Rock on Rocked
This post is sponsored byiView Author: Shayoni Mehta (Pune, India)
Email: shayoni.mehta [at] gmail [dot] com
Rock on Rocked
I had been waiting impatiently for this films release. When Farhan Akhtar is associated with anything, the venture may be good or bad, but it will always be different and definitely not boring. I expected to get my moneys worth for this one, and did!
The story is simple enough, about 4 friends parting and re uniting to live their dream. The events and climax predictable.
What makes this film unique is that it touches upon the little explored area of Rock culture in India. Which may have just an urban market, but a immensely burgeoning market nevertheless. Here we have a film actually trying to give Rock the dignity and maturity it so desperately lacks in India, for it to be taken seriously.
Considering Director Abhishek Kapoors previous film was the forgettable Aryan, his skills must have improved in massive leaps and bounds as controlled direction was THE thing that guided a relatively straightforward and unassuming script to a heart warming screenplay.
Besides he remains the only director who finally understood how to use Arjun Rampal. The actor with the hot body and voice is given few lines, and a brooding intense character that maximizes his sizzling screen presence but cuts down on his obvious lack of acting skills.
Farhan Akhtar has glided smoothly from being director to an actor and singer. The steady delivery of dialogues, tense body language and extremely refreshing singing was sheer pleasure to watch.
Purab Koli and and Luke Kenny play slightly weak characters but scrape through admirably, Purab Kholi as the happy go lucky Killer Drummer brings a smile to your face more than once.
Shahana Goswami and Prachi Desai though take the cake in their first meaty roles. The film portrays martial discord realistically without giving way to melodrama.
The low points of this film are the length, that drags the first half and the lack of lighter moments, which are too few and far between. Also the sets seem too stylish and pristine to look like a comfortable home. A little more clever editing and the film would have been brilliant not just good.
Rock on is fresh, in its characterization, in the portrayal of its conflicts, in its attempt to touch upon the resolution and make light of clich'©d reasons for rifts in relationships.
In its attempt to bring rock a little closer to the Indian masses.
The Music:
People seem to have two complaints with the film’s music,
The first being that the lyrics are too shallow and childish, second, the music is not really rock. While I was watching the film I knew this pseudo debate about pure rock music would arise. I would like to add my 2 bits to it.
To appreciate ROCK ON look at the crap that we have had to sit through for months when it comes to Indian Cinema. Turn on the radio and it is an insult to listen to the popular playlist.
Rarely in recent times has anyone had the guts to try re inventing music instead of re hashing and remixing.
In the name of rock in India, we have dysfunctional bands screeching out covers of Lamb of God and Cradle of Filth and such non sense. Their safe haven still remains Guns n Roses! Their idea of rock is drums that drown the vocalist and a vocalist playing leap frog and squeaking out screeches to be noticed.
They take a pattern formulated for another country steeped in another culture and try to transplant it here, without moving a finger to try and re invent, and then complain that there is no market here.
You play what has been played better, by bands decades before you were born, and expect me to buy your music instead?
Listen to German rock, listen to Russian rock, it may not be popular over the world but atleast they made a hit in their country. These fizzle out here.
Bands from the UK and USA are all we know because these countries economy supports selling and branding on a scale incomparable to other economies.
Listen to rock music, the beauty of it lies in simple poetry being emphasized by powerful music. It lies in the quirky themes and bizarre metaphors, it lies in blurring the line between fantasy and reality, and these requirements are ably met by the song Sindbad the Sailor and Socha Hai.
It is not a perfect film, far from it, but it is a brave film, it is a refreshing film, in so much that it does NOT try to show the clich'©d drugs/sex/scandal/piercing/tattoos and immaturity associated with Rock music.
