized talent of our film industry; be it 'Inside Edge', 'School of Lies' and now this, he always delivers a top quality performance but for some mysterious reason remains under the radar. Jaya Bachchan as the evil mother reminded me of Amitabh Bachchan in [url=tt0213890] with some added goofiness. I didn't like her character at all, which only means that she played her role quite convincingly.

WHAT'S NOT GOOD :

1. The movie just goes on forever, as if it's on a mission to bore it's viewer to death before coming to an end. When the trailer itself has informed the viewers about it's central conflict, then why does the movie waste an hour to get there? Also, after the houses are interchanged, the movie just turns into a television show, with no real intention of reaching anywhere. There is absolutely no way this movie should have had a runtime of three hours; a ninety minute runtime was more than enough.

2. Karan Johar's films are known for their music but unfortunately this one has forgettable songs. A number of songs have been thrown into the mix, but by the time you are done watching the film, you don't remember any of them. Pritam has been delivering some beautiful songs of late, but it seems even he wasn't inspired to create some gems for this dull and boring story. Every single song of the film should have been rejected at the editing table.

3. The movie starts off nicely with some genuinely entertaining scenes thanks to Ranveer Singh's flamboyant portrayal of Rocky Randhawa, but soon turns into a lecture of morals and code of conduct with non-stop lessons being forced upon you in every single scene. Now it's a good thing to talk about social evils, but it has to be done in an organic manner and it definitely should not be the whole point of the film. Also, the movie gets carried away so much in some scenes while lecturing that it just becomes absolutely nonsensical. What was the whole point of that 'bra' shop scene? Was it really necessary for Ranveer to wear a bra to understand the point? Normally, people are hesitant in talking about their undergarments, they are not ashamed of it. That scene went unnecessarily over the top. Also, how is it wrong if someone is shy to talk about undergarments? That whole sequence felt like a case of feminism gone wrong.

4. The whole movie has the feel of an Ekta Kapoor soap opera, something that we stopped watching a long time back. Rich people dressed up all the time as if they are about to go for a wedding; mind games being played between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law; even the background music reminded me of the music that played during the Ekta Kapoor produced television shows.

5. The movie tells the story of two families, one of them being conservative while the other one being liberal and progressive. Now, it's completely fine for people to have different beliefs but to show one family as regressive while the other one as progressive is stretching it a bit too much. Life needs balance in order to function properly, you need to be progressive as well as a conservative; it makes no sense to declare one way of life as wrong because both of them have their downsides. Extreme form of anything will only lead you towards the realm of absurdity, where nothing good can ever exist, so it's always best to maintain a good balance in life as it allows us to take the most logical and sensible decisions in life.

6. Alia Bhatt wasn't a good choice for this role. Of late it has become common to push Alia Bhatt's name for every big project, regardless of whether she is suitable for it or not and this of course being a Karan Johar directorial, he was obviously going to take her considering the amount of love that he has for her; but unfortunately he took a wrong decision. From the very first scene, an attempt was made to portray Alia Bhatt's character as a very sexy woman, who wears sarees and has a voice of her own, but the director failed to do so convincingly, simply because Alia Bhatt wasn't fit for this role. Alia Bhatt's baby face and her voice completely takes you out of the kind of scene that the director was trying to showcase. This role required someone like an Aishwarya Rai or Kareena Kapoor or Kiara Advani. Even her acting felt forced on a number of occasions; she just wasn't cut out for this role.

7. I was hoping to find some comedy in the film, but apart from the "Big Boss" joke I didn't find anything to be particularly funny. Regardless of how we see 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' and 'Kal Ho Na Ho' today, one can't deny that they had a lot of humour.

I had high expectations from this one after all the praise it received from the critics, but I guess it was naïve of me to trust the judgement of critics in the first place. 'Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani' is a long and boring lecture that just doesn't know that it needs to conclude things as well.

"Soch nahi, swad wahi", is a line said by Alia Bhatt's Rani within the movie and it's perfectly apt for this Karan Johar directorial. Rocky Randhawa and Rani Chatterjee fall in love while fearing their differences in culture, ideologies would clash, resulting in destroying their love. To fight for their love, the duo decide to exchange their respective families for 3 months where Rocky goes onto live with Rani's Bengali family while Rani moves in with Rocky's Punjabi family run by the Matriarch Dhanalakshmi Randhawa (Jaya Bachchan). How their love story survive despite the ideology clashes forms rest of the story.

I wasn't prepared enough for a progressive Karan Johar family entertainer. Having said that, KJo is in full form as he is not trying to ape any other director or even please the current generation. He reclaims his identity and plays to his strength. Karan Johar is meant to narrate rich people stories and add to that a love story + lots of family drama, you get the recipe for a KJo blockbuster ready. What this films lack is good songs which again is made up by the usage of old classics.

RARKPK is not without it's flaws but Karan Johar fills it with enough memorable scenes, heart touching ones, that I had to stop complaining about the lengthy runtime. Speaking of standout scenes, both first half and second half delivers them back to back. Alia shines whenever she gets to but it is Ranveer who owns the film while letting the veterans to take over their respective scenes. My only major complaint would be the Dhindora Baje song as Dola Re bit before that had already done the magic, also that bit was my paisa vasool moment.

Karan Johar truly upgrades his arsenal, while the standing upto the matriarch might be the major plot point, several other issues are highlighted sensibly and kudos to the team. Sure, the initial scenes are jerky, trying a bit too hard while introducing the two main leads but after that it's a smooth narrative. The ode to classic songs or to other films' famous lines including the one from K3G, Karan Johar has packed a solid entertainer.