Review - Rock On: Friends are forever...

Rock On Review...

Who hasn't had a row with a friend? Time to make that call and hug the friend you didn’t patch-up with ages ago. That's the warmth you feel while watching Rock On!! In the end, you connect, and that's what counts!...

Hi guys i watched Rock-on here r my views gonna be long..but plz read it patiently....

When i entered the theater, i wasn't at all expecting such a huge crowd.It was nearly houseful..kasam se...The film is Simply fabulous..when the film finished i didn't wanted it to finish..i was so enjoying myself that i didn't even realise when the film got over..Prachi's role wasnt a big one (DAMM MAN I WISHED IT WAS) but really significant role..after all it is better to have important role than a big lenthy insignificant role
Arjun is fantastic..the punches he gives are really mindblowig...n he has done a good work..Purab is the surprise package ..he says his dialouge with the cute smile really well...Luke was good...the short hair suits him really well...n he is a good actor too...the other actors have done a good work.

The next is about the music...It is the soul fo the film..its MAGIK....The songs are good..i am a romantic type person so my favourite the slow space songs..YE TUMHARI MERI BAATEIN AND TUM HO TOH..the other songs like Socha hai and Rock-on are also good...I remember when i was in the theatre when there was any song then people would shout and sing the song aloud..the audience were really enjoying the songs...I really liked Prachi's song...the way she sung is what i liked.. it was nice..Farhan the singer is gonna be busy in recording studios for any rock or romantic song..Shankar Eshaan Loy has proved again that they are the Best..The music is vey appealing and youthful as everyone must have noticed...So the music is as the name Rock-on

Now the director,Abhisekh kapoor..OK i am not a technical person so i dont really know about the technical things about the film..But the one thing i know about the director is that he is a good gift to the Film industry..He is gonna go far and have a good career.

Now the styling,The band members have two different looks...they carry both of them really well..n Prachi's hairstyle is my latest favourite...So STYLE MAIN REHNE KAA....purab with the beard was looking really unique..and ARJUN WITH THE long hair and moustaches looked really convincing for an adult age look..I request Farhan to grow his hair long again(please somebody pass him my request)..he looks really cool...and as i have already memtioned Luke looks nice in the short hair...Everything was EKDUM in ESTYLE...

Now a special section foe Prachi:

1st thing i was really afraid that hope that Bani wont overshadow Sakshi and believe me it didn't...its was the actor Prachi desai doing a character called Sakshi...I think there was more confidence in her dialouge delivery n she did complete justice to her role...the one thing i m sure about is whenever people will talk about Rock-on they will never miss Prachi out...Prachi is there and will always be there...her role was a important one...She s the oone beoz of whom the story goes on to a next level...if she gets free time from her busy acting schedule(which is gonna be completely FULL) then do think about singing too..I really liked the song as its my favourite too...

So my Appeal to everyone is to go out for rock on..its acomplete paisa wasool...Hope u all will go out for Rock-on

Rock-on guys...

this movie really rocks.sooo sooooo ROCK ON

I haven't watched the movie as yet. I am watching it today.
About the music. I think it takes time for anyone to get used to rock music. You just need time to appriciate this form of music. Because its very different from typical bollywood music, which is centred around lyrics and vocals. Where as rock music is about music and feel of the overall song. Vocals are not always straight forward but this time they are.
Whatever you might feel about music but all of us should appreciate the freshness this music brings to more often monotonous bollywood music. Rock On \m/

