Bohemian Rhapsody

The poster reads 'The only thing more extraordinary than their music is his story'.

A movie about the extraordinary life of Freddie Mercury.  One that scintillates ....through it's music, and a life that's been lived on over drive.

It's so quick, crisp and packed, that you just have to keep pace. We begin with seeing Freddie Mercury, born as Farrokh Bulsara to a conservative Parsi Indian family, working as a baggage handler at Heathrow airport..... so seemingly nonchalantly handling the racism and a father who wants him to get a regular job.

He self auditions to a band at a local pub, gets taken in, (all it takes is one listening to his voice at full sing), reforms the band, calls it Queen...... meets a girl, falls in love, gets married.....hits the popularity charts, tours Europe, tours America, discovers he's gay.......gets to their first big hit 'Bohemian Rhapsody', all in under 30 minutes. 

A couple of lines that caught my attention....

Freddie tells his girl friend: "being human is a condition that needs a little anesthesia" ( a line that Swaroop quickly wrote down in the theatre itself)

and another which Diksha drew my attention to (she's a fan....poster on wall kind of fan...and it was her third time watching within the week )

When a friend warns him that he's burning the candle at both ends, Freddie says "but the glow is divine". 

The movie has several goose bumpy moments, especially so when we see the process of some really well known numbers getting created. Like with Bohemian Rhapsody itself, which has the most vague lyrics. There's a moment of frustration when Roger, the drummer breaks off to say "wait, how many times are we going to say Galileo, and anyways, who the hell is Galileo". 

While Freddie has a meteoric rise to fame and stardom, the path is anything but smooth. There's the rift with the band when he decides to go solo, his getting manipulated by his manager and the blatantly maligning interview. His discovering his gay preference, his marriage falling apart, but a beautiful friendship with her that continues till he dies.  Then his getting the dreaded AIDS. 

As his life falls apart, lost to alcohol, drugs and men.....so does the band.

Yet, through his life, you know he has lived by choice, through arrogance and rebellion and humility. The scene where he's trying to get the band back together was neat, such an honest unconditional apology. Redemption seems so possible and real.

Nice was also seeing him in a happy and sensitive relationship with Jim Hutton.... so beautifully brought out in a scene before his parents, when he reaches out and holds Jim's hand. My teary eyed moment. 

The finale is when the band comes together again for the Live Aid concert, which some people will remember from 1985, the largest ever getting together of the best of singers and bands in aid of the famine in Ethiopia ( I recall watching it on TV). It was brilliantly re-orchestrated...including the foot tapping into which they drew in a 1.5 billion audience.....just for that concert the movie is worth watching on large screen. 

Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury was unbelievable, and so were many others but my post is already too long.

And there's so many of their songs, that even for me, who wasn't a big queen listener, there were so many that make you want to sing along..... and what's more, that's what they wanted I guess , with the lyrics at the base of the film, like in karaoke.

The songs in the film......Somebody to love, Crazy little thing called love, Fat bottomed girls, Radio Ga ga, Love of my Life, Another one bites the dust, I want to break free, We will rock you, We are the champions, Don't stop me now, and of course Bohemian Rhapsody.

I also couldn't get over the likeness they created to the original Queen:

If then I wasn't a big fan of Queen, I think I am now .....have been listening to them on you tube since  !!