A Rockstar named Jordan!

Memories are bad. They are not just bad bad, but actually BAD bad. They occupy your mind, your time-table, your entire thought process. They don't let you do what you want to. They don't let you be who you want to. They drag you to your past irrespective of your present. They torment the calm waters of your mind whenever they drop into it.

One such memory that constantly torments my mind is of a rockstar named Jordan, and his inconsequential love story. At the onset of winters, the weather comes with a suspicious smell in the air. While it brings the month of festivities in many parts of India, it surely brings nostalgia in many minds, especially mine. But for the last two years, it has been very intense. It has been ever since the release of the movie Rockstar. To make matters worse, there is usually a visit to Delhi planned for me near this time of the year that floods my mind with the names of Delhi metro stations and the male/female voices warning us against "dandaneeya apraadhs" every 10 seconds. All this has something to do with the movie Rockstar and my memory of it. It was mostly in these metro trains, near this time of the year, near the release of this movie, when I used to play the Rockstar playlist and listen to it repeatedly. The 'icing on the cake' is that most part of the movie Rockstar is itself shot in Delhi and the metro voice recorded system almost appears to be teasing me with names like Pitampura. (Remember Aditi Rao playing a reporter and yelling - Pitampura ka ye wahi makaan hai jahan se Jordan ko dhakke maar kar nikaal diya gaya tha!)

The songs playlist that I had in my phone, showed the most played to least played Rockstar songs in this order:

• Phir se ud chala
• Saadda Haq
• Aur Ho
• Hawaa Hawaa
• Sheher Mein
• Tum Ho
• Kun Faaya Kun
• Nadaan Parinde
• Tum Ko
• Katiya Karun (i do not even remember the complete lyrics of this song!)

And hence the entire situation - with Rockstar reminding me of Delhi metro and Delhi metro reminding me of Rockstar.

However...

...this post is not to discuss how my memory relates the transportation system of Delhi to an Imtiaz Ali production; it is to mourn on the sad love-story of Jordan and the death of Heer Kaul, now that the second anniversary of the movie is on 11th November.

Janardhan Jakhar (Ranbir Kapoor), who was a whimsical youth of the Delhi University, dreamed of becoming a rockstar, whose music would sway the world beneath his fans' feet. He believed that it could be achieved only by wearing clothes with startling level of color mismatch and yelling "O ya ya ya' in the college campus. He believed that only this could make him a rockstar - the one who could boldly show the middle finger to the audience when they were there to cheer him up. He was, of course, wrong. He did not know that to become a rockstar what is required the most is immense pain (I don't say this. This guy does). A pain that sucks so much from you that there is nothing left in you but the remains of a rockstar.

And it was his confidant, Khatana, who told him that. He made him realize that dude, you are on the wrong path! If you really want to become a rockstar, there is no need to practice or stylize yourself, just suffer some pain and you will be one. But what kind of pain - Janardhan wondered! He had a near perfect life, with both parents alive, no loans, no HIV, no other disease, no police case - nothing! The only thing that was close to discomfort in his life was his lascivious elder sister-in-law. Where could he invite pain from? What could he do to become a rockstar? He wondered.

Came the time when there was a college fest in which Vijay Mallya's favourite Heer Kaul (Narghis Fakhri) was supposed to dance (which genre of dance it was I don't know, and I don't even want to!). Janardhan and his friends went to watch the dance, for all the wrong reasons. Janardhan ended up overhearing two of his mates' conversation, one of whom considered Heer to be a perfect heart-breaking machine, since she was the hottest girl in the campus and already betrothed to someone. (I don't think he actually had the second reason in mind. Pervert. No?)

Our Janardhan was now with a plan - propose to the perfect heart-breaking machine, get refused, suffer pain, and become a rockstar.

If at all it was that easy!

