Warning: This review contains spoilers of the movie
Earlier this month, I was talking to my coworkers about an Indian movie that I saw recently called MRP, which is an acronym for Most Responsible Person. I thought it was a funny and over-the-top movie with this fat software engineer trying to find a suitable marriage partner. My coworkers had not seen this movie, since they don’t know the Kannada language, I also don’t know that language – I just read the subtitles. So, one of my coworkers recommended Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, which translates to Rocky and Rani’s Love Story. I didn’t come in with much knowledge – just the fact that it was a romantic comedy.
I thought the movie was interesting. There were tons of funny parts, mostly surrounding the main character Rocky. He is such a good character. He is lighthearted, caring, attractive, upbeat, and optimistic person. Rani is more of a normal career woman type of character. I thought that she was ok, but Rocky’s personality and uniqueness really made the movie for me. This story had multiple love stories. Rocky’s grandfather and Rani’s grandmother had a brief love connection a few decades ago, but they decided to not pursue it because they didn’t want to break up their families. Rocky reached out to Rani to reconnect them and during those meetings, they also developed a love connection. There were ups and downs due to differences in individual values, family values, and societal values, but they were able to overcome them at the end.
The first third of the movie was pretty entertaining, but the movie got relatively serious afterwards. There was a progressive theme of women empowerment and promoting individualism / what makes you happy versus a conservative theme of doing what’s best for the family and following the orders of the head of the household. At times, it seemed that Rani was forcing her values onto Rocky’s family. The intentions were good, but in general, I do not think it is correct to do so. Obviously if people are being disrespected and are abused, then you should speak up, but there needs to be some grace about how you go about it. The movie did a good job at the end to try to reconcile the differences in values and reach some understanding between the families.
Would I recommend this movie? Sure. I thought it was a good movie. A bit long, like 2 hours 40 minutes. The sets and costumes were elegant.
One thing that I thought was coincidental was that I had a separate conversation with my coworkers talking about marriage and the role of the immediate family. I prefaced my opinion with the fact that I’ve never been in love. I said that if I ever wanted to get married and my family did not approve of the girl, then I may try a little bit to convince them, but I would ultimately respect their decision and break up if it came down to that. And vice versa if the girl’s family didn’t approve of me. Some of my coworkers thought that this was crazy, but then again, I haven’t been in love so perhaps I just didn’t have enough perspective. This movie had this scenario twice in the movie. The grandparents broke off the love relationship when they were young and already married and Rocky and Rani pursued the love relationship and convinced both their families. In the end, the families were convinced they were a good match, so they got married.
Jeffrey's Thoughts 