Good luck Dear Arjun

what a pretentious film! the first half is really bad, the second slightly better, maybe because everybody is happy including the audience!
Farhan cannot sing at all, with a voice that sounds like a cross between a hoarse saw and a smooth sandpaper, his dialogue delivery is the funniest ever! Yes, many rock singers have been besur, but farhan is beyond that he just does not have a voice! The miracles of technology are limitless!
The music well, the composers seem to have put together a mix of all the stray licks from the 70' and the 80's that were discarded by the original bands and used them here, ha ha. The riffs are so funny that you just wonder, oh my god, he is used that! that!
college bands in this country are not that bad, come on!
Dominique Cerejo's singing is the saving grace, do not know the name of the song, but that song which plays in the back ground as Sakshi lovingly watches her husband and pals jam up.
The script well, am a bleeding heart and I love a feel good film as much as anyone else, but the conflicts set up in the first half are so pretentious and contrived!
Come on just because you are bad musicians, does not mean you would be bad salesmen of jewellery or would not help your wife in the fish business!
Look at Farhan's character for a change! He is doing so well, but his wife walks out because he would not tell her about his college mates and the band, any sensible wife would stick to what he was doing right, the money, the apartment and the other goodies, ha ha.
Arjun Ramphal is the surprise so is Purab Kohli, they have done a good job. so has the actress who plays debbie.
so was this a dig at anu malik, or the "hindi music industry" or was it just an expensive way to indulge one's buddies?
am still trying to decide with lots of aspirin to help me.
Cool dudes, ritzy hairstyles and deodorised extras, and that music will get you the good life, that is what the film seems to be about, and of course about not compromising, repeated at least four times in case we forget!
Do see "Almost Famous" sometime.

@Meetu, that is exactly the point, the first half of the script tries desperately to establish linkages which do not exist!
And about Farhan's voice, technology has produced it, it is not worth discussing!
Am not a wife so would not know, though am a person who understands music to some extent and have tried my hand at bands and singing, so would say that if Farhan was passionate about music, he would have stuck to it rather than run away as he did. So found the motivations rather confusing! Ten years is a long time you know, and you get all sorts of opportunities, especially if you have the money, unless of course, the rest of your band were John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and John Bonham,(ordinary Brit boys otherwise), in short Led Zeppelin who refused to play after Bonham's death in 1980 till this year for a very special reunion concert, where 20 million fans applied for 20 000 tickets! Ha.
Of course, one can argue that it could be possible, I agree no doubt, it is possible, though highly improbable!
And in "Almost Famous" the band the lead character tours with is ostensibly Led Zeppelin.
All that aside, the script really lets the film down. It could have been shortened by 30 minutes or so, and could have tackled the themes of their daily lives in the present and how that affects their coming together even though they have fond memories and of course hurts. That would have been very very interesting.
After all as someone said in the film I think it was Debbie "are you going to be a rock star at this age?"
As Tull sang, Too young to die and too old to rock and roll!
I have friends who are 35 plus and who play concerts of rock music too with young 20 year old band members, and you should check the reaction of the crowd when they see that one "old" man- in one instance some of them said that he must be the music teacher for the band! Ha, ha.

@meetu, so what exactly does the movie show about relationships, in any depth?
the first half establishes how all of them are in some way frustrated, and then the second half has them coming back together.
so what is it about their relationship, were they rich kids having a good time, or they were there for the music?
What makes them tick? What hidden issues, agendas lurk beneath the surface?
It is all so cloyingly sweet and superficial as shown.
To plumb the depths of relationships you need a script with some insight, and understanding where characters are reasonably well delineated. Not gloss and floss.

And just cannot resist since you brought up Amadeus,the screenplay was written by Peter Schaffer.
Peter Schaffer is a writer's writer and a playwright. You must watch his film adaptation of Equus with Richard Burton which premieried first as a play on Broadway.
No comparison at all.

I live to Rock...The reviews are good..But no disrespect to the director..He should have thought to design his own band logo..not to rip Aerosmith's logo..Anyway musicians will love it coz it means a lot to them...ROCK ON ANYWAY!

The audience, wonder why this aspect has never been explored in this country?
The audience especially the multiplex audience is the worst in my opinion!
They have no understanding of cinema and I do not mean in the technical sense, but they just have not watched films, good, bad or indifferent!
They have just gone by ratings on websites or newspapers and watched the four star ones, and conceded to the popular opinion that the film was either good or bad.
They have not read about cinema, they have not in the famous dialogue "eat cinema, drink cinema, and sleep cinema"!
And I do not mean english vs hindi either; how many of the multiplex audience has followed hindi cinema or mainstream cinema either?
When sometimes I talk about Mujhe Jeene Do, most people have not seen it.
When I talk about Mithun's Gunmaster G9 films a most interesting example of popular schlock, people have not watched that either.
So what is it that they have seen? Am not talking about Ghatak or Ray or Kasaravalli either.
And today is paradoxically the era of the DVD where almost any film is available.
I would have loved to hear somebody talk about Mithun da's films; as a legacy of popular culture and what it could mean for us.
Will stop now, get too depressed thinking about this. Ha, ha.

