Review by
Musanna Ahmed
Directed by: Rajat Kapoor
Starring: Rajat Kapoor, Mallika Sherawat, Ranvir Shorey, Chandrachoor Rai, Kubbra
Sait, Manu Rishi Chadha
Rajat Kapoor’s directorial efforts (Ankhon Deki, Raghu Romeo) receive nowhere near the same attention as some of his acting stuff –
not too surprising considering he performs alongside superstars such as
Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn – but he has quietly carved out a niche in the
North Indian film industry as a terrific indie filmmaker who combines the
neoteric with the classical. His films are as much of a product of today
as they are tributes to cinema history. RK/RKAY might just
be the purest distillation of his style yet.
Usually, Kapoor likes to occupy three roles – director, writer, actor –
and his fulfilment of that capacity here is particularly interesting
because of the autobiographical implications. In this quaint dramedy, he
plays RK (who we can assume is based on himself considering the initials),
a filmmaker who’s seeking to pay homage to classic Hollywood and Bollywood
melodrama with his new film. His filmaholicism exudes through posters of
M and La Dolce Vita plastered in his editing
room. Blurring the lines of characterisation, Kapoor also plays Mahboob,
the protagonist of RK’s film. RK’s nightmares around the narrative quality
are compounded when Mahboob literally runs out of the film, disappearing
from the frames, sparking a scramble to find him.
It very much is a cousin to The Purple Rose of Cairo in how
it follows a fictional hero taking on his own life in the real world. As
RK simply explains to his kids, “Johnny Depp hasn’t gone anywhere but
Captain Jack Sparrow is missing.” The key difference between the two films
is that there’s no love triangle here – this is more of an exploration of
the self rather than our connection to others. When Mahboob returns and
falls into an existential crisis about why all the crew members want to
get a hold of him and how they know him so well – the only real person to
him is his leading lady Gulabo (Mallika Shera) – he has to accept
that he can’t run away from who he actually is. The journey of
self-acceptance is both literal and emotional.
It’s such a cliché to say a film is about filmmaking itself, since almost
every work can be interpreted as some sort of reflection of cinema. Even a
Fast and Furious movie can be read this way, as it speaks to
the power of escapist cinema and the uncapped potential of heightened
on-screen realities. But RK/RKAY is a film that wears its
cinephilia loud and proud and offers an interesting perspective on
artistic frustrations. Its Woody Allen-esque premise captures the meta
appeal of Charlie Kaufman and the whimsical pleasures of Jean-Pierre
Jeunet, and the film-within-a-film pays tribute to Guru Dutt and Douglas
Sirk’s aesthetics. It functions as both a love letter to cinema and a
lovely alternative Hindi film.
RK/RKAY will have a virtual cinema
release across the US on Friday 14th May 2021. A UK/ROI release date is
yet to be confirmed.
