“I hear music when I close my eyes. When I open my eyes, the music does not go away. I often cannot follow the words that people speak, but I get the music of their soul. It is good that way, because words can lie but music cannot. Pleasant or disturbing, music is always the truth”- Jordan
Sometimes I marvel about the scenario how Imtiaz Ali would react
to all the in-depth analysis around his films, his pleasantly realistic
characters and their individual perception about love, life, dreams, freedom,
and self-realization of their inner voices. People trying to decode the
psychology of his characters, their motives, their state of mind at a
particular scene, it must be a very fascinating and paradoxically surreal
moment for him to read all the theories being put forwarded by people regarding
the characters that he has created.
What quality does these Imtiaz Ali’s
characters possesses for people to talk about them with so much passion and
enthusiasm?
The answer lies in the question itself only, because they are “Imtiaz Ali’s” characters.
One such fascinating figure from Imtiaz Ali’s universe that he introduced 6 years back to the world was Janardan Jakhar. A Delhi Boy who resents the fact that he has no pain in his life and has never experienced heartbreak. He is told that the emotional turmoil raised through heartbreak would eventually help him become a genuine and passionate musician.
Starts the journey of Janardan followed with a thunderous tune of an electric guitar from Orianthi Panagaris.
So where do we start from? Janardan’s impression that a completely different world exists inside video games, or the one who sprinkles alcohol around his face and collar, and act totally sloshed just so that he can mix up in the crowd. He also put forwards an interesting fact that guest at the wedding fantasize about the bride at night. He does not understand classic music, or he is unaware of the fact that he does, but it just does not go well with his sense of music. He leaves interviews midway without bothering to tell anyone, because he just does not care.
Perhaps we should start with
Jalal ad-Din Rumi’s lines that open the journey of Janardan “Out beyond
the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
Imagine a place, where we do
not have to live in synchronization with the social conventions, our actions
will not be judged in accordance to what is right and what is wrong. Imagine a
place, so revered that we will be able to overcome the despair and misery
surrounding our lives because of us trying to be different from what we
actually are. There are no society expectations, no pressure to succeed in life
in terms of the stagnant parameters of success in life. A place where anyone
can run towards their dreams irrespective of the fear of it being reasonable or
not. A place where the impulsive nature of our soul guides us through the
questions put forward by scenarios thrown into our way by life. A place where
the radiance of the universe permeates through our consciousness and stimulates
us to let things go. What is right and what is wrong is very subjective, but
the core value that the meeting field brings is way beyond those circumstances.
Ustad Jameel Khan spots
Janardan at Nizamuddin Dargah, which is the holy shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin
Auliya. He was one of the most famous Sufis of the Indian subcontinents.
Nizamuddin Auliya, like his predecessors from Chishti order focused upon love
as a means of realizing God. Janardan, a bit hesitant in the initial days to
mix up with the Qawaali team at the shrine organically gels with them through
the magic of his music. He serves as a disciple at the shrine yet act a bit
reluctant to ask for anything, and rather just stares with a sign of doubt.
Gradually, it is his music that allows him to break the shackles of reluctance,
and he utters-
Bring Morning rains on my
body, and it helps me clean up the dark soul of mine, the drop of
Nourishment that flows from yours, Oh Lord
It would be more appropriate
to state that Janardan served as a disciple of a Sufi Saint, and it eventually
helped him rediscover his music through a different perspective. Ustad Jameel
Khan serves as a Messiah in Janardan’s life. He convinces an unenthusiastic
Dhingra to give him a break and quotes “He is a big animal; he won’t
fit in your small cage, he will create his own music, he is something else, the
Almighty has blessed him, he has his Inayat (Grace)”. Ustad Jameel
Khan seemed like a messenger of God sent to identify the ones who had God’s
grace and fulfill their wishes. He kept track of his green colored Misbaha
(Prayer bead) which is used to repeatedly recite prayers silently within the
mind or aloud.
He had two disciples with him, carrying his wheelchair, who appeared twins,
with nearly same facial features and same clothes. According to Islamic
tradition, the two kiraman and katibin (honourable scribes) are two angels called Raqib and Atid,
believed by Muslims to record a person's actions, thoughts and feelings.
If you go through the posters of Rockstar, you
will notice a pattern of a strong color template surrounded by flames. I wonder
if it symbolizes “Wings on Fire”, the name of Jordan’s concert. The man you see
on the poster is not Janardan; he is Jordan, who is broken, empty, under
immense pain, in quest of the meeting place, burning in the fire of his own
strong emotions. He can only express his pain through his music, and yet cannot
be heard. The posters featuring Jordan and Heer have an indispensable aura of
enraged sexual energy. It is as if both of them want to shred all the
inhibitions laid down to them by the society and get lost under the passionate
fumes of loves. Meanwhile, the ones featuring Jordan alone denotes an intellect
of Sufism hidden under his music.
The transformation of Janardan into Jordan is
organic, systematic and painful, Heer gives him this new name, Janardan unaware
of the consequences that his life is about to undergo accepts the new name with
an initial hesitation. The first point of transformation is through the song
“Aur Ho”, where Jordan is full of sexual energy, and by this, I do not mean he
is full of lust; it is rather the restlessness after a string of passionate
kisses and intimate moments that has turned him helpless against his conscious
judgment of what is right and what is wrong. He constantly wants to look into
the eyes of Heer, he cannot accept Heer turning her face away. He wants to feel
the sensations brought because of his hands touching her skin.
“I have become a string tangled in
wish, untangle me
I am a knock and you are like closed doors, open
O helpness staying in the heart,
come, live and while living, live the dream..