I do not doubt that film like all
art is subjective; but definitely if we look around I am sure we can arrive at a common understanding!
I am totally against the concept of enjoyment; enjoying a film is different from enjoyment! I enjoy films which give insight into the human condition primarily and all good art does that, I do not think there would be too many divergences from this point of view.
But these films can be dark and depressing, or light and funny, whatever!
As for the films you mentioned in the multiplex, I have watched none of them.
I have watched each and every film of Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra et al and would like to see them again, but unfortunately because of multiplexes will never be screened. In the good old days you had single screens which showed old hindi films repeatedly. That phenomena is gone now.
I cursed the multiplex audience because they have no discipline, they are too busy answering calls, eating popcorn, chitchatting etc! Multiplexes have also changed the nature of cinema viewing by their very structure; earlier one went to see the film, one concentrated all of one's energies on it, to day of course watching a film is one of the things you do at a multiplex.
90 percent of the time I am highly irritated with the multiplex crowd, talking, smsing, chatting etc.
Contrast that with a chap who goes to watch Shivaji; he has probably waited long hours, and watches the film with rapt attention not wanting to miss anything, in fact the film is the most important thing for him.
The multiplex crowd wants something new, something cool, which is why if you look at the list of the above films they are all ultimately cheap copies of foreign language films and not just with respect to stories.
Khuda ke liye was the only noteworthy film and it was not meant for the multiplex crowd, that sophisticated crowd at all.
As for the multiplexes, because of them so many good movies do not get space, for eg December boys which ran for three days, and our very own Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi which just about managed to run for four days. It was a horrible experience watching this particular film in E square; the audience had come in only because they had failed to get tickets for other movies and because it was hindi they thought they would be able to sit through it and of course found the film difficult.
I had to later watch the film on dvd because I had missed out on most of the dialogues thanks to the multiplex audience.
As for writing reviews, are'nt there enough reviewers around?

That your exposure to rock music is negligible is evident... however i am wondering how you came to be a film critic because i do think your exposure to that is more than pathetic. most of the places i thought farhan was trying hard to convince himself of the validation of his role.

Okay, here goes.
1) Rock music is not just lyrics, its about the spirit of rock, its about being yourself, its about beauty and its like a ripple on the soul. The movie was a complete failure in that sense, the music was so pathetic I would actually like to kill the music director for even having the guts to call that rock music, it had terrible, half assed uncut rough solos, loser lyrics, long dragged out vocals.....basically any hindi music with longer out of place solos, thats not rock, never ever from any angle can that be called rock music.
2) Pathetic acting, has the director ever met any rock artist before?? He should ATLEAST do that much before making a movie like that. Is that how they are?? OH PUH-LEASE, bunch of emo kids? The dialogues? So terrible (the delivery AND the substance) , there is no spirit of rock at all, the most important thing of all. Ask any person who seriously likes rock music and he will tell you that!!! I mean wtf?
3) The script, pretty cheesy but I would let it pass, I wouldnt have hated the script so much if not for the brutal murder of rock music and its true spirit.

Well whatever, but seriously if anyone actually wants to listen to some good rock pick up something like led zep(focus on music), the doors(focus on lyrics), floyd(lyrics+innovation), grateful dead(lyrical beauty and improvisations), pearl jam(more recent band), dylan(sheer poetic beauty), Dire straits(amazing vocals and solos, smooth), Vai(guitar god) or any other sub genre or type of your liking....

Rock On is really rocking n especially farhan akhtar is superb in his style.
rock-on is a must watch movie....

hi bus ab ek bar muje farhan se milna hi padega, he is my inspiration from today

really good