If you consider 'Dil Chahta Hai' as one of the finest films made on male bonding laced with witty sense of humour and great music, then 'Rock On!!' is a worthy sequel. The only difference being that while in the former Farhan Akhtar made a clever debut as a director and in the latter he makes a brilliant debut as an actor. Rock On!! rocks even in its understated silences of poignance.
The film is about a Rock band 'Magik' comprised of Aditya (Farhan, fantastic, the intensity reminds of angry young man of 70s), Joe (Arjun Rampal, underplayed to perfection), Rob (Luke Kenny, a revelation) and KD (Purab Kohli, hilarious)...how the flashback dreams of stardom while the present is a stark reality of investment banking and mercenary guitaring. Aditya's wife Saakshi (Prachi Desai, first rate debut) brings the band together and then there's the proverbial 'twist'. One more peformance that's noteworthy is that of Shahana Goswami (who'll be making full fledged debut in 'Ru Ba Ru') as the realistic wife of Arjun. This is one actress to watch out for.
Music by Shankar Ehsan loy is electrifying (though it has a niche appeal considering not everyone fancies rock music). I am sure 'Tum Ho Toh' will be a unanimous favourite...a soft ballad with wonderful chorus sections. Farhan the singer isn't bad, for in the context of the film they are an amateur band (moreover, the groovy picturisation makes us for the loopholes too) trying to make it big.
Although Abhishek Kapoor has been credited with story and direction but you can easily witness 'creative' imprints of Akhtar junior (thankfully). On the flip side, the absorbing tempo of the first half dips in the beginning of second half but then it picks up pieces just fine to give a goose pimple evoking concert-climax.
Rock On!! is one movie that will make you smile...effortlessly. Go Rock!