Film: Rock On 2
Director: Shujaat Saudagar
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Purab Kohli, Shraddha Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Shashank Arora
Excerpts from critics’ reviews of Rock On 2:
While most sequels are remakes of the original, credit goes to Shujaat Saudagar for showcasing a new chapter in the lives of the members of Magik, the rock band that caught our fancy eight years ago. With Rock On 2 Shujaat takes the camaraderie between Aditya, KD and Joe forward, this time adding the dilemma of Jiah (Shraddha Kapoor) to their existing set of traumas. While the gorgeous actress is a welcome addition to the group and renders a fine performance, her track seems forced and out of place. Overall, acting is one of the highlights of the film with Farhan, Purab and Arjun in particular, being extremely effective. Marc Koninckx’s cinematography is remarkable and deserves a special mention as well. But, the script is a major downer. It is way too contrived, directionless and morose to hold your interest.Renuka Vyavahare, The Times Of India
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As you might perceive, the storyline of Rock On 2 is toothpick thin. Also you do wonder how Magik has retained its brand value after a hiatus of eight years. They aren’t exactly a legendary band whose quality of music, or their break-ups and patch-ups, would drive even loyalists into a state of euphoria. In the event, Rock on 2 comes off as a Bollywood vanity exercise, which assumed that an encore was in order. Honestly, some commercially successful as well as aesthetically accomplished films are left alone. Technically, the cinematography and sound design are sufficiently expert. It’s the music score which is the major let-down. To carp that Rock On 2 lacks the freshness and funky drive of its prequel, would amount to stating the obvious. Suffice it to say, the sequel isn’t exactly a feast for the ears and the mind, in that order.Khalid Mohamed, SpotboyE
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It’s not that the characters of Rock On 2 aren’t keen to break into a song– on the contrary, the desperation to do that every time the film sags is quite evident, as is the tendency to hark back to the golden time of eight years ago. It’s that it’s hard to decipher what any of those songs are trying to say through lyrics that are a lot of heavy-minded words thrown together and floundering in their own depth. The heaviest burden of the mouthful lyrics is borne by Shraddha Kapoor, who as a closet singer does an otherwise decent job of a girl tentatively exploring her talent and giving her vocal chords a try. The only time Rock On 2 hits some Magik – the name of their band, remember? – is when it lets its hair down and sings, decked all Beatles-style, at a perfect wedding, ‘You know what I mean?’.Shalini Langer, The Indian Express
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Ill-conceived and incompetently executed, Rock On 2 never manages to justify its existence. The sequel, directed by Shujaat Saudagar, makes the mistake of treating the first film as a cinematic masterpiece rather than a well-narrated and competently performed three-act story about loss and redemption. The pacing of Rock On 2 is off and the message about atonement and hope ponderous. The characters have barely progressed since Rock On!!, and if anything, their bickering proves that they are frozen in the universe created by the first film. Aditya continues to be troubled by trifles; KD is still the enthusiastic peacemaker; Joe can’t seem to stop playing party-pooper. Like Akhtar, Shraddha Kapoor sings her own songs in the movie, and although she is a marginally better singer, she still cannot command the screen or summon up a convincing performance.Nandini Ramnath, Scroll.in
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