I did a whole theme week about how Ranbir is The Worst. and now it is his birthday, and I can’t really walk that back. Nor do I want to, he is in fact The Worst. But he does have some good songs!
Part of Ranbir being The Worst is that he is offered on a silver plate all the best things in life, including the very best song sequences. All the money, all the composing, all the singing, all the groundbreaking visuals, created around him. Let us celebrate that, all the good things he has been handed.
His very first movie was pretty weak in general (partly due to Ranbir’s bland performance), but already had some really amazingly beautiful songs. “Masha Allah”
And then there was that brief period when he actually worked on his performances and the films were more than just spectacular song sequences, so I’m skipping Raajneeti, Wake Up Sid, etc. Which brings me to Rockstar! “Sadda Haq”
And also “Kun Faya Kun”
And then Barfi! and “Main Kya Karoon”
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and “Badtameez Dil”
And also “Dill Wali Girlfriend”
And “Balam Pichkari”
And of course, “Ghagra”
Even Besharam had one great song, “Lut Gaye”
Roy was basically nothing but songs, “Sooraj Dooba Hain”
And “Tu Hai Ki Nahi”
I hate Bombay Velvet, but oh my gosh does Anushka sell this one song and carry Ranbir and the movie along with her. Well, Anushka and Neeti Mohan. “Dhadaam Dhadaam”
Literally the only good part of Tamasha, “Matargashti”
I actually like this movie, but the songs are still something stand out and special. Once again, Anushka does the heavy lifting. “Channa Mereya”
And the title song of course.
And the sexy rock song, “Bulleya”
Such an odd bad movie, such an odd song, and yet strangely hypnotic, “Ullu Ka Pattha”
Catchy song, if you can get past the weirdness of watching a 30 year old playing with a bunch of teenage boys, “Galti Se Mistake”
dontcallitbollywood 
I’ve only been reading your blog for a matter of weeks, and I’ve been adoring your in depth insights and the movies you have steered me towards. So I am somewhat in shock at what appears to be my first major disagreement – I LOVE Jagga Jasoos! I love the colors, the style, the action, the comedy and the heart. One of my children stutters, maybe that helps. But what really gets me is the clumsiness as a benefit for not one, but two characters, it was so awesome! And the chemistry- it was full of tension that totally worked for the film! I’m not usually a Kat fan, but I thought she was great. I’m not sure if I should read your posts on the movie or not. Perhaps not, I don’t want to destroy my love. As usual you are certainly right about many things, including the number of great songs Ranbir is in.
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Welcome! I hope this doesn’t drive you away forever 🙂
I just really don’t like Jagga Jasoos but I have to admit some of that is my own personal taste and temperament, not the movie itself. I never really like those super twee high concept films.
In terms of stuttering, I have suggestions for you! Since you bring it up. First, Hrithik Roshan had a stutter as a child (don’t know if you have run across that trivia before or not). Anyway, I keep that in mind when I listen to his dialogue delivery, very precise and careful, and how strained he always seems in live interviews. Second, if you want to go wildly wildly off the reservation, there is a really wonderful movie about a stutterer from the Malayalam industry in the south, *Su.. Su… Sudhi Vathmeekam.*
On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 3:06 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Konkona in Wake Up Sid, Priyanka and Ileana in Barfi!, Anushka and to some extent Aishwarya in ADHM, I think I just realized that I the Ranbir movies I like are because of his female co-stars!
Main Kya Karoon from Barfi is great but I also really like Kyon
Also Phir Le Aya Dil which is stunning and Ileana is flat out fantastic and is making me cry
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I think I just realized that too!!!! I love YJHD and Wake Up Sid, but on rewatches it is always the heroine I care about and focus on more.
I wish Ileana had a better career. Although, she works regularly and seems to be enjoying herself, so maybe this is the career she wants. I just want her on my screen in more and bigger and better roles.
On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 4:11 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think Saawariya was a bit of a confusing, artsy film and hard for a newcomer. Beautiful music and scenery though but that plot wasn’t the kind to grab a big audience. But I thought Ranbir was fine in it, in fact he became pretty popular after the release. I’m not a big fan of his but I don’t mind him either.. I don’t think he’s that good at choosing scripts. Wake up Sid was good. I didn’t like Tamasha, YJHD (avg to me, a real type of story but the movie wasn’t charming to me, maybe I need to re-watch it) or ADHM. But he has a lot of onscreen presence and pretty good expressions, he just doesn’t go the full way with selling the character sometimes and he seems to play a lot of characters with unattractive mopey kind of personalities. I actually haven’t seen any of his movies after ADHM (which I actually only saw like 2 scenes and the songs, didn’t watch it)
Never been a big fan of him but don’t hate him either idk
Also Ileana reminds me of Jennifer Aniston. Different eyes but otherwise there’s a little resemblance
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Agree about picking scripts. What I noticed when I was doing the other posts looking back at his career is that once he became a success, he started picking the same characters in the same stories over and over again. No effort to change or grow as an actor. So he started out with the presence and stuff you mention, but I’m just not seeing him getting any better beyond that in the past 15 years.
On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 7:06 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I thought I disliked Rishi but Ranbir really outdoes his father in obnoxiousness, yeesh. He also doesn’t have the benefit Rishi had of acting with Amitabh and Shashi who could squash his hammy tendencies. However, you are right that Ranbir is at his best in musical numbers. He does have a charisma that comes through when he’s dancing and not being broody, mopey or self pitying.
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I’ll put it another way. Rishi was a hardworking actor who took a variety of roles, which meant he ended up working in multi-starrers and learning from co-actors, and still learns from co-actors. But Ranbir seems to not want to test his steel against another artist.
But yeah, both Rishi and Ranbir are really good in song numbers! Rishi was moderately known for it, and he passed tips on to Ranbir when he started up. Tricks of the trade.
On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 8:40 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Good point. I can’t think of any multi-starer that Ranbir has been part of (except maybe Rajneeti?). I wonder how he would fit in a multi-starrer and if other experienced actors would overshadow him. I had a similar thought when I watched Ranbir’s scene with Fawad in ADHM. I thought Fawad was more in control of the scene then Ranbir.
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I forgot about Raajneeti. He was definitely overshadowed in that film, especially by Arjun Rampal. It was a minor problem for the movie, but then his character is supposed to be unnoticed and overlooked so it sort of worked.
On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 11:32 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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