You know when the best part of the film is the song from the original, that something’s gone wrong somewhere.
The problem lies with the fact that we don’t empathize with any part of Magik, like we did in the original. Their characters were fresh, and their problems real. Maybe the writers assumed that we will continue our emotional journey with them in this film. We don’t.
The only thing script comes up with is to load all the characters with some emotional baggage that the film can ride on. Farhan, the guilt of a young singer’s suicide, Arjun, of his poverty, Shraddha, of her father’s cold, unspoken accusation…What’s more, the screenplay is too ‘plotted’, making use of this baggage to move the film ahead every time a dramatic moment is needed. This should be a good way to drive the narrative, but with Rock On 2 it seems contrived and repetitive, almost as if there are no other ideas to carry the film.
Also, most of it is pretty obvious. You know that something is going to happen to his farming co-operative in Meghalaya for Farhan to move back to the city. You know that Arjun will snap out of his super successful music producer mode and remind himself of his bass guitarist roots. You definitely know how Shraddha’s character is going to end up. When this happens, the challenge is to make the journey of these characters memorable, so that it does not matter where they end up.
The music does not match up to the original, with the exception of Ms Usha Uthup’s performance towards the end, being the highlight of the film’s score.
There was no real scope for a sequel, and this film could have been made as any other film about any other music band. Come to think of it, that would have been a more liberating film to watch. Here, the baggage it carries is too much to shake off, and too good to match up.
Hindi, Drama, Color