‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ Is the First Bonafide Bollywood Blockbuster in Years

Twenty-five years ago, I — and millions of Hindi film fans around the world — saw our first Karan Johar movie. “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” — which currently holds the top spot in IndieWire’s list of the best rom-coms on Netflix — was a superhit and instant classic, a story of love and friendship that stood the test of time and charms audiences to this day.

Johar’s latest, “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani,” (“Rocky and Rani’s Love Story”) written by Shashank Khaitan, is the kind of Bollywood bliss audiences have been craving. It’s entertaining but not dependent on action and violence. It’s star-studded but with genuinely talented actors, not just airbrushed beauty and family names (though there are, of course, some). It’s progressive but not forcibly Westernized. It’s family-oriented but not pedantic.

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And it’s just a damn good time.

As much as it tracks the blooming romance of Rocky Randhawa (Ranveer Singh) and Rani Chatterjee (Alia Bhatt), “Rocky Aur Rani” starts with the pair reuniting Rocky’s grandfather Kanwal (Dharmendra) and Rani’s grandmother Jamini (Shabana Azmi), who spent a week together back in 1978. Both relationships intertwine the dichotomous Randhawa and Chatterjee families, who go together about as well as oil and water.

That’s not because the families are so drastically different — though the film feels the need to explicitly stress this repeatedly — but mainly because of the iron fist of Rocky’s grandmother Dhanlakshmi (Jaya Bachchan), who runs both the household and a business empire with steely authority. She doesn’t take kindly to her husband openly reigniting an old flame despite their loveless marriage, and even less kindly to Rocky’s idea that he and Rani switch homes and live with each other’s families for three months.

Singh and Bhatt, the two most talented commercial actors of their generation, bind the film together almost effortlessly, tapping into their eminently watchable “Gully Boy” dynamic. Whereas Bhatt was the firecracker in that film, it is now Singh who is effervescent with his outfits, mannerisms, and hilarious himbo energy (complete with such perfectly imperfect English that even the subtitles don’t dare correct it), and Bhatt as a grounding and generous onscreen partner. Promotional materials undersold their physical chemistry, which crackles throughout.

Apart from the tauted hero and heroine, “Rocky Aur Rani” is a knockout showing for Bachchan. A staple of Hindi cinema since the 1960s (her first film was Satyajit Ray’s “Mahanagar”), Bachchan rose to stardom in a time when women’s roles were still constricted, yet still managed to create indelible female characters along with her peers. Her mother figure is the anchor of Johar’s “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham,” but still relegated mostly to warm smiles and lots of crying. “Rocky Aur Rani” gives her free reign with comedy and villainy, and she commands the screen with both. Her comedic timing rivals Singh’s, and Dhanlakshmi’s death glare belongs in the Hall of Fame right next to any role played by Amrish Puri.

Not to say that Bachchan — or Singh, or Bhatt — hogs the attention. At 168 minutes, “Rocky Aur Rani” gives the entire cast its moments. Azmi shines as a 72-year-old romantic heroine in the rare story of elder love. Tota Roy Chowdhury and Churni Ganguly play Rani’s parents, the latter executing an award-winning use of the word “bombilate,” and Aamir Bashir channels Bachchan’s fierceness as Rocky’s father. There’s maybe not enough of endearing Kshitee Jog and Anjali Anand as Rocky’s mother and sister, respectively, and definitely not enough Abhinav Sharma as best friend Vicky, who’s mostly in the first half — but they add depth and tenderness whenever they can.

Two things that make an immediate and wonderful impression are Eka Lakhani’s costuming and Ishita Moitra’s dialogue writing, both of which quickly piece together who these characters are in a film that doesn’t have much time to spend on their lives beyond family drama. Bhatt is draped in one gorgeous sari after another, and Singh appears in a range of designer tees and printed shirts, buttoned as low as public decency will allow.

Though it purports to be a tale of two houses, “Rocky Aur Rani” takes fairly obvious sides, painting heroes and villains and points of view as right or wrong. The Randhawas are portrayed as old-fashioned, conservative, and oppressive, while the Chatterjees, though somewhat snobbish, are liberal, open-minded, accepting. They warm to Rocky far earlier than any of the Randhawas to Rani. The film rarely attributes this to cultural differences between the Indian states of Bengal and Punjab (and why would it, when “Vicky Donor” centered the same conflict so delightfully in 2012?) — but still relies on those stereotypes — and as such becomes a matter of class and education. The themes are less heavy-handed than “Barbie,” even though they grow repetitive (and include a left field connection to cancel culture).

Like the best masala movies, “Rocky Aur Rani” can’t help succumb to its filminess, with mixed results. There is a conspicuous dependence on playback music outside of the original songs, with characters singing to each other or in private moments with the finely-honed (and autotuned) voices of other singers. It’s not a new trend in Indian films, or even in Johar’s movies, but remains distracting throughout when not actually part of the songs. Singh appears to have lent vocals to at least one of his own performances (it at least sounds like him) for a scene that endears his character both to the Chatterjees and the audience — and makes you wonder how the rest of the playback scenes would have looked without it.

Pritam’s songs are serviceable as always, but no longer the groundbreaking hits he used to deliver; the catchiest track is “What Jhumka?” mainly because of its riff on the 1966 classic “Jhumka Gira Re,” and “Ve Kamleya” for its emotive function.

What remains to be seen is if “Rocky Aur Rani,” like so many modern Bollywood blockbusters, will have any longevity compared to the classics of the past. What makes Johar’s early work so indelible — what his imitators, and even his own later projects, have failed to emulate — is how they keep the audience coming back. I’m part of a generation that grew up watching, rewatching, quoting, and copying “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” and “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.” Nostalgia is nostalgia for a reason, finding comfort in films from childhood, but I can’t imagine young children who see “Rocky Aur Rani” having the same relationship with this film, or with most recent commercial successes.

Then again, the themes skew older, targeting not only Rocky and Rani’s generation but their parents and grandparents stuck in time. For “Rocky Aur Rani,” the true measure of success will be outside of Rockyland (yes, I’m invoking Barbie Land) and out here in the real world.

Grade: B+

“Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani” is now playing in select theaters.

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