Rock On- Rocks.

Well, compelled to post the review amidst my “love story-Eternal Love”, just because can’t resist to wait for my story to conclude and the request for the review also made me do so. This post may be not well written as I’m writing a review after a long time and probably won’t be able to do complete justice.

Rock On – Live the Dreams.
The movie is about fulfilling the dreams you have so long lived with. It clearly reflects never to compromise in life rather keep on Rocking. With compromise you grow older and disgusted but when you start striving for your dreams age seems to be no barrier for you. This is the story about a music band group “MAGIK”, the way the word is spelled gives you a picture that it’s different, the band, the music they compose, the lyrics , the bondage they have, the dreams they strive for. The movie is about friendship, relationships, compromises, dreams.

The Characters:

Four friends form a band “Magik” and dream to make it big. Aditiya (Farhan Akhtar ) the lead singer and the poet of the band is ready to make any compromise to see the band making a mark on the global level , he dreams of “Having a bus named on the Band and they always move ahead on their journey never look back” and to fulfill this he is ready to compromise with the music also. Joe (Arjun Rampal), the stud, the lead guitarist of the band, is not ready to compromise their music at any stake. He believes in creating music that pleases everyone rather than creating music to please and suit others. KD(Purab Kohli) aka killer drummer is just concerned with pleasing girls , never dreams or believe in any idealism. Rob (Luke Kenney) just wants the band to be together and compose.

Each and every character is perfectly portrayed, be it their competitor band (forgot the name of the band) but ya remember their song “Zehriley” or the music company owner and the director of their first album-everyone’s role is well crafted. Other than the four main players the movie also highlights the two females- Sakshi (Prachi Desai) who plays Aditya’s wife and Shahana Goswami who plays Arjun’s wife. They both are different characters - Sakshi tries to unite the band so that his hubby (Farhan) is happy and their relationship improves but Arjun’s wife always tries to keep him away from their friends and the band even though she was with the band from starting.

The Acting:
Three debutants, three marvelous performances each of them need a special appreciation for their part. Farhan perfectly suits in to the role of the lead singer and the perfect hubby role, he display all the emotions with ease, be it when he is a husband or be it when he portrays the lead and most talented/responsible member of the band. Prachi brings grace and freshness in the movie, her role is well crafted and she does full justice to it. Arjun Rampal – he is the man, Long hair, classy mustache, perfect body language as a lead guitarist – his entry in the climax of the movie just speak of his power packed display. Guitar in the hand, hair swaying, stern look on the face, rock star kind of body movement all are just awesome. The way he handles the character of a loser and a hero in the eyes of his son are all superbly done. Shahana – she is just superb, she perfectly carries the irritation and disappointment in her role with ease. The complex character is very perfectly portrayed by her, she could well turn out be the director’s actor. Purab – his comic timing are just excellent, he is improving with every movie. He brings the light moments on the tense and sentimental part of the movie. Luke is well poised and energetic in his role as the man with a big heart.

The Music:
Shankar-Eshan-loy gives another master piece and a new singer in Farhan Akhtar to the industry. All the numbers are catchy and different, some you will like the first time you hear it and some you will like after you watch the movies. However I felt that the music could have been much better, but then I realized I could not compare it with LedZ, Metallica or any other big names just because the name of the movie has Rock word in it. The lyrics are funny and difficult to hum but still they flow well with the music and Farhan voice. All the songs are perfectly picturized, giving them a Rock show feel. The guitar work in all the songs are rocking, perfectly complimented by the drums and Farhan voice gives it a perfect blend.

The Direction, Screenplay and Editing:
Abhishek Kapoor- well his first venture was a disaster [Arayan] can’t say about it much as I have not watched it. In this movie he has done his home work though, one will simply love the style the movie is narrated and the flash backs put in the perfect part of the movie. The movie start’s with a stage rock performance on the road side of Mumbai with people moving in the background and the typical Mumbai traffic- a classy act of direction. A perfect execution of the most difficult movie according to me because rock is still considered insidious in India, that’s why the question comes “Are the Indian audience ready for ROCK ON”? All the emotional and sentimental scenes are effectively handled not allowing the actors to overreact. A well edited movie, it keeps the story intact and never allows the audience to get into boredom. Some of the Screenplays are taken straight from the bible. The confrontation between Aditya and Sakshi on their marriage life, the part at the climax when Aditya reveals that Joe is not coming and the outburst of KD on that, even the chemistry of typical hubby(Arjun) and wife(Shahana) are flawless. A master piece in short.

The Flaw:
There are few I would say- they may not be taken as flaw in other’s books, but I feel the break up of the band was not properly build up. It could have been more audience hitting, even their reunion was also not that great. I felt that because to break best of friends you need some substantial reason normal ego probs won’t do and when long separated friends reunite than it has to be grand. Except the title song "Rock On" other lyrics could have been made more hum-able, so that it could have appealed to the masses-who loves humming the bollywood songs. This could have brought all kind of viewers to the theatres, but now it’s a metro audience movie.

Few things I have not talked about, which you will love when you see the movie. The climax of the movie is the stage performance for 20 minutes, it’s perfect and it was shot in one go I guess - a perfect ending.

A must watch for all viewers, don’t go on the title of the movie, even the non Rock lovers would enjoy the movie. I being a true worshiper of rock music simply loved it, give me a man with guitar in his hand with long hairs playing high nodes with drums in the background- I could watch it for infinite hours.

Have a Rock On – go watch it.