Rock On, Bollywood!

Recently, a lot has been written on how Bollywood has come of age and produced mature flicks such as Rock On, A Wednesday and Mumbai Meri Jaan. I happened to watch the former two, and wanted to post my 2 cents on this widely prevalent sentiment.

Rock On is a story about four friends whose lives have made them sacrifice the one thing that they are passionate about most, the one thing that unites them all – their love for music. The story revolves around how their band “Magik” breaks up, how life changes after college, and how they nevertheless get to be reunited in a hell-freezes-over concert for one last time.

The cinematography of Rock On is top notch. But what really impressed me is the music of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Javed Akhtar. The songs are as good as you get in Hindi Rock.

The story reminded me of both Dil Chahta Hai and Jhankaar Beats. I would probably rate this as a 7.5/10. I liked this effort by Farhan Akhtar, but I don’t quite think it was as ‘magical’ as his first.

Another film that has satisfied established critics is A Wednesday. This revolves around the far more serious theme of terrorism. This film narrates an eventful day in the life of the Mumbai Commissioner of Police, Prakash Rathod.

It is for Anupam Kher’s and especially Naseeruddin Shah’s brilliant performances that one should see this film. While there were several obvious flaws, the storyline does not fail to thrill. Overall, this is again a 7/10 movie which I would recommend you to watch.

While none of these 2008 blockbuster Bollywood movies impressed me as much as the 1972 Hollywood movie, The Godfather, or the 2008 animated movie, Wall-E, I do believe things are looking very positive for the future of Bollywood. No longer must Bollywood flicks have people dancing around trees, or for that matter, item numbers to drive viewership.

Heck, they don’t even have to be more than 2 hours long!

~Raj