Filmi Review

Rock On!! Director Farhan Akhtar and TV star Prachi Desai's acting debut is directed by Abhishek Kapoor. Quite frankly I expected nothing from Rock On!! As the director's last movie on boxing titled Aryan (Sohail Khan) was poor. A text message from a friend, who had been to the preview show, came as a pleasant surprise. His message read "Rock on is too good. Must watch!" and fortunately that's exactly what it turned out to be.

Rock On!! is about 4 extremely talented musicians; Aditya (Farhan Akhtar), Joe (Arjun Rampal), Rob (Luke Kenny) and K.D (Purab Kohli). The four friends come together to form a band named Magik and are soon on a look out for that big break. Their dream is to make Magik the biggest band the country has ever seen, but they don't make it and due to a misunderstanding they part. A decade later, they come together and continue from where they left off... Rock On!! is about relationships, dreams, failures, fate and life.

Rock On!! has a few similarities to Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai. A part of the story is similar; a group of friends part ways due to a misunderstanding only to come together years later when their lives have changed. But what works for Rock On!! is it's a simple story with a heart and it connects. A refreshing change from all the masala movies that have been dished out over the past few weeks.

Abhishek Kapoor after the disastrous Aryan, has surely worked hard on Rock On!! His execution of the script and attention to detail is perfect. The characters are real, you identify with them. Emotionally too the movie is strong, there are scenes that make you cry. There are a few hilarious scenes, watch the scene wherein the band group perform dandiya.

The music, so important to a movie like Rock On!! is brilliant. The songs are beautifully placed, a great example of how songs add to the overall experience of a movie. Shankar - Ehsaan - Loy, you guys rock!

Like even the best of movies, Rock On!! is not without flaws. The pace is slow and to a certain extent the second half is predictable.

But the performances more than make up for it. Farhan Akhtar proves to be an extremely talented actor. A great debut. Ditto for Prachi Desai. It should be Arjun Rampal's best performance ever, just cant recollect any of his other note worthy performances. He's good throughout, surprisingly great in those emotional scenes. Luke Kenny and Shahana Goswami are good. Purab Kohli is fine.

Rock On!! is a movie that no one should miss!