Monday, September 8, 2008

Rock-ed!

I realize am no good at writing healthy, good movie reviews…
I can never say if the camera angle is fantabulous or the screen play is a killer or the music mix is ear-shattering…. I have no clue if foreign locales are to enhance or to pulverize a movie. Hell! I even forget the names of the main characters most times!!
…..And I just cannot write 3 paragraphs of sugar-sweet adjectives describing anything, leave alone on an excellent movie….

Er.., maybe I am just not good at writing!!

Now that I have attached 2 very “subtle” disclaimers I can go stray as much as I want from the main topic and not really talk about all the movie jargon that one needs to.. :D

Rock On is a movie of 4 young men who are driven to make music; they are even more driven to make it big as rock stars.

Aditya is the vocalist, Joe is the lead guitarist, KD is the drummer and Rob is the keyboard player.

Their young, exuberant lives is full of the “cool-yo” things of the X-generation. They make music, fall in love, go on crazy trips to Goa, are broke, are flush, sing at weddings, participate in a Channel V-competition, have their chance at fame …

And like most bands they also split apart.

They then move ahead in life; one turns into a successful investment banker, another into a weepy musician, one into a gemologist and one into a loser.
(Er..I am reserving the loser outta the 4 for myself...whoever said sheer good looks doesn’t matter!:D)

Many years later they re-unite and the band comes together one more time to give a performance.

Now while the movie would have been yet another teen-flick in Hollywood it seems completely mind-blowing in Bollywood.
Simply because..!
We don’t have a hero who drones on and on with his “advice” or classic “teachings” to the man kind

We don’t have a “Shahrukh” who occupies every screen of the movie.

We don’t have semi-clad, good-for-nothing heroines whose only role is to bat those fake eyelashes.

We don’t have a sister who either gets raped or killed before the interval.

We don’t have a nuisance of a villain whose fiefdom cannot manage a single scratch on our stupendous Hero.

…Before I go into 50 more such clichés and completely forget what I started to write, I’ll steer back …

Rock-On has such gentle humour, that is neither forced nor intrusive; no, not rib-tickling either.
One particular scene where I ended up sporting a smile even without realizing I was is when Rob walks into a coffee shop, which used to be the haunt of the 4 friends in their younger years.
He talks to the owner in fond remembrance while the owner just doesn’t recognize him. A little later Joe walks in and the owner profusely greets him remembering him instantaneously…(Well, hey! yea! Who can forget Joe :D)

Almost all the emotions portrayed are gentle; even the tragedy of Rob and his brain Tumor does not gag you down, so unlike the suffocating tear-jerkers which most movies float with.

We don’t have the mother weeping around the son perennially or the Missus doing a lunatic dance at the abode of the Gods. ..or the..er! Ok! I’ll shut up! I am sure we all know the clichés

It is refreshing to feel and live the lives of the 4 young rock stars;
(especially that of Joe *winks*…, And I will thank you all for not reminding me of my snoozing guitar!)

The movie is total fun, stylish and very Hindi-rock!!

THE END!!

Hold on!
Now I just cannot write a peachy-kin review, Can I? Have to tell you about the only grouse I have..

Mr Director, Two of your lady artists sacrifice their lives to the inadequacies of their men. And you turn one into a shrew and the other into an insipid wallpaper woman??????

Wha?????…ever noticed the women of today? They are suave, sophisticated and intelligent. They are definitely not going to play the second fiddle to anyone…especially not to a musical instrument!!
Bbbttttt!

29 comments:

Smita said...

Who can forget Joe :D

I agree I agree...

I liked the movie for all the reasons u have listed plus I liked Farhan Akhtar a lot. Though at places his delivery was deadpan but I liked him :D

Cool review :)and BTW u r not good at writing??? Eh???

Joke of the day??? :D

Now go n watch A Wednesday, another fantastic movie.

Vee said...

And who says we look for biased reviews (sugar-sweet according to you) from Nikhat, Shobha, Rajeev and their kinds..This is killer of a review.

Ok I will stray too now.. or may be later... held up...

Che said...

They *had* to name the band Magik didnt they.

Havent seen the movie yet.

vimmuuu said...

Yup, it was a nice experience while watching..but when I came back and thought, I realised its full of cliches...the tumor scene was totally unwanted and manipulated...we were all of a sudden worried about Robs health than Robs passion for music...rival becoming the channel V co-ordinator and also marrying one of the leads ex...the villanious producer and director of the music album....wife going to her moms place, etc...but i must admit, I enjoyed the movie so much that I saw it thrice already !!!

Btw, nice review as it sounded more like expressions of a film lover than a film critic..

