Movie Review of Rock On. Review on Rock On

Director– Abhishekh Kapoor

Screenplay– Abhishekh Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar.

Plot

Aditya(Farhan Akhtar), Joe(Arjun Rampal), KD(Purab Kohli) and Rob(Luke Kenny) form the quartet of an Indian Rock Band, Magik. While Aditya is the lead vocalist, Joe is the lead guitarist, Rob plays the keyboard and KD is the drummer. Like true hard core rockers, they live their life care free and aim to be India’s most popular rock band.

But like most rock bands, they start having ego issues and tragically break up. 10 years later, Aditya and KD are successful Businessmen,   Rob is an assistant Music director and Joe takes care of his family fish business. Sakshi(Prachi Desai), who is Aditya’s wife happens to find out some old photographs and videos of the band and decides to bring them all back together. However, due to difference of opinions, they are reluctant but when they do some soul searching, the decide to come back with a bang.

Critic’s Comments

A newspaper article had said, if you want to see Bollywood movies coming to age and maturing, Rock On is the movie to watch. I couldn’t agree more. The movie does not have any big star cast. The promotions were not big. The director was a former one film flop actor and had directed the disastrous Aryan previously. But it proves that a good story line is more than enough to pull a film through. The music is first rate and thankfully its not a plagiarism that we usually see in Hindi movies. The songs are not kept as eye-soothers but actually form an integral part of the story. Farhan Akhtar and Prachi Desai make impressive movie debut as actors. Purab Kohli and Luke Kenny act well. But the person with the most subtle yet strong performance is Arjun Rampal, who in my books, is sure shot of being nominated for the Best Supporting Actor. The direction is first rate. A very nice feel good movie which will be enjoyed by all. It does have some similarities with Hollywood hits, That Thing you do (1996) and This is Spinal Tap(1984) but nevertheless retains its charm. Watch the movie with your loved ones.

*Psst –

1) Farhan Akhtar, besides co-writing and co-producing, also sung in his own voice for the songs. Arjun Rampal was trained to play the guitar, Luke Kenny was trained for the keyboards and KD was trained for the drums.

2) During breaks between shoots, the crew used to have jam sessions with Jason West who was the Cinematographer as well as a drummer.

3) For the little promotions that the crew did for the movie, the quartet actually had mini concerts.

4) Most of the songs, except the climax, were shot in a single take.

5) 2 of the character names were after real life Guitarists. The name of Joe was inspired by star guitarist, Joe Satriani and Rob was named after Rob Krieger of The Doors.

6) 3 of the promo posters were inspired by Albums of The Beatles, The Doors and Metallica.

7) In an interview, Arjun Rampal had said that most of the Music was inspired by Led Zeppelin. The tribute is shown when you see the posters of Led Zeppelin in the movie.

8) The scene where Luke Kenny is taking drugs is just an in-joke that all rockers are under the influence of drugs.*

Quotes

1) “Tu apney data brush karney se pehley apney baal brush karta tha.”

2) “No one takes over Magik.”

3) “Enjoy the view.”

4) “Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome our lead guitarist, my friend, my brother, Joseph Mascarenhas.

*Oops-

1) The climax can be easily seen as a computer Graphic scene, because when Farhan Akhtar and Arjun Rampal come in between the Aisle, the crowd is still looking at the stage. Secondly in between the scenes, we see that there are no Aisle in the stadium.*