bollycritic FINALLY caught it... and don't regret waiting. It was more often than not BORING. Not a patch on the brilliance of DCH.Three things held me back from seeing the movie earlier, and my bias/fears were proved right for all of them: 1) As mentioned by others, the music is amateurish. Not so much the tunes by SEL, but most definitely Farhan's annoying voice. My wife and I were shocked they used it in the movie. Yeah, it gives the movie a realistic vibe, but honestly, it was one of the key reasons I never rooted for the success of Magik, which I think was critical for the audience. "Yeh Tumhaari Meri Baatein" was the one beautiful exception, but no prizes for guessing that Mr. Akhtar's voice was nowhere to be found. I'm amazed the soundtrack sold so well too. Maybe it underscores that listeners are not as discerning about voices any more?? 2) Farhan is no actor. Yeah, the guy is versatile and can do several things now including writing, singing and direction, but I don't think he's great at anything other than direction. And even there, his brilliance piqued with DCH and has been languishing since. Actually, several of Rock On's characters are non-actors. Lucky for the director, Prachi Desai, Shahana Goswami and Purab Kohli compensated for the lack of talent in the others. 3) Abhishek Kapoor's Aryan was a dreary and tedious Rocky rip-off. And he suffers from the same directorial flaw as Kunal Kohli and Shaad Ali: their film's scenes take too long to get to the point. Sorry to say, I'm just not as patient a viewer as others may be, unless the scene has something brilliant to say. On a positive note though, Shaad has begun to work on this flaw and Abhishek still packed Rock On with a few engaging sequences. Unfortunately, for Kohli, there's no hope.

Chrysanthepop Abhishek Kapoor's 'Rock On!' is definitely an improvement when compared to his directorial debut 'Aryan' which was a 'Rocky' plus 'other boxing movies' ripoff. But, as a film itself, 'Rock On' struggles to be just strictly average. It's not a movie I would be willing to revisit. After discussing this movie with a friend, we agreed that 'Rock On' is a half-baked product. The story is too clichéd and predictable that I easily lost interest. For example, killing off the Rob character because he has no girlfriend. The rockband Magik is comprised of a typical Bollywood group of friends where Rob is the one who the audience shouldn't give much of a damn about, Joe the quiet one, KD the 'virgin' wooing the women without much luck and Aditya, the 'main one'. The characters just aren't interesting. The ending is laughably bad.Moreover, there are just too many plot holes that irritated me. Since we're all supposed to believe that these guys are so passionate about music, why do they give up just after one fight? So the band dismembered but they could have pursued their own individual career. Only, Joe is seen to be struggling with his career in music but that too is apparently because 'he's no good in anything else'. Why does Aditya dump his girlfriend? If he wanted to break all ties with Magik, such that he'd dump his girlfriend through a note, why keep the photos etc?On the technical side, it's not so bad. I liked the jump cuts. The background score and cinematography are alright. For a movie about rock, well, the music isn't rocking at all. I wonder what kind of the drugs the lyricist when writing those truly abysmal lyrics. The songs lack soul and energy.The performances are a mixture. Shahana Goswami performs well and for a newcomer Prachi Desai is good too. Despite of having a clichéd role, Purab Kohli is perhaps the best of the male cast. Luke Kenny is adequate. Arjun Rampal is passable. Farhan Akhtar looks confused and is wooden at times.Overall, 'Rock On' has nothing new to offer. It's not exactly a terrible film but I'll put it somewhere between average and below average. It's overrated. This movie just does not rock.

TheaterAtHome I'm surprised to see that so many people liked this movie. For me it had bad direction, bad acting, bad songs all bundled together in 2 and a half hours. The main character played by Farhan Akhtar was one of the worst performances by a lead actor. He is better off sticking to direction only. The rest of the cast's performance was no better except a couple. But overall the movie was just dull and boring. Had a hard time keeping awake. Its not even one of those bad movies which you can enjoy by making fun of the scenes and characters. If you have difficulty going to sleep, keep its DVD/cassette handy for bed time viewing. Still wondering if I saw the same movie which others liked so much.

murali s When the promos of this movie hit the screens,I thought it would just be another bollywood movie,and for many it maybe.But for those who identify themselves with the characters,it's a lot more.A big thumbs up for Abhishek Kapoor for pulling out a decent story,a story about a group of musicians trying to form a Rock band,and making it well at the end. Farhan Akhtar has made it big with his acting though his voice wasn't that good.Arjun as usual does enough justice to his character,though was too sober while playing a rocking guitar!Shahana Goswami has given herself a neat push,and so have Purab Kohli as KD and Luke Kenny as Rob. The greatest thing about this movie is that it shows how people are easily forced to give up their dreams and move forward with life,suppressing their creativity,and thus,getting lost in the crowd.As mentioned before,many would be able to identify themselves with the situations and characters in the movie. As the last song calls out, to such people to live their dreams and even if the future road is not guaranteed,even if people discourage,and no matter how hard the path is,believe in yourself and follow your dreams. For only then you are living 'your' life. The great sailor Sinbad was on such guy. A must watch for right braineans who dream to make it big.