Surya, the Ayrus! said...

the movie could have been defny done better! but ya , perhaps your review couldnt be:) nice post!

Anonymous said...

Mdew:

movie rocked...so the songs...
arjun rampal was best pick of the lot...

cheers
zulu

Anonymous said...

...
u r so true...u cant write on a good movie ! :D

Avionic Spanker said...

I felt everything in the movie was kinda simplistic. And the story .. well, take DCH, remove a few characters, add a few, change the context slightly .. voila! Rock On!

mystiquedew said...

Smita...
Yup!
A Wednesday it is :)

Oxy..
I think I shud read more Nikhat, Shoba and others...wots their Blog addresses?

Che..
Yup! wot a sad name fer a rock band eh?
I would have probably named it "GAGABOOGLIE MaChines" or some such :D

watch it, boy, its nice :)

Vimmu...
Yep there were a few which I noticed as well,..like everyone knew Joe was gonna reappaear in the last scene..like the Aditya's breakup making no sense... din write abt 'em coz i liked the movie so much :D : D:D

Surya..
U r jus too kind :)

Zulu..

Yup! I shud stick to the U, Me aur Hum types..I jus totally enjoy killing it :D :D
Ty..even I think this is one of my worst pieces...:D :D

mystiquedew said...

Avionic...

Yup! The mass handles simple or stupid movies better...

gagaga...me-gyan fer the day :)

Anonymous said...

Avionic's right. This is a DCH rehash. DCH was a great film, and in comparison, this one's not that great. But compared to what we normally get to watch - it's good.

You didn't really need the disclaimers. :-)

Cheers,

Quirky Indian
http://quirkyindian.wordpress.com

Sach1 said...

Awesome post! Out of all that I have read, I agree to you the most.
Women today are INTELLIGENT! And people(male-female both) failed to think of that while watching ROCK ON!
\m/

-Sachi
http://sachi-stayingalive.blogspot.com/

Mama - Mia said...

sheesh!! i HAVE to watch this movie before i die under the weight of great expectations!! :(

though i must say you are better at reviweing movies that suck!! hehe!!

naah! i loved reading this bit too!! :D

cheers!

abha

Anonymous said...

Ah, another review... I seem to be reading this a lot these days... Is it really that good??

mystiquedew said...

QI..Yups :)

Sach..Welcome to moregarbles, girl.
Glad ye liked it :)

Mamma Mia..Yups, I am gonna try my had writing marvelous, sensitive posts from now on :D :D

MC..Yups its good, but don go wid too many expectations nothing lives upto it :)

couchpapaya said...

is the loser guy rampal ?? i can understand the obsession :) wasnt luke kenny hot too ? or is my memory aging with age :S did a double-take when i saw him in the trailers, he looked so ... weepy i think u said ...

Ava said...

hey me looking for JOE too.. kithe hai tu .. joe joe

Anubha said...

hiii !!! i too loved rock-on ..
all the emotions in da film are realistic .. !!!
nothing over exaggerated.. or "filmi" as they call it!

Bouncing-Bubble said...

Ms.Dew-I SO look fwd to your movie reviews, got it?? keep writing 'em..

am yet to watch the movie :(

Che said...

Where is the next review???

Arre Ill pay for the next movie ticket but write dammit :P

Scribblers Inc said...

Intelligent movie review...but you should probably attach a disclaimer at the beginning saying "contains spoilers" for peopke who havent seen the movie...like me...:P

Scribblers Inc.

mystiquedew said...

Couch..
Luke?? nopes me-don think much abt him ...

Avdi..
kambakht ishq hai "Joe" :D

Anubha..
Yups :) :)

BB..
Thank ye lady :)
Must watch..nice movie :)

Che...
Only fer the ticket??whos gonna buy me popcorn then? :D :D

Scribblers..
Oopsie...will watch it next time :)

Che said...

Pop corns too.
Any other demands ??

mystiquedew said...

Chee...why ye being so grouchy now..fine i'll buy me-own popcorn ..

Che said...

arre wasnt being grouchy.
just suffering from less-good-blogs-to-read syndrome.
sowwy.
Ok ill throw in some candy too!

Anonymous said...

You have been tagged!
see here : http://indiapavan.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/tag-gle-switches/

Anonymous said...

still same old .. nothing new here to read .. no controversy..

typical ..

now where is that spewing venom gone

vimmuuu said...

You have been tagged — http://vimalsparadise.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-do-you-whenyou-are-tagged.html

Now thats two different tags. Enough of you playing hide and seek !!!

Che said...

Tsk tsk so much for women and their promises.......