Eight years ago a bunch of friends made their way into the hearts of millions of people with their story of growing up, their brush with heart breaks, their dreams and their music. Rock on! was the heartwarming saga of how the love for music reunited four friends to start afresh their band Magik. The music, which was the life and soul of the 
first movie seems to come as an afterthought in its sequel Rock On 2 and that is only one of the many problems with this film starring Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal and Purab Kohli from the prequel and Shraddha Kapoor, Shashank Aroma and Kumud Mishra as the new additions to the cast. Rock on!,with its celebration of love, friendship, dreams and music, went on to became a cult movie for this generation raising the expectation bar considerably for its sequel but Rock On 2 fails spectacularly to deliver in terms of story, direction or music.
The film starts with Adi (Akhtar) seeking redemption for a crime he might not be responsible for. His escapist nature is seen in the first movie in cutting off his past entirely from his new life as a married man and an investment banker, and it is manifest once again here as leaves his wife Sachi (Prachi Desai) and son Rob in Mumbai and himself settles in a small hamlet in Meghalaya. He blames himself for the suicide of a young artist and tries to atone for it by running a cooperative farm and helping the village people. Joe (Rampal) owns a posh club and judges reality shows- he appears to be the most successful of the lot. KD (Kohli) is still trying to get the 
band together and make music, which even though is claimed to be the only thing that gives meaning to their lives, is not substantiated by either the characters or the plot. The attempt to bring in the theme of North East alienation, although laudable, seems oddly out of place in a musical drama, maybe because it has not been integrated into the story very well. In fact the whole film seems to be different shots patched together. The ‘voice of this generation’, Jiah played by Shraddha Kapoor is a budding singer whose talent is suppressed by a father who considers any and every deviation from classical sangeeta blasphemy. This troubled youngster becomes the new mission of Adi and gives Magik a new reason to reunite. But that is no reason to rejoice for the viewers with the soulless tracks by Shankar Ehsaan Loy, hardly brought to life by Farhan’s jumping theatrics. The only song really enjoyable in the movie is by the one by Usha Utthup.
The story of Rock On 2 is so staggeringly dull and so unnecessarily long that you will struggle to sit through the whole of it or even pretend to care what happens to the characters. Abhishek Kapoor in the previous movie had directed the actors with such subtlety that the audience were allowed to give their own interpretations and feel involved in the story telling but the debut director of Rock On 2, Shujaat Saudagar fails to move the viewers, even as we watch the characters vade through a range of emotions.
The only redeemable features of the film are the performances by the lead actors and the moments of nostalgia for the first movie created by the camaraderie among the boys. Not one genuine moment is created independent of the prequel and therein lies the failure of Rock On 2.
My Verdict
My Verdict
2.5
Rock On 2 fails spectacularly to deliver in terms of story, direction or music. The only redeemable features of the film are the performances by the lead actors.
