Movie Review-Rocket Singh-Salesman of The Year

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Rocket Singh

It’s only after the classic Jeewan Mrityu that I have seen a Bollywood movie showing a Sikh adorned with an appropriately tied turban. ”Singh is King” did show a heartening glimpse of Akshay Kumar in a traditional turban but then those shots were of the Punjab heartland and then they ruined it all by making him wear a cap like head gear for the rest of the movie. The makers of Rocket Singh seem to have researched a bit and a big hug to them for that. Another collective vote of thanks from the Punjabi consciousness is in order for not making the movie’s two Sikh characters of the Balle Balle and the Pairee Pauna variety. Aaarrrrgh, it gets my goat every time. A sober, quietly submissive, urbane but a resolute Sikh in a Bollywood feature? This was a first from Mumbai and I hope we get many more of them. The poor fellas are grossly misunderstood the world over but none more than by their own countrymen. Okay, politics over and now let’s get back to business.
Rocket Singh- Salesman of the Year is actually Harpreet Singh Bedi, a young lad full of beans and keen to make a place for himself under the sun. His shoulders are unburdened by the bare pass marks through his school and college days. Percentages between the 30s and the 40s are cheerfully rattled off to bewildered listeners while maintaining a supremely confident demeanour. That’s a typical surdy boy for you. So what does a young, over confident, under scoring and barely qualifying lad hope to become? You guessed it! He also gets the job but there is a slight problem. Our man has a conscience, a commodity steadily disappearing from our lives. His unwillingness to succumb to the scheming wheeling and dealing ways of the conventional salesmen sees him warming his chair in his office while his targets are distributed to his grumbling colleagues. They respond by jibing and throwing paper planes (rockets) at him. This and the frustration of forced inactivity propel him to independently make his own foray into the cut throat world of sales. Most of such stories have happy endings and this one is no exception.
The story is refreshing and the narrative engrossing. It’s almost childlike in its effort to reinforce the values taught in the moral science classes in school and why not? Today’s single minded pursuit of money and power (or was it always like that?) does make us gloss over some innate qualities of a good human being. Epithets like honesty, respect, transparency are usually met with tolerant and cynical smiles. Rocket Singh brings home the importance of these timeless values.
His partners in crime are just as refreshing. Giri, the porn loving service engineer epitomises the smarty pants technical expert whose real skill lies in shafting the customers. Ah, it was so familiar. In my working environment this species is striking gold even when the sun stands eclipsed. Mishra ji, the office peon contemptuously referred to as “Cup Plate” who assists as the service engineer in assembling computers. Koena, the sexy receptionist who gets passed over for a promotion and retaliates by joining the competition. And Rathore, the arch type go getter sales dude who decides to reinvent himself as the honest salesman. Shazahn, daughter of Alyque Padamsee and Sharon Prabhakhar makes her debut as the hero’s love interest besides being his first customer. But she does little beyond looking cute and kisses the bearded beau with touching regularity.
The soundtrack consists of fifteen songs most of which are very listenable but surprisingly the movie is populated by excerpts of only three which is hind sight may not be such a bad idea after all. Hindi movies need to go beyond the song and dance routine. Focus on the back ground score and use the songs for the promos.
My take? The movie is a great one time watch and Ranbir Kapoor strikes again. Way to go Surdy Boy!