Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

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Has the time come for a paradigm shift in the way we listen and internalize the music to prepare us for a full-scale feature film on rock music ROCK ON? Sensing the mood of the youth of the present times who resides in the metropolitan cities and forms a significant chunk of the movie going public, probably yes.

Ritesh Siddhwani produced film ROCK ON has interesting star cast, as Farhan Akhtar instead of being behind the camera has decided to face it and Prachi Desai has been selected as his female co-star. Selection of Prachi Desai seems to have been fallout of her winning the Jhalak Dikhlaja-2, which was a show based on the dancing skills and in its second avatar had orientation tilted more towards the western music genre, which Prachi won without any formal training about it.

If history were to go by, a film based on western music or a band that is into the business of music making has not been able to make much of a mark. Probably the first film in this genre was Kumar Gaurav starrer STAR that had music by Biddu and the music had become immensely popular but the film could become a commercial success. Shahrukh Khan's KABHIE HAAN KABHI NA was also film that was a story of a band trying to survive and make a name for it.

Tide may turn around for ROCK ON as it has music by the trio of SHANKAR EHSAN and LOY who are keen western music aficionados. The music is already catching on and is topping in all the popularity charts, it has got spunk to it. It might not have acceptability in the mofussil countryside, for which rock music is still an entity that makes some sense. Point worth underlining is that the debut album of Shankar Mahadevan’s BREATHLESS, which was an all India success, injected sense and it gave the interpretation of western music in an Indian context.

Strength of the signals seems to be good, exemplified by the way the music is gaining popularity in all the popularity charts. If ROCK ON hits bulls' eye, it could open a new genre of filmmaking specializing in Western music.


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