What are the characteristics of “Progressive cinema” in a country? The phrase can only be used when the viewers get some new unexplored subjects to watch with no unnecessary subplots or deliberately added commercial angles in a movie. And Shimit Amin’s “Rocket Singh” unarguably stands tall among the few recent movies representing the “Progressive Cinema Movement” in the Hindi Film Industry. In short the best month of the year is here with another worth watching movie for all the desperate viewers after the last week’s gem “Paa”.
Frankly speaking, “Rocket Singh” is not the usual bollywood kind of movie with the same ages old ingredients of action, love & comedy. It may not be appreciated by the masses, but for a change it’s a simple and refreshing flick with everything just in the right proportions as required. The movie neither has any sick side stories yelling loudly to impress the viewers nor there are any silly unwanted songs jumping into the screenplay from nowhere. In other words it’s a great piece of art made by a thinking team strictly on the lines of innovative Hollywood projects which are based on variety of subjects written around our daily routine life.
The story talks about a fresh and honest graduate who is looking for a descent job to make his future career. The wickedness of his colleagues and seniors in the office helps him transform into a clever and strategic businessman. But in the process he also has to opt for some unethical means and uses his present job office and resources for his personal benefit. The innovative plot not only enlightens us about the cut throat competition in the Sales line but it also showcases the hardships faced by the innocent customers due to the evil practices adopted by the service providers. The film commences slowly and starts growing on the viewer with its to the point narrative and highly realistic sequences. In fact most of the viewers will find it very easy to relate with various characters in the script portrayed just like the real life people we meet every day.
After his masterpiece “Chakk De India”, Shimit returns with another brilliant work which again has a huge contribution coming from his writer Jaideep Sahni. Shimit’s subtle treatment of the subject never slides down and he maintains a firm grip on the movie right till its impressive climax. Interestingly, all the incidents in the movie strongly point towards some similar personal experiences of either Shimit or Jaideep in the past. Jaideep splendidly comes up with the most original description of his characters quite close to his “Khosla Ka Ghosla” which also revolved around Delhi and its Punjabi culture. Actually the whole setup of a computer company and its premises in “Rocket Singh” is more relevant to New Delhi’s computer hub, Nehru Place (which Jaideep must have seen) and everyone who has visited the premises would readily agree to that. Taking into account all their works together in the past, the writer-director duo is a great team in formation and you can easily expect many more brilliant projects coming from them in the near future.
In the performance arena there are good things to write about almost everyone in the cast. With the most authentic Sikh character’s portrayal on the screen till date, Ranbir Kapoor once again excels and makes everyone in the Kapoor family feel proud of their young energetic and hardworking kid. His choice of projects after the unexpected debacle of “Saawariya” clearly proves his gifted cinematic sense and intuition power. While watching him on screen, not even once you feel that he is in a fictional get up of a Sikh. In simple words he just slips into the body of Harpreet Singh Bedi and delivers an effortless, enjoyable and the most impressive performance of his career.
Prem Chopra delivers a lovable cameo. Gauhar Khan impresses in her role of a receptionist and she surely has got the oomph factor to burn the screen. Shazahn Padamsee is fresh and confident as Ranbir’s customer cum friend. Everyone else in the team lead by Rocket Singh is perfectly chosen and they skillfully act as true to life realistic characters, especially the computer engineer and his sexy desktops glowing in the night. Cinematography is nothing exceptional and Salim-Sulaiman music is just above average with all the songs used shortly along with the background score.
However, the only probable mistake, the marketing team of “Rocket Singh” has made is that they wrongly promoted the film as a comedy. The promos with Ranbir dancing to the tune of “Pocket Mein Rocket Hai” clearly give you an idea of the movie being a funny take on office politics and life of an salesman. Whereas in reality it’s a sensible story of a fresh graduate who goes on to make a confident mark in his very first job of a salesman. Though it has many comedy sequences coming in at regular interval throughout, but still that doesn’t allow anybody to simply call it a comedy movie. In fact all the viewers coming in for seeing just another routine, over the top, bollywood comedy may get highly disappointed from the end result they get. So, once again it’s an example of wrong promotion tried by the makers to bring in some more crowds in the opening weekend.
But if you ask me then just don’t take it as a comedy and go for it if you really want to see a fresh, cool and uplifting movie completely different from what we have been seeing in all this year. In short, “Rocket Singh” is one of those few rare movies which are made without thinking of any favorable box office results. If majority of the viewers like it then that’s a good sign of progress being made in the Indian Cinema. But if most of them take it otherwise then that will be the most unfortunate outcome of 2009.
Highly recommended for everyone yearning for a change in Bollywood’s choice of subjects.
Rating : 4 / 5
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