Usually when one receives the Filmfare Best Male Debut Award for his first film, despite the fact that it was a bland and a bird-brained-script laden Saawariya, you tend to lose your bearings, and your moorings. It also piles on tones of pride when you get it beating another debut act (Neil Nitin Mukesh) whose Johnny Gaddar was a refreshingly crafted Bollywood product, which had both the critics and the fans rooting for it. Surely, the voting community at Filmfare Awards must have seen something in Ranbir Kapoor which the Constant Movie Fans missed in Saawariya.

There is a pattern seen among most of those who "arrive" into Bollywood with this deadly combination of a starry lineage and a Debut Award. It also brings along with it the pompousness and foolish pride masquerading as star power. Once the misplaced feeling of self - righteousness has set in, only God can save you. Usually after the next three releases that sink without a trace, sanity and commonsense sets in ( Hritik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna – the list is an eye – opener). For Ranbir Kapoor, there was a slight change in the script here. His debut film itself sank without a trace. Though the leading role came on a silver platter, along with a marketing strategy and an A –list Director, Ranbir Kapoor curiously had earned it, slogging it in a very useful apprenticeship, learning the craft under the tutelage of the very same Director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

But the pattern was back. Saawariya was followed by an equally miserable disaster called Bachna Ae Haseeno, directed by Siddharth Anand must have put the much needed sensibility and the fear of the Lord in Ranbir Kapoor because it seemed to take Ranbir in an altogether different direction, daringly decisive and later proved right.

His new direction was pursuing a strategy of relying on the script and NOT the budget, along with the confidence the director brought to the script. Ayan Mukherji's directorial debut, (produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions and distributed by UTV), called Wake Up Sid, that released on October 2nd, 2009 was refreshingly different. Though the script had holes and patchy transitions at parts, he literally lived the role of Sid - "a lazy, aimless, unmotivated slacker from Mumbai" who finds direction in his life with the arrival of Aisha ( played by Konkona), who teaches him the real purpose of living a life, rather than existing by virtue of being alive. For a movie made on a modest Bollywood standard of Rs 15 Crore, the Box Office earnings as of 15 October, 2009 stands at Rs 25 Crore.

Ranbir seems to be poised at the rising tip of a growth curve now. Wake Up Sid seems to have metaphorically transcended to real – life if one takes a look at his choice of roles for his forthcoming movies that would be releasing in November and December.
There is promise in the air.
There is Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani directed by Rajkumar Santoshi - a rollicking love story, paired opposite Katrina Kaif, which is in the news for all the wrong reasons of late.
And in December, Ranbir's Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year - directed by Shimit Amin ( of Chak de India! ) and produced by Yash Raj Films, hits the theaters meeting Aamir's Three Idiots head on.
Rocket Singh also bears a striking resemblance to the Hollywood Flick - Employee of the Month. But, we will confirm it as we get more details.
The last quarter of 2009 will be decisive for Ranbir as far as his craft, carrer and his growth curve in Bollywood is concerned.
Here is wishing him all the luck Prem and Rocket can bring around, in 2009.