What is wrong with critics these days, (suspect these opinion leaders are so much swayed by each other’s early impressions about a movie, and set a troubling trend). Considering their influence in the success of a movie, the onus of responsibility lies with a critic to first understand its concept, and Roy is such that it tests the height of one’s patience before it grows on you.
My words about Roy, the film.
Arjun Rampal is Kabir Grewal, an accomplished filmmaker and screenplay writer famous for his ‘Guns’ franchise. He is currently working on the script of the third instalment of Guns which is based in Malaysia. The crew decides to set out to Malaysia for the shoot although the story is far ahead from completion. Kabir from this moment goes through a creative slowdown and fails to finish the screenplay, much to the worry of the producers and the entire cast and crew of the film.
Ayesha Amir, played by Jacqueline Fernandez is a London-based filmmaker who is also in Malaysia (incidentally in the same hotel as Kabir) for a travel documentary. Kabir finds his muse in Ayesha, and after much persuasion Ayesha agrees to go on a date with him. Soon after the reports of their courtship surface in the media, Ayesha learns that she is his ‘Girlfriend #23′, a way the press keep track of his flings. She starts dodging him and leaves to London.
Meanwhile, the film shoot gets stalled due to an incomplete script and Kabir returns back to Mumbai. As he struggles to find a perfect climax to his story, he remembers a conversation he had with Ayesha in which she had a different vision of the ending. Kabir finds his inspiration and goes on to complete the script. The movie becomes a huge hit.
The film is engagingly crisscrossed by another love story, the story of a reclusive art thief and his mistress, Roy and Tia. Roy’s new assignment is to steal one of the halves of a priceless painting called ‘Two Halves’. The right-half of the painting belongs to Tia. It is now when a love story unfolds, and also ends too soon after Roy’s mission is accomplished, to steal the painting. That’s the one half of the love story. What happens in the next half is what Roy is all about. And, will the ‘Two Halves’ paintings reunite again, with the right owner?
It was amusing to watch the two storylines run over each other and how Kabir and Roy are interrelated.
Ranbir as Roy remains low key throughout the film, perhaps a fear within if Roy overshadows the main cast. But again let’s believe it’s the play of the script here, Kabir is Roy, a case of character taking over the personality of its author. Kabir is very much laid back and to an extent boring, so is his protagonist. And, Ranbir Kapoor, I sure did miss his acting, but that’s ok because Bombay Velvet is just around the corner.
Arjun Rampal stayed loyal to his role as Kabir. Truly appreciate the actor for his no-nonsense acting, a rarely found trait in Bollywood these days! Surprisingly, it was JF who comes as the clear winner of three leads. She looks amazingly calm, resilient, and so like a diva from start to finish. In short, I loved Jacqueline Fernandez as Ayesha/Tia in Roy!
The film traverses a road less traveled by many in Bollywood, with lots of stumbles. The debutant director Vikramjit Singh does miss nuances of storytelling at times because certainly for a film like Roy it demands much more powerful dialogues and screenplay lest damaging comments by critics and movie goers ruin its stint at the BO. That said I don’t feel it is quite right to zoom in the flaws given that it’s his first venture. Hats off to Vikramjit Singh because he has risked his career and chose to give audiences Roy rather than sth like Chennai Express or Happy New Year.
Full marks to the story, full marks to the mind-blowing BGM! And about the music in Roy, I don’t even have to talk about it!
