RK/RKAY is an enjoyable and whimsical film that is a homage and wistful tribute to the meta world it inhabits
RK/RKay is an absurdist film within a film which follows a filmmaker and his fictional runaway hero. Writer-director Rajat Kapoor's latest film is a fresh narrative for the Indian Comic films, a crowd-funded film within a film that explores a creator's existential crisis.
The opening scene is set in a blue-walled corridor with identical doors on either side. This door is constantly being entered and exited by a man named RK, wearing a brown suit and hat, with a blue suitcase. Then, this man's duplicates carry out the identical action. As doors open and close, the peppy music gives off a French comedy mood.
An independent, unsuccessful filmmaker named RK (Rajat Kapoor) is experiencing a crisis of faith when he realises that the retro romantic drama he has written, directed and starred in might be flawed. The producer Goel (Manurishi Chadha), a builder backing his movie, believes Mahboob's death at the end, at the hands of the caricaturistic comic villain KN Singh (Ranvir Shorey), will not go down well with audiences.
The low-budget film is in the editing stage when an already engrossed in self-doubt RK faces a more significant crisis. Mahboob, the film's protagonist (Rajat Kapoor), has escaped from the negatives. He's fled the frame and into real life (much like Tom Baxter in Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo) to find his love Gulabo, played by diva-like actress Neha (Mallika Sherawat).
After Mahboob is found, the script hits its stride as RK and his crew struggle to explain reality to the fictional character while trying to convince him to go back into the film. Frustrated by Mahboob's refusal to return to the confines of the digital canvas, RK taunts and demeans Mahboob, repeatedly reminding him that he is a figment of RK's imagination.
As it turns out, his Mahboob, a talented chef, is more popular and appreciated than the self-absorbed RK himself, including his wife Seema (Kubbra Sait) and his children.
The real question here is how far you will go for your art's sake. Unfortunately, the story gets stuck in an endless loop, and the metaplot gets a bit knotted until the crowd-pleasing climax comes. With RK/RKay, Rajat Kapoor touches on themes of creativity, commerce, conceit and self-doubt.
With fantastic supporting performances by Kapoor as Mahboob, Shorey, Sait and Chadha and a fun cameo by Namit Das as a waiter, RK/RKAY is an enjoyable and whimsical film is a homage and wistful tribute to the meta world it inhabits.
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