Rock On 2 Review

Rating: 2/5 Stars (Two stars)

Star Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Shraddha Kapoor, Prachi Desai, Purab Kohli, Shashanak Arora, Kumud Mishra

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Director: Shujaat Saudagar

Rock On 2 Poster

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What’s Good: Only a few moments from the first film that bring you a little nostalgia.

What’s Bad: A contrived script, poor music and a lengthy run time.

Loo Break: Hell yeah!

Watch or Not?: I’d say you would rather give this one a miss. If you’re a music or band junkie, sit at home -catch all your favorite band documentaries on Youtube!

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It has been 8 years since the first film and the sequel takes off exactly from there.

Post Magik reuniting in the last film, they start a talent management firm to promote new talent. After a young artist commits suicides due to negligence by Magik, the incident leaves the band in shock.

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They once again part ways as Adi (Farhan Akhtar) moves to Meghalaya, leaving everything behind and starts working for the welfare of the locals there. Joe (Arjun Rampal) is now a reality show judge and owns a bar that plays live music.

KD (Purab Kohli) is still in the hope that there may be a chance for the band to reconcile. He gets a ray hope when he listens to a recording sent by Uday (Shashank Arora) which has Jiah’s (Shraddha Kapoorr) composition.

Will KD’s plan to include Jiah ant Uday in the reinvented Magik work? Can Adi cope up with his personal problems and once again return to Music?

Rock On 2 Review

Rock On 2 Review: Script Analysis

After Rock On!! became a success there were speculations about a sequel for a long time and well, here it is. Well, I remember there being a fall out between Excel and Rock On!! director Abhishek Kapoor since the latter asked credits for co-writing the film. After watching this sequel, I’d advice Abhishek to not associate himself with this one.

The script of Rock On 2 fails miserably at establishing anything. In an attempt to show the lead characters matured, what we get to see is another level of immaturity.

Adi’s escapist nature from at first leaving the band to becoming an investment banker to rejoining then again leaving and now becoming a hope for Meghalaya’s poor is appalling.

Jiah’s character seems completely lost and the forceful emotional elements attached to it don’t move you.

Overall, the mixture of music and Meghalaya’s poverty don’t at all blend in the film.

The only good elements include the turning point shown in Joe’s case. His working on a reality show is quite the apt future of any member from a failed band.

Common sense is missing at lot of junctures in the film. It is hard to believe how Magik, a band that went AWOL is suddenly still famous among the youth.

A major twist in the story comes pre-interval and it is pretty much what one would have expected in the first twenty minutes itself.

Issues such as Jiah’s character having stage fright or Uday’s struggle as a Sarod player in the time of electronic dance music should have been focused on much more than Adi and his problems.

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Rock On 2 Review: Star Performance

Farhan Akhtar as Adi gives a mediocre performance. It’s probably the writer’s inconsistency that makes his act look haphazard in the film. Nothing notable about his performance.

Arjun Rampal looks hot even with the short crop and that’s about it. He had done a much better job in the prequel.

Purab Kohli is almost as if he stepped out of the first film except he has put on a little here. Again, nothing interesting!

Shraddha Kapoor’s tragic act of Jiah hits boredom quite early on. She cries and cries or sings buts acts? I’m afraid not.

Shashanak Arora and Kumud Mishra are two good actors wasted in terribly written roles in this film.

Rock On 2 Review: Direction, Music

Shujaat Saudagar debuts as a director with this film and I’d say he has a lot more to learn. At first his direction needs some direction. I wonder if he knew where Rock On 2 was headed when he started working on it.

There is a strong lack of coherency here. Certain frames seem to be just patched together.

One of the very terribly shot scenes is of the Meghalaya relief camp. The kids and families are made to look dirty and dusted so much so that you could even spot fingerprints left while adding the dust. This is the same where Farhan’s character hands meal packets to the villagers and Shraddha’s character quips “Bachche Kha Kyun nai rahe hai”. The camera pans to the kids who give a blank look, I mean what are we expecting, them to dance with joy?

Apart from such scenes, there’s the not so great music by Shankar Ehsaan and Loy. The only number I thoroughly enjoyed was by Usha Uthup.

Saudagar basically fails to get any ‘band movie’ flavor to this one. Magik has no magic left and the pointless story moves at snail speed.

With a run time of 2 hours 23 minutes and a boring music what is the audience expected to do?

Towards the end, we learn about Adi’s son Rob taking interest in music. Please tell me this is not a sign for another film in the franchise!

Rock On 2 Review: The Last Word

Rock On 2‘s band Magik is completely tragic! If you were ever interested in forming a band, this one could kill your dreams! I’m going with a 2/5

Rock On 2 Trailer

Rock On 2 releases on 11th Nov, 2016.

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