The Importance of Being Ranbir

Good-looking young men make for heavy lids and heaving thoughts. Good- looking young men,on screen,nearly in the buff? Smokin’.

Ranbir Kapoor,scion of the Kapoors,holder of the male legacy of Bollywood’s First Family,appears to be,at this moment in time,on the cusp of superstardom. Or something like that. There were those who saw it in him when he came out in his debut film,Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s horribly overwrought Saawariya,which bombed but which gave him that towel to drop,and Bollywood its new pin-up boy. Not me,no. As he ran around the ultra-cyan,ultra-stylised sets of that film,smiling a lot while channeling his grandpa Raj,he seemed like just another Kapoor lad,loaded with the family attributes. Personable,yes. Charming,yes. But out of the box,despite the towel and a pixellated flash of what lay beneath,no.

What he has done since,though,has made me revise my initial opinion. Slowly. He’s done the easy thing of playing the feckless slacker. He’s at the right age,and stage,to do those roles where he can be seen to be sleeping all day long,and chase his tail,and other pretty ones,in his waking hours. And be redeemed by the love of a good girl,after sowing his wild oats. He’s danced. He’s done comedy. He’s hefted guns. He’s got his girl.

But,and this is where it started to get interesting,he’s gone serious. And tried tamping down on the starriness to play a character. Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year may have bombed too,but its failure was a very different kind of failing than Saawariya. It was a noble failure. It was the kind of film that the makers (Yashraj Films-Jaideep Sahni-Shimit Amin) need to be proud of,including its lead actor,without whom Rocket Singh… wouldn’t have had that edge. For a leading man to play a loser on the way to being a winner isn’t tough; the hard part is to get him to do stuff which isn’t likeable while he’s at it. Rocket Singh didn’t beg to be loved as soon as he came into our view: we learnt to like him,after not liking him. And which is what,in all probability,kept those viewers who like an obvious pay-off far away from the film.

For a noob,even if he is a Kapoor,to do such a role so early in his career tells us a couple of things. The lover boy parts are tempting to do because they are safe. They talk to a constituency which is ready-made. They lead to screaming fans wanting to tear your clothes off at public outings. It’s the other ones,in which Ranbir gets hidden inside a Rocket,for example,which are risky,because they do not have a ready-made audience : at best,they will appeal to cinephiles (and those who have the willingness to pay for something experimental,and Rocket Singh… was practically indie when it comes to hidebound,studio-led Bollywood); at worst,they will help lose fans.

But this Kapoor seems to want to walk dangerously,and that’s what makes him someone to watch. Yes,he can afford to branch out a little precisely because he is a star son and doesn’t have to pay rent. Yes,he can get top-notch directors lining up because of his lineage. But what no filmmaker can manufacture is the connect a star has with his (or her) audience. So even when Ranbir is in a sorry romcom and even when that film tanks,he can get out of it without egg on his face. Or at least,stuff he can wipe off,and walk on.

He’s out with Rockstar this Friday,and already the adjectives,coming out of the title,are flowing. Industry watchers are placing bets on him as the guy who will bring it back for them,regardless of how the film does. This is exactly where this Kapoor needs to pause and ponder his next moves. From all the delirious press around him,we know that he seems to choose his projects with thought and care as well as willingness to break out. Because wanting to stay safe can lead to stasis. Ask Kumar Gaurav,who was the next best thing,for an achingly brief while. Because family name is not the final arbiter. Ask Rajiv Kapoor,who went into oblivion after being a short-lived star.

To be a flash in the pan is laughably simple. To be a one-film wonder is even simpler. To be in it for the long haul needs,apart from luck,lineage and acting chops,a conscious avoidance of hubris,the confidence never to be bigger than your part. Let’s ask Ranbir,five years from now.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com