Undercooked and missing a few chords
Direction: Shujaat Saudagar Actors: Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli, Shraddha Kapoor, Prachi Desai
Rating:
Eight years ago, I fell in love with a band called Magik. Their lyrics were simplistic — you probably remember ‘Aasman hai neela kyun, pani geela geela kyun?’ But their music was infectious and enduring, especially the anthem ‘Rock on’.
These boys — Adi (Farhan Akhtar), Joe (Arjun Rampal), Kedar (Purab Kohli, also known as KD for ‘Killer Drummer’) and Rob (Luke Kenny) — weren’t heroes. They were confused and vulnerable, ambitious and hopeful. KD cracked bad jokes. Joe had anger management issues. Adi was a bundle of angst. But when they reunited for that one last gig before Rob’s death, it really was magic. And then they grew up.
In Rock On 2, directed by debutante Shujaat Saudagar, the band has scattered. KD still makes music. But Joe, who used to give guitar lessons to neighbourhood kids to make money, is now a successful reality show host and club owner. And Adi has moved to a village in Meghalaya, where he runs a farmers’ cooperative and a school. That for me was the first alarm bell.
This move — from Mumbai rocker to Meghalaya social worker — is so random and farfetched that the film is instantly weakened. It becomes difficult to take any of what follows seriously. In fact, the story by “queues are getting longer”.
In Gurgaon, many returned empty handed as ATMs ran out of cash in a couple of hours.
Many expressed their anger at what they called poor management of the currency shake-up.
Bhawani Shankar Tripathy, a Sector 23A resident of Gurgaon complained about a lack of preparation at bank branches across the city.
“There should be more counters to deposit cash and to exchange notes”, he said.
But some of the worst hit people are those in smaller towns, villages and daily-wage earners with little access to the formal banking system.
Those with marriages scheduled in their families are also aggrieved by the decision that comes in the middle of the wedding season. In Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, villagers looted a fair-price shop when the shop owner allegedly refused to accept old `500 notes.
WITH AGENCY INPUTS Abhishek Kapoor and Pubali Chaudhuri is so convoluted that we have KD’s running voiceover to explain what’s going on and why characters are doing what they’re doing.
He even explains emotions. Shujaat is clearly not a big believer in the classic writing rule: Show, don’t tell.
The Meghalayan landscapes are stunning and the performances are strong. The standout is Shraddha Kapoor, who plays Jia, the daughter of a famous classical musician. In a moving scene, Jia rails against her censorious father, her face a defiant mix of anger and pain.
Arjun Rampal also reminds CM Badal said in his letter to the President.
Earlier in the day, the Congress announced a statewide agitation from November 13, with a public rally at a village in south west Punjab.
“This area would become a desert incase water flows into SYL, taking water from Punjab into Haryana,” Amarinder Singh said.
With tension rising, Haryana suspended state-run buses to Punjab citing security reasons.
“It is a precautionary measure in view of the prevailing situation,” said Haryana additional chief secretary, transport, Sudeep Singh Dhillon.
Though the transport department claimed that only longroute operations have been temporarily stopped, some depots have stopped plying buses even on short routes.
Some Haryana leaders and khaps have threatened not to allow vehicles from Punjab to pass through the state if the us that when he chooses to, he can deliver. His good looks have frayed and he invests Joe with a bruised, bristling dignity. Purab Kohli and Prachi Desai ooze warmth. And I really enjoyed the character of Manjot, a reality show contestant who saves the day.
Of course, the centrepiece of Rock On 2 is Adi, which is inherently problematic. Farhan Akhtar is both sincere and effortlessly cool, but the narrative insists on positioning Adi as heroic. It’s not enough that he’s a rockstar. He must also be a saviour.
When a fire ravages the village, he leaps in to save a trapped mother and child. He brings food to hungry children. We are treated to shots of his ripped body. Eventually, he puts together a Woodstock-like concert and helps Jia to discover her voice — both literally and metaphorically. Come on!
Like the first film, Rock On 2 moves to a rousing musical climax. The lead up to it isn’t very convincing, but it will give you goosebumps to see the fabulous Usha Uthup on a stage singing the hybrid Khasi-Hindi song ‘Hoi kiw / Chalo chalo’. Shankar-EhsanLoy’s music in this film doesn’t match the brilliance of the original score, but the adrenaline is palpable. They create several high notes.
So there are elements that you will enjoy, but the film is felled by the undercooked writing. The dialogue by Farhan Akthar doesn’t help to disguise the flaws. At one point, Jia turns to Adi and asks about the starving villagers — “Listen, gaonwale theek hain?” — as though she’s casually inquiring about an ill relative.
The Meghalaya angle is, of course, entirely superficial. The local characters are paperthin and we get little sense of their world.
There’s just not enough to invest in.
LONG QUEUES AND CONFUSION ALLEGEDLY CLAIMED TWO LIVES IN MAHARASHTRA AND KERALA THE CONGRESS ANNOUNCED A STATEWIDE AGITATION FROM NOV 13, WITH A PUBLIC RALLY AT A VILLAGE IN PUNJAB