And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find that
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun…
“The poorest man in the world is the man without a dream. The most frustrated man in the world is the man with a dream that never becomes reality.”~~Myles Munroe
Few of us have a dream but we may be unable to follow it because of several reasons but there are people among us who go all the way to achieve their dreams. This is the theme of the movie Rock On….
Rock On is the story of 4 Men, Adi aka Aditya Shroff (Farhan Akhtar), Joe aka Joe Masceranhas (Arjun Rampal), KD aka Killerr Drumer (Purab Kohli) and Rob (Luke Kenny ) and their band MAGIK. Movie starts with the band trying to croon their newly composed song talking about the unanswered question of the nature and then shifted to the current time where Adi is a triumphant investment banker who uses to live in a lavish penthouse with his beautiful wife Sakshi (Prachi Desai). Adi has everything but he still suffers emptiness in his life and became a profession gripped workaholic. Joe spends his time idling away, teaching guitar to the neighborhood kids, while his wife Debbie (Shahana Goswami), runs the family business and household. KD now looks after his family’s jewelry business, though he hates it, while Rob is now a composer doing jingles and tunes. 
Acting:
Farhan Akhtar (as Aditya the lead singer) makes a great debut as an actor, totally natural and effortless. Adi, who ends up as the most successful of four, is an investment banker, with a pretty wife and a cool house. So all in all seems to have a ideal life, perfect career, a perfect home, a perfect gorgeous wife. But he still he is haunted by the angst inside his own heart and always refuses to share his past with his wife but he never realized that he is also not sharing his present with her as well. He always has a cold expression, a stiffed smile which always fails to connect with others and a behavior which displays aggravation.But still, he is a practical guy, who feels one must compromise to get ahead she told her wife that “Compromise to karna padta hai”. In spite of using minimal dialogues, Farhan delivers a creditable debut in form of near perfect expression. Even the pulse throbbing at his temple, when he tries to control an extreme emotion and when he was singing on the stage, was something that I had only read about, but viewed it for the first time. People complained bout his husky baritone, but he remind me of his father.
Arjun Rampal: After appearing in countless mediocre movies and roles, he comes up with a astonishingly efficient and poignant performance as the idealist Joe the lead guitarist, the man who refuses to part with his guitar, who can give up his life for his friend Adi, and who unintentionally contributes to the break up of the friends. He lives a substandard existence with no occupation, no attention in family business and aggravated wife. Watching his own dreams fade away, his wife slowly losing all her idealism, he teaches the neighborhood kids guitar, passing on the tales of Magik to his son. By giving guitar tuitions and some performances in parties he tries to quench his thirst for music. Arjun Rampal delivers an influential performance yet again and sizzled the screen. Even a background presence by him, even without a single word made the screen sizzle. And his chemistry with Farhan was amazing.
“You may say I'm a dreamerBut I'm not the only oneI hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one" ~~John Lennon
Purab Kohli as Killer drama aka Kedar Javeri aka KD is luminous as the fun loving, flirty KD, who is the heir of a Jeweler store with all the riches and luxuries to his disposal. Yet he has that streak of dissatisfaction too. In starting he seems to be living a life of a failure or jerk with an easy attitude as a Casanova, who knows business and yes, the way he handles the drums was amazing. He makes you smile, and your heart ache. As he laughingly sings “I will survive”, in a perfect manner.
“I will survive
It took all the strength I had not to fall apart
kept trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken heart
and I spent oh so many nights just feeling sorry for myself
I used to cry Now I hold my head up high
and you see me somebody new
I’m not that chained up little person still in love with you”
Besides he also does well in the serious scenes, especially when he discovers about Rob’s secret and when he is furious with Joe for dropping out. A performance of life time.
Luke Kenny as Rob, on the keyboard, who always starts with D major is the man with awesome, sexy hair… you have to see it to believe it… The way he enjoys while being on the keyboard was amazing be it Tum ho toh or Socha hai kya. 
