Rock On

Finally saw the movie today. Was quite ironic that they end it with a message that says “don’t download the music. buy the CD”. and I was watching it on a DVDRip whose torrent that I’d downloaded.

Overall, I liked the movie. People have cribbed about Farhan Akhtar’s singing, but I think it’s ok. He’s not a great singer, but if he was, it wouldn’t have come out as being  too authentic for a band that didnt’ end up doing too well. Better singing (say Shankar had sung it) might have helped boost record sales (ok I think the record actually sold quite well), but in the movie it wouldn’t have come out to be too authentic. And then yeah, not having a bass guitarist was a bit inauthentic, but they do partly make up for it during some intros – when the keyboardist is introduced as providing the bass also (maybe inspired by John Paul Jones).

Spoiler Alert

The movie was also a bit spooky. In the end, the band is showing reuniting for one last concert. And at the end of this concert, they are seen standing in a line, each of the members looking very different from what they looked like when the band was at its peak, and holding hands high above their heads like Chandrababu Naidu does whenever he announces an alliance with some new ally.

This picture reminded me of a picture taken during Live 8 about two years back (or was it three?) at Earl’s Court in London. A visibly aged Pink Floyd getting together and holding hands in the same Naidu pose at the end of their performance. Actually, Pink Floyd wasn’t exactly in the Naidu pose, but came somewhere close. Here is the picture.

The end credits of the movie are used to tell the “after story”. And in that, they inform that the keyboardist of the band in Rock On dies two months after this performance where they do a Naidu hand-hold.

Two or three weeks after Rock On was released, Rick Wright died.