Filed Under
Movies, PROJEKT iVIEW , Farahan Akthar, Prachi Desai, Punabi, Rock On Review
21 Responses to “Rock on Rocked”
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“It is not a perfect film, far from it, but it is a brave film, it is a refreshing film, in so much that it does NOT try to show the clich'©d drugs/sex/scandal/piercing/tattoos and immaturity associated with Rock music”
I agree on this 100%. Its a good start to a different kind of cinema and the efforts are definitely sincere.
Nice write-up. Try listening to Avial, the Malayali rock band.
What you have listed as movie’s bane make the movie what they are ,the first half isn’t lengthy ,it’s just that our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter .
The director chose to convey the pain and anguish of the band members through their prolonged and brooding silence ,and this requires time ,you can’t just shorten that .
it’s not 20-20 .Some of the best movies of our time in fact take their own time in conveying things.
Yes there are lack of light moments because it’s not DCH ,it’s not about kids straight out of college ,it deals with mature individuals who have been through a lot in life.
Yes the lyrics are amateurish but as someone already pointed out in one of the articles ,we don’t need a “peela peela sa dhuan ,kisi jungle mein uthta hai” every time .
@ Rocky: Yeah I have, they have this famous song called “Nada” right? Kinda cool, even though did not understand much of it. But yeah, that’s what I ment by being creative with Indian Rock.
I have no issues with the lyrics, read the rest of the post.
Nada, Nada.
The English translation of the lyrics can be found here:
http://www.phat-phish.com/avial/
I had too many problems with the lyrics. Thats what I would call as the first step towards adah-patan.
I mean if there is a chance, why not put good lyrics ? Why do we have to be stick to low standards ? I wonder what these kind of songs will lead to in future !! shudder !!
Avial,. sahi!!!
I know these guys
We used to Party, when I was in Kerala,.
hey Rocky, where are you from?
Third rock from the sun.
I couldn’t agree with you more that Rock on needed a few more lighter moments and it needed to be a little more crisp, cut short some drag. Looks like a bit of editing drop.
I don’t agree with Vineet that you need to slow it down to convey the angst. A beautiful Mind, Cast away or Life is beautiful or even Shawshank Redemption, they all had poignant moments. They had the best etched out characters you could hope for and yes a lot of angst too. They didn’t drag. In movie making you gotto have the silence speak. But you have to know when to bring in the silence. A balance is golden.
I don’t think RDB was not addressing an important issue. But it was cheerful, lots of laughter. Dor had a lot of lighter moments, so had Iqbal. They were profound too.
I think Rock On needed a little bit of more care and it’d have been a cult classic. Not only in terms of the popularity, but in terms of cinematic quality as well.
Even TZP had its lighter moments and better pace. Hell, even a revolutionary art house cinema as Hazaron didn’t ever drag. Talk about poignance .. duh!
well, here i am as promised.. again u were brutal in the end with ur words.. or may be i was too busy to see the movie as a huge canvas, indian cinema and audience still find difficult to visualize.. might be some fuckups with the tones here n there, but someone takin such an initiative is admirable.. didnt know if this same guy made aryan.. i m sure even u didnt, google might have told ya that.. nevermind, i think this movie n ur views have inspired me as well to start my own haryanvi rock band.. n u better not write bout it.. all in all, a lovely movie and its always nice to see rampal speaking less, n walkin around looking nice.. at times i think he n stallone can be put under same category.. some nice guitar i heard after a good time.. i wont mind rating it as 7.5 on a scale of 10..
stallone is an oscar nominated screenwriter. still wanna put arjun rampal in the same category?
Very good review. Watched the movie today……….loved every second of it. I didn’t cared about it flows…farhan is not a great singer I admit but still it worked for me…that rawness….and BTW I actually bought the audio CD after watching the movie even though I’d downloaded all the songs…so touched was I while watching the movie. For me It was not actually so much about a rock band but just following your dreams and living them.
Lunatic: How was I brutal? I love the film, don’t you see that.
Amit : Oh totally, during the film I thought I would buy the CD not download the music, and the message in the end pushed me to it.
