Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani Review

After a seven-year break, Karan Johar returns to the director's chair, his movie-magic formula largely unchanged since his super hit Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. Devastatingly good-looking protagonists. Family drama precipitated by inter-generational differences. Song and dance. Laughter and tears. Hair flying in the wind. Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani is a Classic Karan film: a larger-than-life celebration of all things desi.

Rocky Randhawa (Ranveer Singh) and Rani Chatterjee (Alia Bhat) belong to different galaxies. Rocky is a flamboyant muscle-head with stratospheric levels of self-confidence, while Rani is a sharp, self-assured modern woman.

Despite their fire-and-ice compatibility, Rocky and Rani are drawn to each other, their cultural differences acting as kindling for their romance. But it's clear that their intense relationship won't last unless they can bridge their values and family backgrounds.

A monumental task given that they have nothing in common. The Randhawas are of old values and new money - the kind of household where a fat child is called "golu", where the wife dines only after serving her husband, where a rigid matriarch (Jaya Bachchan) sets the tone of the house. The Chatterjees, on the other hand, run culture clubs and freely talk about sex at the dinner table.

Karan Johar spares no stereotypes to depict a gaudy Punjabi business family butting heads with the intellectual elite Bengalis. The Randhawas humiliate Rani's father for being a Kathak dancer - what they consider to an effeminate indulgence. And in turn, the Chatterjees look down on Rocky for being loud and flashy. It feels like watching a Twitter battle play out on the big screen - the liberal Left and the conservative Right jabbing at each other.

Rocky Aur Rani... is careful about taking a neutral stance in this debate, though. Rocky confronts Rani's family for their elitism just as Rani shakes up the Randhawa household with her feminist views.

Some of the cultural commentary gets wearisome, though, like when Rani tries to empower the Randhawa women, rousing Rocky's mother to explore her singing career.

When the quibbling gets old, Karan has a trick up his sleeve to cut the tension: nostalgia. RRKPK's drinks liberally from the well of Bollywood nostalgia while seeding future nostalgia. A secret romance between Randhawa's grandfather (Dharmendra) and Rani's grandmother (Shabana Azmi) - the reason Rocky and Rani meet in the first place - is the backdrop for replaying some of the great Bollywood songs. At one point Dharmendra's character breaks into Abhi Na Jaao Chodke to that of Shabana Azmi. The audience goes wild.

But beyond the nostalgia, what makes this family drama a filmi family drama that will be remembered and referenced is its major 150-crore glow-up. Rani's silk sarees and her deep-neck sleeveless blouses are sure to become as iconic as Pooh's short skirts and boa scarves.

The visuals, the sets, the psychedelic colours all fill you with glee and awe. There is a dassera dance number where the sets drip with scarlet colours - the perfect hue for a heated argument between Rocky and Rani. Another kaleidoscopic dance spectacle is set inside a wrestling match arena.

The linchpin of the movie, though, is the effervescent Ranveer Singh. He is confetti in human form, his character a triumphant subversion of the masculine hero. And he is so delightful that even with Alia in the same scene, it is his gestures you look at, his voice you wait to hear.

Rocky Aur Rani... is the quintessential Bollywood film: a patchwork quilt of emotions expressed in a starburst of song, dance and dialogue. A complete package of drama, comedy, tragedy made for the sole purpose of entertainment, this is the most Karan Johar film since Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum.