Friday, December 11, 2009
Rocket Singh
Rocket Singh Salesman of the Year
The hottest new star plays a loser-- the kind who becomes a salesman
because he doesn't have the academic track record to become anything
else. Ranbir Kapoor is bearded-turbaned Harpreet Singh, one of the
millions of middle class young men without means, without goals and
without dreams any bigger than being able to make a living. For
putting a common man in the spotlight, for creating a hero who does
not wear designer clothes and flaunt a six pack (not even in a dream
sequence), kudos to Shimit Amin and writer Jaideep Sahni.
Harpreet lives with his grandfather (Prem Chopra) and starts work as a
lowly trainee in a computer assembling company, with a nasty boss
Sunil Puri (Manish Chaudhri), his nastier assistant Nitin (Naveen
Kaushik) and a target-driven over-competitive work force. On his first
assignment, Harpreet is shocked at being asked for a bribe. It would
take monumental naivete for a young man of today to be so clueless,
but the result of his enthusiastic honesty (he files a complaint) is
that he is yelled at and grounded. His colleagues cruelly chuck paper
rockets at him (which leads to the title).
He then teams up with the company's crackpot, porn-addict engineer
(D Santosh) to run his own parallel company to which the telephone
operator (Gauhar Khan), peon (Mukesh Bhatt) and the sneering assistant
are added.
Harpreet goes to meet potential clients with nothing but sincerity and
optimism. Gradually the loss of business hits Puri and he starts to
investigate and eventually reaches the group of moles in his office.
Today with cell phones (and websites) so cheap, it is strange that
Harpreet and gang are stupid enough to use the company's phone, and
facilities without being found out sooner. Puri runs a big operation
and hires a large sales force, but just one engineer? A character
refuses a bribe and says, “These business methods are history.” Since
when? It is these kind of goof ups that take away from the charm of
Rocket Singh. The message is so simplistic-- be nice to clients,
offer service not just sales-- as to be astounding. Add to that a
slow pace, a cursory romance (Shazahn Padamsee as the love interest),
forgettable music, and the plus points that the film gathers in the
beginning are rapidly eroded.
Again it's Ranbir Kapoor utterly endearing performance that makes the
film watchable; he leads a cast of relative unknowns, of whom Manish
Chaudhri as the boss stands out, though the others are well cast too.
The film reminds one of Raj Kapoor's Shri 420, still the best among
films about nice guys in a murky world. But Shimit Amin is not been
able to capture the cut-throat atmosphere of the business world today,
which is fuelled on much more than grandpa's homilies. It could have
been the film to accurately reflect the times and the aspirations of
ordinary people-- pity, it falls so short.
The hottest new star plays a loser-- the kind who becomes a salesman
because he doesn't have the academic track record to become anything
else. Ranbir Kapoor is bearded-turbaned Harpreet Singh, one of the
millions of middle class young men without means, without goals and
without dreams any bigger than being able to make a living. For
putting a common man in the spotlight, for creating a hero who does
not wear designer clothes and flaunt a six pack (not even in a dream
sequence), kudos to Shimit Amin and writer Jaideep Sahni.
Harpreet lives with his grandfather (Prem Chopra) and starts work as a
lowly trainee in a computer assembling company, with a nasty boss
Sunil Puri (Manish Chaudhri), his nastier assistant Nitin (Naveen
Kaushik) and a target-driven over-competitive work force. On his first
assignment, Harpreet is shocked at being asked for a bribe. It would
take monumental naivete for a young man of today to be so clueless,
but the result of his enthusiastic honesty (he files a complaint) is
that he is yelled at and grounded. His colleagues cruelly chuck paper
rockets at him (which leads to the title).
He then teams up with the company's crackpot, porn-addict engineer
(D Santosh) to run his own parallel company to which the telephone
operator (Gauhar Khan), peon (Mukesh Bhatt) and the sneering assistant
are added.
Harpreet goes to meet potential clients with nothing but sincerity and
optimism. Gradually the loss of business hits Puri and he starts to
investigate and eventually reaches the group of moles in his office.
Today with cell phones (and websites) so cheap, it is strange that
Harpreet and gang are stupid enough to use the company's phone, and
facilities without being found out sooner. Puri runs a big operation
and hires a large sales force, but just one engineer? A character
refuses a bribe and says, “These business methods are history.” Since
when? It is these kind of goof ups that take away from the charm of
Rocket Singh. The message is so simplistic-- be nice to clients,
offer service not just sales-- as to be astounding. Add to that a
slow pace, a cursory romance (Shazahn Padamsee as the love interest),
forgettable music, and the plus points that the film gathers in the
beginning are rapidly eroded.
Again it's Ranbir Kapoor utterly endearing performance that makes the
film watchable; he leads a cast of relative unknowns, of whom Manish
Chaudhri as the boss stands out, though the others are well cast too.
The film reminds one of Raj Kapoor's Shri 420, still the best among
films about nice guys in a murky world. But Shimit Amin is not been
able to capture the cut-throat atmosphere of the business world today,
which is fuelled on much more than grandpa's homilies. It could have
been the film to accurately reflect the times and the aspirations of
ordinary people-- pity, it falls so short.
Labels: Cinemaah
