Eye-popping cinematic blowouts come easily to Karan Johar, director of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham …, but the air of excess in his latest comedy-drama jars a little whenever the movie tries to send up the stinking-rich, dim-bulb Punjabi hero Rocky (Ranveer Singh), heir to a Delhi sweet empire, and a man not visibly lacking in self-esteem. “I look like Prada and Gucci got together to give birth to me,” he wails, flanked by hundreds of adoring female dancers who seem in no mood to contradict him. Hard for a film to lampoon profligacy while simultaneously wallowing in it.
It’s up to the hard-hitting Bengali TV journalist Rani (Alia Bhatt) to bring him down a peg or two when they join forces as impromptu matchmakers. Rocky’s grandfather (Dharmendra), who hasn’t been compos mentis since a nasty fall years earlier, has recently started calling out a woman’s name. This turns out to be Rani’s grandmother (Shabana Azmi), who spent a blissful week with grandpa at a poetry symposium (no, really) back in the 1970s. In the process of getting the old lovebirds back together, the young ’uns fall for one another despite the intellectual chasm between them. Or as Rani puts it: “A protein shake in one hand and your shirt wide open and my heart got in the way.”
The course of true love hits a roadblock in the form of their clans’ mutual dislike (“We may hold the steering wheel but our families are the backseat drivers”) until Rocky and Rani decide to each spend three months in the other’s household in a sort of try-before-you-buy arrangement – which is how the second half of the film becomes an extended episode of Wife Swap with added sequins.
Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani is fascinating in its attempts to address the clash between progressiveness and tradition, resulting in all sorts of unlikely dramatic conflicts – such as Rocky speaking out against cancel culture, or being upbraided by Rani’s mother for his embarrassment while shopping for bras. Countless hysterical showdowns later, it all ends in a flurry of rose petals and a finale that out-pinks Barbie.
• Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani is released on 28 July in cinemas.
