Rock On!

Rock On! was an absolute hit when it released. Personally, I was quite surprised at the huge success that it had at the BO. I wasn’t too impressed when I saw it for the first time. I thought it was good alright. But I didn’t quite get what the entire hullabaloo was about. But then as the days have gone by and as you see the re-runs on TV and start looking at the story again and again I guess it kind of grows on you.

I really cannot put my finger on one thing that makes Rock On! a good movie to watch. Would it be the story which has a genuine aspect of making things work against all odds? Possible. Magik is a rock band that has 4 people – Aditya Shroff aka Adi (Farhan Akhtar) – lead singer, Joseph Mascarenhas aka Joe (Arjun Rampal) – guitar, Rob Nancy (Luke Kenny) – keyboards and Kedar Zaveri aka Killer Drummer aka KD (Purab Kohli) – Drums.

They are quite a rage with the crowds and win the annual Rock Band Hunt. En route to cutting their first album, the hang ups that come with the producers and the record labels get them quite worked up. And when Joe decides that enough is enough, it comes down to a fist fight with the Music Video Director and eventually Adi. Of course the band breaks up.

A few years later now and each one of them are on different ways. Some – like Adi are successful but unhappy Investment Bankers. Others – like Joe are unsuccessful but unhappy out of work guitarists. A chance meeting occurs between KD and Sakshi (Prachi Desai – Adi’s wife – at the jewelry store that KD helps his dad with. One thing leads to another and the band slowly but surely gets back together.

Another success factor of the movie could have been the sincere effort put in by the entire cast. Sincere and really good too. Actually, I cannot think of a single person – even the small role that the likes of Suraj Jagan played – who did not come up with the goods in terms of what the role demanded. I thought the band – together – was very good. But the find of the movie had to be Shahana Goswami in her first major role.

However, what I believe has kept Rock On! in the minds of everyone since then has to be the music from Shankar Ehsaan Loy which was as rock as it could have been – at least in this country. They even experimented with a hard rock number in “Zehreelay” which was sung very well by Suraj Jagan. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t the most popular number. And much as I am not a huge fan of Javed Akhtar – I think he was fantastic this time around.

Much as I hate to correct myself on my initial assessment of the movie – Rock On! is one of the better ones to come out of Bollywood in the past decade. It could actually make it to the top 10 of the decade quite easily. Different. Brave. Well treated by Abhishek Kapoor. All the ingredients that go into making a good solid musical. Watch it if you can. It keeps playing quite often on TV these days. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugzdDjnqfW4