Javed Akhtak is a well-known lyricist besides being an excellent poet. His wife Shabana Azmi is a par excellence actor besides being a world famous social activist. Shabana's father had been a great poet. Now, Javed's son Farhan has indeed rocked on! In the past, he has directed movies like 'Don', 'Lakshay' and 'Dil Chahta Hai' excellently. This time round, he has not only acted but also sang songs in 'Rock On'! This seems to be Farhan's first love.
The movie is directed by Abhishek Kapoor whose last film 'Aryan' was based on boxing, a sport not much popular in India. Now, he tries his hands on rock culture, which again isn't much recognized in India . However, it's interesting that Abhishek Kapoor makes commercial entertainers on subjects that are not much prevalent in our country. And, he succeeds in creating a realistic rock feel. Yes, there has, of late, been a trend for making movies on sports. 'Chak De India' and 'Goal' fall in this genre. So, why not do one on rock culture or a band?
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'Rock On' is the story of four friends sharing a common passion for music and forming a rock band called Magik. Farhan Akhtar who plays Arya is the lead vocalist and Joe played by Arjun Rampal is the guitarist. KD played by Purab Kohli is the drummer and Rob (Luke Kenny) handles the keyboard. They try to cut out an album but fail and consequently split to move their own ways. A decade passes and Aditya's wife Sakshi played by Prachi Desai reunites the group.
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This time they overcome their ego, and set in a rock concert where the band performs to perfection. They feel togetherness when one of the band members is diagnosed of cancer. Here, the real story shapes up. The film gets into frequent flashback episodes. The band disperses as the genre of the film restricts its creative scope. Similarly, Farhan Akhtar's breakup with his girlfriend doesn't gel well with the audience. The music of the film is fantastic as expected from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. A band mix of rock with dandiya is great indeed.
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Who has designed the movie? It appears that Farhan Akhar has done it to debut his own acting and therefore he leaves no stone unturned to make it a success. He lends voice to all his songs, and thus gets into the skin of the character with ease. Arjun Rampal isn't well versed with the guitar. Purab Kohli has a natural flair for comedy. Luke Kenny is persuasive. Among the females, Shahana Goswami as Arjun's wife justifies her character, and Prachi is very excited after shifting from television to movies.
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As both producer Ritesh Sidhwani and actor Farhan Akhtar are old pals they are looking forward for a positive response from the audience. The only weak point of the movie is that it lacked publicity because of the last moment shift of distribution from A.A. Associates Films to Adlabs. Hence there was confusion if the movie is being released as scheduled or not. So, only 30 prints have been released in the Delhi-UP territory.