Hi Shayoni, good post there, did watch this movie yesterday, and while I would not exactly categorize it as awesome or mind blowing or a classic like Almost Famous, i would still say this is one of the best movies this year along with Aamir and Mumbai Meri Jaan.
I felt some of the songs were really good, though being a hard core rock fan, I could point out half a dozen glitches, but as Lance Armstrong says, It is Not about the Bike. I think we need to see the movie taking into view the larger picture. In this case it is more of an inspirational theme, about following your dreams, and Rock music, was only incidental. Yeah the rockers are also shown as squeaky clean here, but if we need to see the darker side of the rock world, we would have to wait for AK’s Paanch, if and when it gets released.
Honestly i feel Shahana and Prachi are like a breath of fresh air, in an industry stuffed with Barbie dolls like Katrina and Deepika. Also while Abhishek Kapoor did a really good job, me feels that the movie was ghost directed by Farhan Akhtar to some extent. The decor, the way the flashbacks are intercut with the present, do speak strongly of Farhan’s influence. Whether it is just an influence or ghost direction, not so sure, just a guess.
@Shayoni:
Why do you have such a displaced sense of notion about rock?Please do not mix rock with heavy metal(sub-genres) when you talk about Lamb of God or Cradle of Filth.Music is form of expression.When you shout or screech,it stillremains a form of expression.If you see their fan base you will be amazed.Please do not be presumptuos by calling it nonsensical.
You have talked about how bands cover older bands..this phenomenon is not restricted to Indians bands.Bands like Arch Enemy and Children of Bodom have covered the band “Europe”.There was a particular period in Indian rock scene when newer bands used to play covers to get recognized.Today check out the bands..everyone is playing original composition.But you know what..the rock scene is dead in India..almost.No more shows like it used to be!NO one likes original composition.
You talked about screeching vocals..check the band “Death”and its lyrics.The lyrics are so deep although.That kind of vocals is needed to express.Late Chuck Schuldiner did it.Death represented the Seattle Death metal band scene.
Heavy Metal is a culture.We need to accept it.Rock has already been accepted.We have lots of Indians shouting out the now the uber cool words “Its rocking”!!(Note:Sarcasm)
You talk about German Bands and European bands..gone are those days when rockers bought records or CDs..its all downloaded.And trust me music has no boudaries.Europeans bands are downloaded with similar craze.There are a lot of peoplw or musicians I know who covers Europeans bands/Gothenburg Scene(Read:Scandanavian) in India.
Associating rock with Sex/Drugs is immaturity!
http://passionforcinema.com/my-petty-effort/
Ratnakar: Yes good point about the ghost direction, I felt that too. Infact till I went to see the film I did not know Abhishek Kapoor was the director,took it for granted it was Farhan Akhtar.
Sourav: I do not mix the genres, my point is the same, that in the name of Rock, people cover Lamb of God. I am no great fan of Children of Bodom either, Arch Enemy maybe yes, just because the female vocalist is really impressive.
I do like Death and also My Dying Bride a whole lot, vocals mostly, but incidentally they are metal bands too.
I guess I did could not put the point clearly across, the rant against rock in India is in reaction to critics who say that the music of ROCK ON is not pure rock, because what are they comparing it to? These days nothing is pure rock, and if they compare to old classic rock bands, then they shouldn’t because it’s time to get creative not only cover classics.
What we play today is metal(death/doom/heavy/black), and it needs to be labeled that. Since Rock On was clearly not about heavy metal music, it is not right to compare it to that.
@ Shayoni:
Now that makes sense…anyway your liking of bands is similar to what I was crazy about 2-3 years back>i miss that period because metal/rock gigs used to happen every other day.
Hmmm ..they still do in Pune, but usually it is short of tribal torture.
But few bands like Agni and Shakti do have a fighting chance if marketed decently.
Shakti..you mean to say john mclaughlin’s band?