Rock On!! - Movie Review
Published: October 12, 2010
Starring Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli, Luke Kenny
Movies about rock bands are old fare in the West, and they follow a predictable formula that mirrors the reality of many rock bands: struggle, success, conflict, breakup, downfall, redemption. Rock On!! is a movie in the same vein, but it's unusual for an Indian film, and it has a freshness and innocence that comes with its rarity.
It's an unlikely film because the movie and music industries in India are essentially one and the same. Commercial music in India is dominated by pop songs produced for films. Rock truly is alternative music in India, whereas in the U.S., it's mainstream, even though in the 1990s, when this film is set, it was called alternative. This Bollywood production criticizes so-called filmy music, and the pressure to become filmy in order to succeed is central to the conflict.
Unfortunately, the music in the film isn't great, by rock or filmy standards. Far from edgy, it has a strong pop quality—kind of rock-lite. But it's a minor detraction, given that the film gets everything else about a band movie right, from the requisite broken-dream trajectory to the authentic look of the grungy scene.
But the film's biggest strength is Arjun Rampal as the band's lead guitarist, Joe. Tall, lanky Rampal, with his soulful eyes and tousled mane, could have strolled off set and onto a stage at Lollapalooza. His character is sensitive, brooding, explosive—the heart of the band—and Rampal snagged a National Film Award for his emotional performance.
Joe's best friend, the band's frontman and leader, Aditya (Farhan Akhtar), is the opposite of Joe—he's pragmatic, calculating, and driven. Akhtar is the acclaimed director of such films as Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and Don: The Chase Begins Again (2006), and here, he makes an impressive acting debut.
The story begins 10 years after the band has broken up. Aditya is now a rich investment banker—and cold to his lonely, pregnant wife Sakshi (Prachi Desai). Joe is a poor music teacher, unhappy in his marriage to Debbie (Shahana Goswami), a bitter fishmonger struggling to take care of her failure of a husband and their young son. The other bandmates, K.D. (Purab Kohli), who runs his family's jewelry business, and Rob (Luke Kenny), who composes ad jingles, are wistful about what might have been.
When the bandmates cross paths again, the story of their heyday as up-and-coming rockers is told in flashback as they struggle in the present to reconcile the past.
Rock On!! is rated Worth Watching.
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