Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Why Gunda rocks and Rock On sucks

I was surprised to receive a call from a friend (a long distance call from India no less), only to recommend, nay, strongly recommend watching Rock On. Then talking to my aunt over Skype, she too deemed it as a must watch.
With two recommendations under its belt, it was imperative for me to watch the movie. As the story unrolled, I was rolling from a state of dizziness to a deep slumber. I vaguely remember that in the end I was desperately trying to keep my eyes open. Congratulations to the producer-director for producing as good a turd as Rang De Basanti.
While watching this piece of tripe, I was constantly reminded of the epic movie Gunda. It’s really hard to be creative these days in the era marked by blatant piracy and copyright infringement, Gunda managed to defy the masses by bringing out original dialogues. While the dialogues may not be accepted by the elite (sample: chaadar hoti hai odhne ke liye, chhatri hoti hai kholne ke liye aur chokri hoti ha chhedne ke liye), but kudos to the sheer originality of the writer, director and producer.
Contrasting it with Rock On, there is not even a single dialogue worth its salt. The film revolves around a group of hyperactive twenty something boys (Arjun Rampal in twenties –yeah right!), who could not sing in their childhood. Fast forward: Despite the fact that the protagonist goes on to become a millionaire with a palace to live in and a really beautiful wife, he remains gloomy and cut-off only because he could not sing in the rock band. Fast forward to end: they are ultimately able to perform and this makes everyone happy, including me – I was so bored that I could hardly wait to see the end and get out ASAP.
Gunda, which has acquired a cult status in the previous ten years, on the other hand is an action filled movie. There is no romance, no coochy-coo talk and no comedy (except for dialogues). Mithun does what he is best at, beating the villains every now and then. Shakti Kapoor does what he is best at, raping women (bhaiyya bhaiyya, kya rape karna buri baat hai?) and everyone plays their part to perfection. The climax of the movie is better than that of Star Wars, no special effects and no fancy weapons, the villains arrive in hundreds of auto-rickshaw and are beaten to pulp single handedly by Mithun. At the end, no one except Mithun survives, not even his lady love, his family or any of the villains – how cool is that!
The verdict is as simple as it could get in years; don’t watch Rock On – save your money, save yourself from the agony, save the film industry by not buying/downloading any CD or DVD (original or pirated) of Rock On. Instead, simply type Gunda in Google and watch the full movie on Google Videos!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ufff your Gunda fixation! You should be made Brand Ambassador for all Mithun movies :P

P.S: Watch Rock On once again, this time in a Movie Hall...you will love it :)

Anonymous said...

i watched ... rock on in PVR ....i agree wastage of money .

i just liked the songs...especially in pvr dolby thing..that's it

ABHIJEET VERMA said...

Rock On rocks dude!
Watch on with ur sweet on!
;-)