Review | Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani
Your blood runs in my veins, but there is no trace of you in my heart.
- Rocky Randhawa (this side)
So, I closed out August by watching Karan Johar’s bombastic, loud, colourful new musical, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (Rocky and Rani’s Love Story), as my first film in an Indian cinema in a year. Starring Ranveer Singh as Rocky Randhawa and Alia Bhatt as Rani Chatterjee, the film asks the question: Can a liberal, sociopolitically aware, English-speaking Bengali girl from South Delhi (Rani) be in a relationship with a born-and-raised West Delhi himbo boy (Rocky)? It also answers the question with a resounding yes within the first hour, delivering tons of laughs and food-for-thought moments along the way.
Once they accept that they are in love, Rocky wants to marry Rani, but Rani convinces him that they need to try living with each other’s families first. It’s honestly a wild premise and signals the midpoint of the film (and the intermission I so missed about Indian cinema). So they decide to spend three months at each other’s homes - Rani in an oppressive Punjabi household with Jaya Bachchan as the matriarch, Dhanlakshmi, upholding the patriarchy, and Rocky in a liberal, intellectual, Bengali household, where everyone constantly mocks him for a perceived lack of intellectual capability.
Of course, as such films must go, the families come to accept Rocky and Rani and their respective backgrounds, while the script makes various on-the-nose comments about society and social structures in the process. It is largely a learning curve for Rocky, who is confronted with why a lot of things he says and does are Problematic, while Rani’s family grows more than Rani herself. It is here that I find an interesting comparison to be made with Netflix’s Purple Hearts (2022).
Although the cultural contexts for Purple Hearts and Rocky Aur Rani are quite literally worlds (or at least continents) apart, they seem to be trying to achieve the same ends. Rocky’s family is highly conservative, and Rani’s family is entirely liberal and open-minded (her father is a professional kathak dancer, after all). However, where Purple Hearts sides with its male lead, forcing the female lead to compromise on her beliefs constantly, Rocky Aur Rani sides entirely with Rani in her mission to emancipate the women of Rocky’s household from the shackles of patriarchy (I mean this entirely unironically).
Rani does not change in any meaningful way over the course of the film. She starts out headstrong and confident and stays that way throughout, and the film vindicates her at every turn. She learns to be more emotionally open, but the ground doesn’t shift beneath her feet the way it does for her male counterpart.
When Rocky first proposes to Rani, she turns him down, specifically citing a possible difference in ethical belief systems (which they have managed to go this long without discussing). They do a short general knowledge quiz, which he fails (“Where is West Bengal?” She asks. He answers that it’s in the west), and he exclaims that he’s in love, not at university.
It would’ve been very easy for the film to go forward with this and berate Rani for trying to change Rocky. It would have been so easy for Rani to learn that love is more important than bigotry while allowing Rocky to hold bigoted beliefs (or beliefs born from bigotry, if not intended as bigotry).
Instead, they break up, and when they get back together, Rani still holds true to her beliefs. When Rocky says that Rani will move in with his family, Rani immediately disagrees and suggests that Rocky could move in with her family instead. When Rocky disagrees, Rani points out the double standard for women, and this is how they reach the three-month household exchange decision that sets up the second half of the film.
It is only towards the end that the film points out the pitfalls that self-righteousness like Rani’s can lead to. When Rocky’s father, Tijori, is outraged that Rocky dared do a kathak performance with Rani’s father during Durga Puja, he berates Rocky, and Rani tries interjecting to defend her father. Tijori points a finger at Rocky, trying to keep Rani out of the conversation while Rocky stays silent. Rani eventually snaps and shoves Tijori’s arm out of the way, appalling Rocky, who says he didn’t want to argue during a festival and would have confronted his father on a less public occasion.
For the first and only time, the film doesn’t vindicate Rani’s behaviour. And even here, it makes a statement about violence instead of what Rani was saying. Both Rocky aur and Rani’s family say that Rani shouldn’t have raised her hand against Tijori, condemning the violence of it rather than her sentiments. Throughout the film, we hear of instances of patriarchal violence by members of a family against other members of the same family, and the film’s message that violence is never the answer to conflict means that it cannot vindicate Rani. However, it still stands with Rani in her belief system, and Tijori ends up relenting and apologising, even defending his family from Dhanlakshmi’s rage at Rani’s influence.
Of course, in sheer scope, Rocky Aur Rani is a much broader film than Purple Hearts. Where the latter is concerned far more with the two individuals at its centre, the former showcases India’s communitarian sensibilities by focusing so heavily on the families. And this is to say nothing of the more literal way that Bollywood routinely pushes the 3-hour mark, where Hollywood can struggle to justify 2-hour movie lengths. But Rocky Aur Rani fulfils its 3-hour obligations by telling a more progressive story where its values remain rooted throughout. Ranveer Singh brings a sincerity to Rocky as the Ken to Alia Bhatt’s Barbie that shines throughout this film and holds fast to its upper middle class, intellectual messaging.
I saw a review on Letterboxd calling it a Gen Z film and I completely agree. Of course, the review said it in a derogatory way, but I choose to take it as a compliment. If it is Gen Z messaging for Rocky to say he didn’t understand fatphobia until he started dating Rani and learned to be more PC, I’ll take it. I think Rocky’s speech to Rani’s family after her father’s public humiliation is on par with Ayushmann Khurrana shouting “Homophobia!” into a megaphone in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020) in terms of on-the-nose-ness, although the latter was comedic where Rocky is entirely serious.
Once again, Rocky’s sincerity is put front and centre during his monologue, and it comes after the brilliant decision to show Rocky as clearly afraid of physical retribution. Once Rocky realises Rani’s family will not be violent with him, he opens up to them in a way he would never be able to with his own family. It’s about as subtle as the film can get, especially considering it is a KJo production complete with a Manish Malhotra wardrobe to die for (I mean, seriously, those chiffon sarees are ethereal). Bollywood is not known for subtlety, so subtle moments like Rocky’s fear before feeling secure enough to give a monologue stand out significantly while blending into the overall charm of the film.
At the end of the day, that’s basically why I enjoyed the film so much. I will happily take loud, bombastic, and, above all, fun Bollywood with heavy-handed social messaging any day because of how much heart it has. Rocky’s sincerity reflects the film’s sincerity. Rani’s worldliness and willingness to give in to love is the film’s worldliness and willingness to give in to love. The film itself is a character here, and a socially conscious, politically correct one at that. Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani truly stands tall, and I will forever be glad this was the film I returned to Indian cinema with after nearly a year abroad. It was entirely worth it.
Anyway, that’s it from me (this side). I hope you’re having an amazing day, and I will (hopefully) see you soon!
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