Rock On..

It’s about friendship. It’s about dreams. It’s about music. And I could not have been happier inaugurating my Bollywood journal with this movie. Shot in the heart of Bombay, this directorial debut is innovatively fresh and purely entertaining. Some of the B-E-E (Breathtaking, Excellent and Entertaining) highlights from the movie include:

• Farhan Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar!!! The director-producer-actor-singer is a marvel. Totally totally Hot and entertainingly versatile. A definite candidate for giving all the actors a run for their money. (Check out http://www.aspisdrift.com/2008/07/farhan-akhtar-on-making-of-rock-on-and.html for an interview with Farhan)
• The suspense like feeling the movie manages to create for knowing what went wrong between the friends.
• Arjun Rampal. Though it did look like he was having trouble delivering his dialogues with the moustache, but when he comes on screen in the last performance with his open long hair, he was truly mind blowing.
• The remixed version of Saanson ki zarurat hai jaise of Aashiqui fame. Had the whole hall in splits. (Have not seen a roaring audience in a while)
• Prachi Desai of Kasamh Se and Jhalak Dikhla Ja fame. She proved that she can do more than being good at playing a middle aged house wife in a Balaji serial. And I really liked the stylist who chose her clothes. Very hip and trendy. Another performance worth a mention is of Shahana Goswami. The actress who plays the role of Arjun Rampal’s wife is natural and definitely a plus for the movie.
• The all so important music, given the theme of the movie was definitely not a let down. An innovative placement of a not so innovative message at the end of the movie actually made me go and buy the audio CD. And maybe it is the norm now, but since I have not bought a CD in a while, I was pleasantly surprised to see a small booklet with a foreward from the Director of the movie and the lyrics of all the songs.
• And finally the inspiration to pursue what you really want.

In what seemed like shades of Dil Chahta Hai and Jhankar Beats coming together, it makes for highly enjoyable three hours of entertainment.

(This star rating simply represents the proportion of people who watched the movie with me and liked it)