It was half past 11 in the night when I was hit by the idea of watching a movie. The young one was asleep, tired from the school trip and the elder one was winding up her activities and scurrying towards the bed, as she knew next will be an alarm bell from me for not being in the bed yet.
I surfed through the OTT platforms for something to watch, which could be considered as an extravagance since it’s a working day the next day. Karan Johar’s new directorial– RARKPK – with a flamboyant Ranveer Singh and Sari clad, more matured looking Alia Bhatt was looking straight out of the screen. I am not into Hindi movies lately, especially family dramas and larger than life rendition, which is a Karan Johar specialty. Maybe that is why I choose to watch it, so that I could get bored and hit the bed easily. But I ended up watching the whole movie!!
RARKPK is exactly what we would expect from Dharma Productions. Breezy romance, loads of family drama, extravagant and out of the world sets and a lot of dancing and singing. The plot is predictable; the rich, spoiled but good-at-heart Dilli da munda falling for an educated, self-made Bengali girl and the family drama that follows – the clash of characters and cultures and principles. Rockey Randhava (played by Ranveer) is clean bowled by the ‘beauty with brains’ Rani (Alia) in their first meeting. The intention was to make his grandfather(played by Dharmendra)- who has lost his memory years ago- to meet Rani’s grandmother(Shabani Azmi), expecting that he would regain his memory; they had a fling years back, and he chants her name from time to time. But eventually the older pair’s secret meeting becomes a stage for the young ones to explore their chemistry. Even though being polar opposites both couldn’t avoid the attraction, which later blossoms into a deep connection. By the time the young duo realizes their love, they are posed with the biggest question of how to convince the families who could never be an ideal match. Randhava’s are a patriarchal lot where the family members are mere puppets in the hands of Daadi – who created the Randhava Empire- duly supported by her son Thijori. On the other hand Rani’s Bengali family has her daadi who is a free spirited women with her son who is a Kathak Tutor, settled in New Delhi, abandoning his ambition of stage performances for his wife’s professional career. The couple decides to take a chance by swapping their places in the families and convince them – rings a bell? If you are a south Indian, a film of similar theme was released years ago.
With all its flaws in place, what makes RARKPK work, maybe will be the rebellious core. The film shatters many patriarchal norms. When Rockey says he was never taught practices like body shaming and misogyny as bad, how could he know it, we feel it, because the rules were set in place by a women herself – his daadi. He was never taught to treat women as equal, or was he allowed to even dance or freely express himself, he never looks his father in the eye, and says yes to whatever his daadi says. He slowly unlearns what was thought and takes a stand. Even the elders in the family follows. The romantic angle of the elderly couple and the support the young ones offers them is also refreshing; love and connection has no age barriers. The film ends on a positive note with an extravagant and eye candy marriage ceremony.
The music was a big let down, but the sparkling chemistry of Ravneer and Alia literally sets the screen ablaze. Although there were many negative comments after the first song was released, no one would have doubted the fact that they make an awesome couple once the movie was released. Ranveer shines as usual in his crazy and lovable avatar and he gets a chance to flaunt his body lavishly. Alia looks stunning in those saris(which might be a little difficult for a tv person to afford – but come on, its Kjo movie). She balances her act between the confident and independent women and the supportive lover. No much depth or importance is given to her professional life post the first scene. The supporting cast was good too, but I felt Shabana Azmi struggled a bit to fit into the extravagant Kjo movie. The sets were breathtaking, especially the Durga Pooja one; with red shades adorning even the walls, it was a brilliant work of art. Kudos to the team. So to sum it up, if you are a lover of family entertainer, this movie wont disappoint you and as a an add-on you get some eye-opening points of views about our society. But could have reduced the unwanted melodrama and make the edit a bit more tight.
