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In
the picture
Rock On!!*
*ing: Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Prachi Desai, Purab Kohli,
Luke Kenny, Koel Purie and Shabana Goswami
Director: Abhishek Kapoor
Producers: Ritesh Sadhwani and Farhan Akhtar
Tagline: Live your dream |
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When
the initial promos of Rock On (actually written as Rock On!! - because
the exclamation marks make ALL the difference) were released, I must
admit I was somewhat interested because the concept of a rock movie
releasing in Bollywood was a novel one. With that in mind, I downloaded
the soundtrack, which was not only a waste of space on my PC but also
precious, precious electricity. Ironically, the film's closing credits
warn 'Don't download - buy the CD' which made me laugh because had
I spent money on the CD I'd probably have decried it more.
To draw on an analogy, Rock On!! is like being at a bad rock concert
where you don't know anyone, and are forced to stay for 3 hours because
there's no exit door.
Rock On!! tries so hard to be the quissential rock movie that it holds
true every cliché of the genre of rock music and the elements
associated with it. It uses references borrowed from possibly every
thing put out on rock music - from films such as Almost Famous and
documentaries and '70s concerts footage.
The film outlines the lives of a band called Magik (seriously?) that
are living the great life of rock musicians while they're still trying
to catch a break. Starring Farhan Akhtar (director turned actor cum
singer), Arjun Rampal and Luke Kenny (one of the first VJs on Channel
V) among others, the film flashes back continuously between the present
and the past. One minute, the band of 20 somethings is shown rehearsing
a new song ('chalo D major se start karte hain' is one cliched line
they spout as they compose) and the next they're 10 years older -
and not rock musicians anymore. In a nutshell, for the first one and
a half hour, the film shows how the struggling band, groupies and
girlfriends decide to enter into a Channel V talent competition to
make their way to stardom. |
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with the flashbacks, it fast forwards to the future where Aditya (Farhan)
is a successful investment banker with a trophy wife and a gorgeous
home but is incredibly closed up. Joe (Arjun) is a struggling musician
who fails at everything he sets to do, and his wife who runs a fish
business to make ends meet and Rob (Luke), who is now composing jingles
and themes for Anu Malik (who does a cameo in Rock On!!) and KD (Purab)
who runs a jewelry business. Aditya's wife Sakshi (Prachi) runs into
KD at his store while pondering why her husband never opens up to
her and seems so unhappy, and finds out that a decade ago her corporate
high flyer husband was a |
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poet/musician. She snoops around in the attic to find pictures and
videos of him in his rock star heyday, and sets out to reunite the
band together so that her husband can laugh and be the old him again.
However, it's not as easy as it seems, and for the first half of the
film one has no idea why the band broke up in the first place. The
second half is faster paced, and showcases the 'sell-out' side of
the music business and while the band does come together, how they
do it is soap-opera-drama-worthy. |
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What
bothers me most about Rock On!! is how this film has any relevance
to music in India. In an industry that is so heavily dominated
by Bollywood - rock music is still, very much, a struggling
form of music in India.
I cannot recall any Indian rock bands that receive half as much
airplay as filmi music does. So what the film then does is draw
upon the rock reference borrowed from the West. Farhan Akhtar
dresses like a hippie '70s rock star in the film and tries to
act like one too. So does the rest of the cast, but with the
result that they fail miserably. From the décor of the
characters' rooms (Che posters, red lighting) to the music-items
strewn about (guitars everywhere, a Dylan CD) to their long
hair, piercings and conversation about music technicalities
- everything is just too much of an effort to show that these
are, indeed, rock musicians. |
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The
soundtrack is more pop with bad lyrics than anything else. Shining
examples are 'mairi laundry ka aik bill / ek aadhi padhi novel'
(my laundry bill / is a half read novel) and 'aasma hai neela
kyun, paani geela geela kyun / gol kyun hai zameen, silk mein
hai narmi kyun' (why is the sky blue, why is water wet, why
is the earth round, why is silk soft). One wonders, how can
the very talented Javed Akhtar be asked to write the words to
rock songs, considering this is supposed to be rock music in
the 21st century. Rock music - even the most elementary kind
- doesn't need to have ridiculous lyrics. If anything, the makers
should have pulled in a Pakistani band to do this - Strings,
Ali Azmat - even
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could have done a better job than the makers of Rock On!!. To
top it all off, Farhan Akhtar decided to sing the songs too,
and while he is a very talented director and a below average
actor, the soundtrack and scratchy vocals prove - a singer he
is definitely not. |
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acting is awkward and cringe-worthy, especially in the scenes
where they're performing in front of an audience (reminding
one of Ali Noor blurting out 'maza aaraha hai?' at a concert
for a lack of anything to say, and getting stuck with the
phrase) with bad dialogues - and understandably so, there
is no chemistry between any of the actors.
Rock On!! is not a film about real musicians in the real world.
Anyone who has attended a rock concert, gone backstage and/or
spent any amount of time with musicians will tell you that.
What Rock On!! ends up becoming is a parody of sorts, a mish-mash
of everything people assume rock music and the lifestyle of
musicians is, which in reality it is not. A definite miss,
one hopes that in the future Farhan Akhtar sticks to what
he does best - direction, and that the rumored sequel to the
film never sees the light of day.
-- Saba
Imtiaz
*YUCK
**WHATEVER
***GOOD
****SUPER
*****AWESOME
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