There should be more, more noise of breaths and move towards the flame”
I am a knock and you are like closed doors, open
O helpness staying in the heart,
come, live and while living, live the dream..
There should be more, more noise of breaths and move towards the flame”
The moment that catalyzes the transformation
occurs when the people are aware of his music, his eccentric personality, and
wants to pass on a judgment on his personal space, they are more interested in
his personal actions rather than his music, people wants to cash-in on his
music through his idiosyncratic nature. Dhingra Saab, knows the value of public
image, because according to his market experience “Everything is Image, and
Image is everything” and that is how he brands Jordan’s first album as
“Negative” because in media only negative prevails. Jordan expresses his
volatile reactions through the song “Sadda Haq” where he starts with these
lines-
“In
this world of you people, at
every step, a human is wrong.
Whatever
I feel is right and say,
you
call it wrong, if I'm wrong then who's right?
Should
I send you a request
for
me to live with my own wish?
Means
you all have a right on me
more
than I do it's
my right, put it here and give it to me”
Does the search of those flocks of birds
guides Jordan to discover the meeting place?
At one point in the film, post the
transformation of Janardan into Jordan, there is a pause or perhaps a Trans
like state where Jordan stands still, as if Jordan wants time to stand still.
He recalls the time spent at the shrine, may be looking for same kind of solace
that he found during his stay at the shrine. There is also a shot of him
shivering with cold and witnessing sunrise, still longing for something even he
has not determined yet. The scene between Khatana and Jordan works on the
principle of paradox. Even Jordan agrees with his queries and to his best
ability tries to explain his state of mind but fails. Jordan has fallen into
the gap of contradictions, which is explained so aesthetically via the
dichotomy of fame. He is no more Janardan from Hindu College, who had heated
arguments over little Chutney offered for two Samosa’s, he is now Jordan, the
rockstar. His friends are not interested in understanding his mental frame of
mind; rather their priority lies in getting as many pictures as possible with
the celebrity that Janardan has become.
In a Film Companion interview, Imtiaz Ali
mentioned that in retrospective, the film has defects after a particular point;
he says that how beautiful it would have been if they had just got together and
after a certain time realized that they have nothing in common and are not
compatible. Ranbir Kapoor points that it is a perfect film that it was
necessary for Jordan to get heartbroken towards the climax and end their story
the way it ended.
6 years have passed since the release of the
film, but the character continues to grab our attention, A.R.Rahman’s
sensational soundtrack refuses to leave our mind, the magic delivered through
words by Dr. Irshad Kamil continues to make us in awe, the soothing voice of Mohit
Chauhan always brings a sense of calmness all around. Each song creates a
different vibe and narrates the story in itself. Jordan’s character left an
indelible mark for every protagonist suffering under the effect of love; the
closest a character has come to Jordan is Arjun from Arjun Reddy. The two seems
different sides of a coin, both flawed in their own way yet they both engross
us in their stories, in their idea of love. I found Arjun a far more evolved
version of Jordan. Arjun does not shy from fulfilling his physical needs
whereas Jordan tries but fails miserably in the same case. Arjun is optimistic
about his love, while Jordan remains stagnant in his life and chooses to remain
enclosed in a shell of his own emotions during the period when he is away from
Heer. The common string between the two that I found is that they are highly
polarizing characters and they evoke polarizing emotions from the people, you
either love them unconditionally with their flaws or loathe them in regards to
their emotional shortcomings.
Jordan is aware of the void in his life, the
angst that engulfs him every moment despite having everything that he always
wanted. He is enraged within, burning in his love for Heer. There comes a point
where Jordan does not want himself to be heartbroken, he just want to be with
Heer, but it is too late for him to realize this. The path of destruction that
he embarked on has eventually broken his heart and shattered the innocent
Janardan hiding somewhere within Jordan. All he wanted was to be with Heer in a
world of their own, where they can live in solace, with no one to judge them,
question their actions. I do not want to believe that Heer left Jordan all
alone to suffer even more, I tell myself that they reunited at the meeting ground
where the flock of birds resided. They did not deserve the world we live in;
they deserved a far more suitable place for their love.
The movie shows how man's desire to understand everything is faultered. The world around us has no compassion. No love no Sympathy. How much creation of god is complicated. It is hard to understand the link of each being to another. What is truth what is false. I didn't watch this movie, because RK doesn't appeal much to me. But after reading this post I may consider watching it soon. You as a blogger are getting better with every post.
ReplyDeleteNice one. After a long time, it happened that I got curious about what's next..As I went through each n every word. There are some spelling mistakes, some words have been more effective if their complexity was lost and have been simply put. But, the most important thing is you gain pace as you start making us imagine 'The meeting place' and thereafter it keeps going up and down. It feels like sometimes you lose connection with the soul of the movie. The parts of songs would have been more effective if used in hindi and english both. Jordan's story is based on the conflict between order and randomness, whether it's him not understanding classical music or him not willing to control or suppress his emotions etc.
ReplyDeleteThis theme is time to time expressed in many songs like Sadda Haq, Naadaan parindey, Aur ho, Hawa Hawa, jo bhi main...All have different lyrics but gyst is same. It's so influencing that as I try to get close to Jordan, I feel like Everything which was in order is now turned in to a big chaos which finally brings out the purest part of me to the surface. Like nature does when resetting itself , randomness or being natural- destroying naturality and getting organized- chaos and destroying the order- randomness or being natural.
Nice attempt by you though..Keep going bro...It can't judge this one much as I am unable to understand what's making me feel good about it, Your writing skills or the soft corner I have for this film.