To put it simply, five words explain the film Rockstar — intense, Ranbir Kapoor, A.R. Rahman, Mohit Chauhan and Imtiaz Ali. The entire 18 reels of the film are only about them while the rest — the cast, crew, story, cinematography is just trappings of the film.

Though the hype surrounding the release of this film never matched the intensity of last week’s release of Ra.One, nevertheless the expectation from director Imtiaz Ali was always high after he gave a superhit Jab We Met (2007). Both films, of course, very different. JWM was fresh, innocent and happy — a typical Mills & Boon’s romance while Rockstar is mature, intense and of a genre which hasn’t been much touched upon in Indian films.

Music and musician as center stage have been done to death in Indian films, from 1950 beginning with Baiju Bawra, Karz, Yaarana, Rock On!! and innumerable others. But the life and times of a rock singer haven’t been dealt with intensity. When Ranbir, the lead singer and guitarist in his band, strums with gusto the electric guitar with heart rendering passion to the accompaniment of drums, believe it or not even a non-rock music lover, like me wanted to join him and scream “Sada haq, aithe rakh.”

Now I understand the junoon of rock music fans, who scream and go berserk when attending a rock concert. Imtiaz has captured this so well that one can easily forgive his unnecessary meanderings, stretching the film to a tortuous length. That is the main failing of the film. One wishes he had sliced it short by 30 minutes. We will talk about the second major failing a little later.

And what does one say of Ranbir Kapoor aka Janardhan Jakhar, JJ alias Jordan? He has really lived the role be it as the brash Haryanvi college boy attending Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College or later as an angry and abusive rock singer, Jordan. Looks like with this flick the entire acting genealogy of Kapoor khandaan has been showered on the boy. It’s time the Khan triumvirate (Shahrukh, Salman and Aamir) took notice. Of course, Ranbir was always promising but with this film he has established himself.

The story is simple — it is the saga of a young boy from a typical Delhi middle class family who loves his guitar, music and dreams of becoming a rock star one day, like Jim Morrison’s of the 1960’s rock band, The Doors. “Jim ne undino jab middle finger dikhayi thi to kisine kuch nahin kaha..” is the rationalisation of his sometime misunderstood behaviour.

JJ as he is nicknamed by his friends is willing to go to any length to make a name in the world of music. He stands in queues for Indian Idol type contests, is humiliated by the so called musically inclined selectors and willingly performs in whatever he is asked to. But still success eludes him. This is where the college canteen head, Khatana (stage actor Kumud Mishra) a man who lavishly uses talcum powder, tells him that every great musician needs to have at least a serious break up or sad incident in one’s life.

“Meri to aisi koyi gal huyi nahi.. main adopted bhi nahin hoon aur parents bhi jinda hai!” answers a perplexed JJ.

This is when he hits upon the idea of getting his heart broken by proposing to the college prima donna — Heer Kaul (Nargis Fakhri). Let me bring the second failing of Imtiaz Ali. A director who is known to be ‘bang on’ in casting the right people, somehow he has made a wrong choice in casting Nargis. No doubt she is beauty personified, her delicate features reminding one of Hollywood’s late actor Audrey Hepburn. But as far as her acting talent goes, she is zero.

Both JJ (whom Heer addresses as Jordan) and Heer decide to have a blast before she gets married. He makes a wish list of all that Heer ever wanted to do — watch a C grade film, Junglee Jawani, drink desi daru (‘santra peena hai mujhe’ she says), bike ride to snow-covered mountains of Kashmir, dance in shadily lit dance floors, etc. He even helps her shop for her wedding trousseau and works during her wedding as a real good friend. She is the first one to realise her love for him. “Mujhe ek hug dede,” is what she asks him before going to get married. Post wedding she moves to Prague asking him to come and meet her there.

Meanwhile, JJ gets thrown out of his home. He lives in a Dargah and bides time singing the praise of the Divine One. It’s here he meets the wheel-chair bound Shammi Kapoor, a shehnai player, who announces, “Is bande ki pahunch bahut upar hai’’ and even recommends him to a music house.

From here starts the growth of Jordan, the rockstar, his visit to Prague, meeting Heer, achieving super stardom and also developing a streak of violence whenever he is upset — which is most of the time because of the terminally-ill Heer and her marriage.

With Rockstar, A.R. Rahman seems to have returned to Bollywood. Somehow in the last couple of years, he had become more of a Hollywood composer, his music in films not sounding like Rahman. But in this film the music he has produced is superlative, suits every moment and emotions in the scene. There are some 13 songs and not one of them is out of sync.

Another find of the film is Mohit Chauhan. He has been on the scene for nearly a decade now but Rockstar has catapulted him to a different level. Mukesh give the voice to Ranbir’s grandfather Raj Kapoor; Mohammad Rafi was the voice of his granduncle Shammi Kapoor and Mohit is Ranbir’s voice.

Rockstar is certainly not a film about a hardcore rock idol who is associated with alcohol, drug abuse, sex and violence. Jordan doesn’t do any of these. Imtiaz fails in making this into a true story of a music star but we can say he has attempted to. And Ranbir, Rahman and Mohit have intensified it. Forget the extra length, watch it for these five elements.