Maybe Karan Johar Deserves Some Rights

Controversial take, I know. 

However, I do have some reasoning for my thinking. You see, I just recently (about 2 weeks ago) watched Mr. Johar's new movie Rocky Aur Rani and I didn't have my eyes bleached. A win! 

This actually a huge deal because I've been having beef with Bollywood for about three years now due to their lack of good movies. They have a few gems but it's never consistent and we no longer get bangers from the soundtrack. I'm hoping Zoya Akhtar and Sanjay Leela Bansali won't do me wrong because I only have faith in them right now. 

And in the middle of me having this mindset, in came Karan Johar with his movie and surprise, surprise it's actually good. I saw a few clips on Instagram and I wasn't sure but finally decided to check it out. 

You have to understand that I'm saying this rather begrudgingly because I'm not a Karan Johar fan. I like his movies but he, the person, makes me want to destroy every coffee packet I see in the supermarket. But he's a good director, which I keep forgetting because he's stuck in my mind as 'Annoying Indian Ellen'. So, this movie shocked me in a good way and then I got even more surprised when I saw Karan's name in the credits. 

The good things about this movie? 

1. Good soundtrack. 

It makes a lot more sense in context with the movie so my advice would be not to criticize without watching.

2. Ranveer Singh and Alia's chemistry 

They actually are cute. Like I kinda cringed at how adorable they were, so good job. The acting is really good even if the kiss scenes made me want to run into a wall. 

3. Writing

We finally got good, on-purpose cringey dialogues and I'm so happy you guys. They finally answered my non-existent prayers. I genuinely hope the writers got paid well because they did so well and it was actually funny. Like the acting was good but the lines were really well-written. 

4. Ranveer Singh

He's a comedian your honor. No, because he just walked in on set and decided to go harder than everyone else. He had bills to pay, a wife waiting for him, in-laws to impress, taxes to evade, he was ACTING. And Alia was good too. But my god this man is a powerhouse and I'm so glad he got casted because I cannot imagine anyone else pulling off Rocky's character as well as Ranveer. I don't care if he wasn't 'acting' or if it was just him playing him, it works. 

5. Talking about important social issues

Not a lot of movies are courageous enough to talk about basic issues let alone romance movies, so I appreciate the effort, though clunky. Then again, I have a tendency to cringe a lot so it may be more of a me problem than a movie problem.

This movie actually does romance well which something I haven't seen many moons. The main characters, Rocky (Ranveer) and Rani (Alia) actually have a solid relationship of about 7 months which is better than falling in love in a week, so thank you. And they have a lot of ideological differences which lead to conflict but it's relatable and most of all, understandable. 

Rocky comes from a very conservative background and as such rushes through the relationship to marriage. But Rani, being a modern career-woman who is averse to romance and from a different lifestyle (her family is Bengali and liberal), doesn't agree with Rocky on many things, especially the idea of marriage. 

Something I liked that kinda flipped the script is that Rani is the one who turns Rocky down. And when she realizes that she cares for him more than she had thought, she's the one who has to win him back. I like that both the people in the relationship are equally shown love because in most rom-coms, it tends to be female-centered. Which might be because of it's high female viewership but come on, give the guys some lovey-dovey stuff too. 

We got a lot of the sanskari family dissection of Rocky's family, something to be expected from a Karan Johan film. But they also held Rani's family equally responsible for the things they've said and done. Half way through the film, Rocky and Rani decide to live in each other's homes to see if they would be compatible for a marriage. Through this, Rani shows the women of Rocky's house that they are capable of bigger things and Rocky teaches Rani's family to be more compassionate and loving while learning some lessons of his own. 

We see how generational trauma affects people's abilities to parent and show love to their children and how that affects the child and their child and ultimately how toxic and restrictive it becomes.

We get a weird, adultery-promoting but cute side romance that I have mixed feelings. 

We get to see men dancing Kathak and it's so fun to see on a big movie like this like yes, we should normalize it because dancing has no gender and they are so talented and amazing. 

We get to see more Bengali representation. Though I did wish they spoke a bit more but I still love it. And they have a book club which made me so jealous. 

And Alia and Ranveer do a great job at showing their differences during their fights. Especially Alia, like girlie can shout and command your attention like it's nothing. It's really cool to see actors mature and expand their range. 

More than that, we get a healthy, cute couple who can communicate, make jokes and be romantic without there being five million red flags in hindsight. 

Which might sound like the bare minimum but hey, at least Bollywood seems to be taking some notes. 

No, but like seriously it was really cute so you should go watch it.

🐄