NOSTALGIC NOTES

Nadaan Parinde, Rockstar - A Medley of Love, Loss, Longing

The stage is set. A rockstar full of angst is approaching as the crowd is growing wilder by the second. As he drinks himself into insanity and pukes on the red carpet he is supposed to tread on, you brace yourself for a noise fest which is what most of the music today is. Instead, when Jordan grabs the mike and starts singing, it’s an ultimate ballad of love, loss, and longing. Nadaan Parinde comes forth and Rahman’s finest melody syncs with Irshad Kamil’s words and Mohit Chauhan’s voice as Ranbir Kapoor emulates the pain of a man not wronged by anyone but himself.

As the song flips back and forth in terms of the highs and lows of notes, with the intensity of it piercing through the listener’s consciousness, you realise that the Rockstar’s journey is coming to an end. The great love which he lost to get the pain which would set him on the path of stardom, also set him on the path of an unforeseen destruction, which came with a pain he thought he could handle but couldn’t.

Rockstar will forever be cherished as one of the finest albums of Hindi cinema. But Nadaan Parinde is special not only because it touches and shakes your very core, but also because it brings Janardhan’s story to a conclusion. He achieved success at the loss of Heer, and he is lamenting, aware of himself yet unaware, lost in a medley of past and present. As the song concludes and he has a vision of Heer, the curtain falls on two lovers in two distant lands, as Rumi’s quote sums it up — Out beyond the ideas of right-doing and wrongdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.

Many among the audience went home with the impression that Nadaan Parinde was Jordan’s last ode, an obituary to the love he lost, Heer, and a celebration of the love he achieved, music, and the madness in between as his worlds collide, leaving him on the brink of insanity.

So, did he die?

Well, the filmmakers denied the same. However, the death was indeed the part of the first draft that Imtiaz Ali had created. Come to think of it, if the audience went home with the impression, it would have been way too predictable; the death of the rockstar who rose only to fall. But it was written off. Because this was the story of that rockstar. It was a story of him reaching his zenith, as he stood on the pyre of his biggest loss, his love. His suffering was what gave him strength. It would have been an injustice to the story as well as lamenting anthem he sung, to let him just die.

Instead, Nadaan Parinde was the grand finale, bringing forth all the emotions that Jordan had experienced till then, all the happiness, all the love, all the hope, despite the hopelessness of it all. Because no matter how intense the notes became, Nadaan Parinde still had the stanza which delicately sung of an innocent hope which pined for one last sight of the beloved.

Nadaan Parinde was a conclusion, but not on the setting sun of the rockstar, it just shut the curtain on his single act, only to leave hope for another one. Jordan leaves one stage, dreaming of Heer, only to suffer more, yet live more, sing more, create more, and maybe, hope a little more.