Post the breakup, he tries to keep his bond to melody alive, by composing jingles for advertisements and working with Annu Malik ( Initially I thought that he was sad because of that only). The quiet resignation in his eyes that silent teardrops and his love for music was just awesome.. I don’t have words to describe it. A restrained approach along with a strong-minded attitude of a guy trying to make the best of the few days left in life, Luke Kenny’s performance is praiseworthy. His accent does nothing to undermine him, in fact just adds on to his impact.
His attitude reminds me of…..
“When skies are cloudy and gray,
They're only gray for a day,
So wrap your troubles in dreams,
And dream your troubles away.” - Bing Crosby
Sakshi (Prachi Desai aka Baani on Idiot Box) is the ideal stunning wife of depressed Aditya. A wife, who is still trying to solve the jigsaw of her husband’s life and in quest of trying to gain joy and content for him, she decides to give him back his life, his music. She is going to be probably the best find of this year with no after effect of Ekta Kapoor’s camp. Means no melodrama, no killer looks or no overreacting. She looks unblemished absolutely and huggable when she breaks into that smile, lifting up the spirits. I simply fall in love with her (yeah that’s true) when she sung
"Ajeeb Dastaan hai ye, kahan shuru kahan khatam,
ye manzilein hain kaun si, na wo samajh sake na hum"
She reminds me of Nat King Cole in Smile
“Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile”
“Turning back the pages of my sweet shattered dream
Direction: Abhishek Kapoor aka Gattu, is the cousin of Tusshar Kapoor and Ektaa Kapoor. He is in this film industry for long and made his debut in the “Ashique Mastane” and also acted in "Uff! Yeh Mohabbat" (remember???) with Twinkle Khanna. Besides, he also directed the movie "Aryaan" starring Sohail Khan and Sneha Ullal but here he comes as a a breathe of fresh air. There’s a perfect flow to the narration which is amazing, what with the intermittent flashbacks thrown in. The way he showed the change in the Adi’s behavior was amazing (the say his Chaukidaar, greeted him and he replied differently both the time but he catched his tona and his expression in a perfect manner).
And again in the scene, where the band is told by the recording company executive, to include one wedding remix song, so that it goes with the public taste, and the band members signing on the agreement reluctantly, seems a bit drawn. And this showed the reality where rock bands have to end up making crap songs, just for the public taste.
The rock band here is just a metaphor, or just a background, for the larger picture, that is follow your dreams. And on that scale, the movie works really well. The scenes are quite naturally filmed, though there is a lot of Dil Chahta Hai hangover and one can easily feel the effect of Farhan all over the film. And now coming to the best part of the movie, Climax scene, the way it was picturized was amazing. When I heard Sindabaad for the first time I thought that it would be juss an ordinary song but the way it came on the satge I found it as one of the best song of the movie.
Songs: Songs and lyrics are typically strange when compared to the present Bollywood music and it might not go well with all genres. But in my vies the songs were amazing be it “Pichchle Saat dino main”, “Sinbad the sailor” or “Rock on”. Shankar-Ehasaan-Loy and Javed Akhtar are at their customary best, but what makes the main difference is Farhan Akhtar’s unusual baritone that catches attention and brings on life to the lyrics and musicIf you like soft music you have “Yeh tumhari meri baatein” and “Tum ho Toh”, are just right ones to make the heart go tipsy. Specially the way the last two songs were picturized and fused was amazing.
My Take: I always go by the following lines
“Believe the unbelievable, Dream the unthinkable
You can do all things, if you believe
You can reach the unreachable, See the unforeseeable
All things are possible, To them that believe”
And Rock on make me feel stronger on the above lines. When it came to write the concluding part of the review what I felt is I am short of word, but one thing I will say that this flick is a must watch for understanding a fact that, everyone desires his sustenance in form of a vision, an aspiration and a drean which needs to acquire life and breath and become a reality.
“We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.” Woodrow Wilson
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