Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani Review: Karan Johar's Comeback Film Revels in Alia Bhatt And Ranveer Singh’s Chemistry

Prathyush Parasuraman

Off-screen, They Call Each Other ‘Sakhis’

A strange question looms over Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani. Do the leads — the Bengali Rani (Alia Bhatt) and the Punjabi Rocky (Ranveer Singh) — have chemistry?

Chemistry is Intuitive, Immediately Grasped, And Eternally Locked, Right?

The greatest vindication of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani — it gives chemistry context. This is not the kind of cloth-ripping intensity, but a more familiar, easier, less desperate kind of longing.

From Kati Patang(1971) to Loafer(1973)

Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani, though, never snaps. It soars, endlessly, because it energizes — not defines — itself with these references.

There is a Tonal Shift Between The Film’s Two Halves

The humor sparkles throughout the first hour. The melodrama, though, shines only as bright punctures every now and then, but enough to keep the night lit.

The Bengalis Teach and The Punjabis Learn. Rani Teaches Rocky Learns.

A lot of the film feels hasty because too much has to be taught, be learned, and after a point, the film is aware that pedagogy is not narrative.