The Making of Angst

To say that I had been eagerly awaiting 'Rockstar' would be an understatement. It had all the right names associated with it; Imtiaz Ali, A R Rahman and the music was just mind blowing, as if you needed one more instance of a master reinventing himself yet again. But most of all I was very curious about the whole take on the Rockstar persona. I mean, which cultural phenomenas of our times have been more intriguing, ironic and tragic than the Rockstar.

'Rockstar' as story-telling is average. The plot jumps far too often, the performance of the leading lady is a big let down, although Ranbir Kapoor just shines through. As a concept, an exploration, however, 'Rockstar' is awesome. Yes, I said it out loud - Awesome.

'Rockstar' is an exploration of Angst. Although angst as a theme has existed for centuries, be it the existential angst of Hamlet - 'To be or not to be..' or Captain Ahab's mad obsessive angst against an indifferent, amoralistic universe symbolized by the White Whale. Hell, angst might very well be one of the favorite themes of literature in general. And while the past few decades seem to have been more about an irrational exuberance  than angst, the biggest cultural icons of our times to symbolize angst is the Rockstar.

Be it against an overbearing society, corrupt and cruel state, violence, puritansm etc. the Rockstar has used his rebellion as an effective tool to express his, oft misplaced, angst. Morrison, Cobain & co. were not just about sex, drugs and rock n roll, but also about a basic existential angst against the world. I think in 'Rockstar' Imtiaz Ali has tried to explore the same angst. Jordan can't really understand or control his doomed love or the frenzy of an icon hungry society which builds him up just to pull him down. The angrier he gets inside, the better his music and he keeps getting caught in the vicious cycle, a totally different Rabbit Hole if you may.

All of us have known angst at some point of time in our lives. To say that it is doomed is a fairly obvious statement to make. At its worse it is self obsessed, destructive and childish. At its best however, it simply innocence lost, a Naadan Parinda bewildered by a complex and strange world it can neither comprehend fully nor control.