And so he went to Heer and bluntly told her that he loved her. Heer, who saw him for the first time, was flabbergasted at this random display of childish emotions in a public arena. She simply told him to bugger off, which he thought was a reference to a burger and a reason for him to feast over samosas and fight over pudina chutneys. But Khatana bhaiya made him realize that it was not what he meant. That's not how Janardhan could become a rockstar.

Now that he had been stupid enough to confess his non-existential love to Heer, he felt awkward every time he crossed paths with her in the college campus. Heer felt that she had been quite rude to the person who was otherwise good at heart and tried to be nice to him. She had a strange way of doing it though - she revealed to him that she wasn't as 'neat and clean' as Janardhan supposed her to be and that she had a hidden desire to do all the things that are considered taboo for the 'neat and clean' girls of today - which by the way included only drinking alcohol and watching movies like Junglee Jawani in the notorious cinema halls of old Delhi. Please note: sleeping out with guys was not a taboo for her which means either it 'actually' wasn't or that she just simply forgot to mention it. Combined with that, the non-Indian roots of Heer (read Narghis now) didn't allow her to pronounce Janardhan so she renamed him Jordan.

Jordan became Heer's companion in all her fantasies, eventually beginning to like her. But it was too late for anything. She was about to get married in Kashmir and later get settled in Prague,  and Jordan realized that probably there wouldn't be a future for the both of them beyond that. He hugged her off, she got married and he came back to his hometown Delhi to begin his life afresh and concentrate on his music career once again.

He did not realize that a crack had appeared in his heart already and it was going to get bigger with time. He was on his journey to become a rockstar now.

When he returned, his family showed resentment on his sudden disappearance on getting to know that he had been away in Kashmir they threw him out of the house. (Did it even make sense? I don't know.) But the otherwise happy life of Jordan now had painful moments and at the same time a few of his songs hit off well making him a hit among the masses. He figured out that there was a chance for him to go to Prague if he could sign a contract with his producer and in the hope of meeting Heer once more, he signed it. (Who wouldn't?)

He landed in Prague and on meeting Heer, who was now the part of an elite family, he discovered that she had not been keeping well. But it's a Bollywood movie, and the female leads often recuperate faster on seeing the protagonist. Just that, she became too well that the wellness landed her into infidelity.

One night, when Jordan tried to break into Heer's mansion, the security alarm system activated and the entire story got revealed. Jordan was made to return to India after much embarrassment while Heer was sent back to her parents after her husband figured out that she considered someone else as the 'rockstar' of her life. (Only if you know what I mean)

In India, Jordan was approached by Heer's sister who told her that Heer is suffering from a disease which stopped the production of blood cells in her body. Our self-obsessed Jordan thought it was because she was away from him.

Disowned by the family, maligned in the eyes of public and with his lover suffering from a life-threatening disease was good enough pain to bring him closer to rockstar status.

He became one, and the media was so interested in his personal life (I know there is nothing new about that) that they dug heavily into who was the new woman around Jordan. In one of such events, an irritated Jordan ended up relieving his irritation in form of an intimate moment with Heer. What he didn't realize was that his rockstar status had much more to see.

Just before one of the most important shows of his life, he got the news that Heer was pregnant and since she was already suffering from a fatal disease, she landed in comma. Her death was close and so was Jordan's stardom, for he was about to feel the worst pain in life. Coming out of the hospital he lost cool at a reporter who asked too personal questions from him. He was tamed by the policemen and taken away from the eyes of public. While leaving, he got to do what he always wanted to. (See the picture to the right. A picture is worth 1000 words.)

He knew he was a rockstar now.

While Jordan sang the climax of his song on stage, Heer breathed her last. While his stardom reached newer heights, his heart broke into unlimited pieces. Jordan finally became a rockstar. He realized that the acceptance by millions could not make for rejection by family. He realized that the stardom he got was futile if there was no one to share it with. He realized that an HIV could not harm as much as a heart break. The stardom was there but Heer was gone. She was there but in thoughts. And in the picture below.