Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year

I went to watch Rocket Singh with the expectation to see a good movie knowing that the same creative team (Shimit Amin and Jaideep) had put together a good movie previously with Chak De India. By the time "Rocket Singh" was over I sat in my seat spell bound and amazed by some excellent story telling by the same creative team. Half way thru the movie I was certain that I was witnessing a special piece of work by a talented team. What works for Rocket Singh is an absolutely crisp script, screen play, dialogues (some of which are very witty), sharp direction and awesome performance by an amazingly talented cast. The casting fits perfectly and Ranbeer deserves special mention for his performance, it is hard to believe that he is only a handful of movies old as an actor. In fact I could not pick anything negative or faulty with the film in my first viewing. Coming to the plot itself, it is about a fresh graduate with ordinary grades who lands a trainee salesman job and is shocked to see the cut throat methods used to succeed both at individual and team levels. He is soon found wanting in terms of the "killer" instinct necessary to survive. But he continues to believe in his ways and shows everyone how success is achieved with out resorting to cut throat/unethical means. The climax is very interesting; the conversation between "Rocket Singh" and Mr. Puri (his ex-employer) is one of the highlights of the movie.

In summary Indian cinema needs more of these movies - engaging stories of "real" people made with utmost attention paid to the story itself. Indian cinema can do with out "Love stories that have blood on them".

--S Rao

The way the opening credits are presented, they raise your expectations from the film. And the first 30 minutes are typically reflective of a salesman's life. It is easy to connect with the situations and giggle at the workplace jokes. Our protagonist has just barely graduated & wants to make a career in sales. But he is naive, and has to learn the tricks of the trade soon. To complicate matters, he has demanding bosses & non co-operative peers. Been there.

But soon enough, our guy, with a few other employees of the same company, hatches a plan to prove a point & make some money by creating a dummy company that provides superior service & works on ethical lines only. A good intentioned simple storyline from Jaideep Sahni, but a bit too far-fetched. So, once again, it is up to the director & the actors to elevate it. And they do. Once you get past the fake moustaches & loose wigs, the movie engages you. The script is kept tight & there are no silly song & dance routines to break the flow.

Ranbir Kapoor & Prem Chopra (who plays Ranbir's grandfather) have very good chemistry & all their scenes together are so real & touchy. Ranbir's friends & his love interest do have their moments in the sun, but the movie is not about them. As the director did with ChakDe India, the characters who take the movie forward, including the office peon & the receptionist, are developed well & are given ample screen time & they also carry their characters with ease. Salim-Suleiman have little to do barring the title track (which is missing in the movie), because the movie is not a dramatic melting pot a la Chakde. The screenplay is good, direction is good, and the actors deliver. What the film really lacks is a climax. It ends without a bang; it ends all so smoothly, with a social message thrown in.

One thing that this film confirms is that, in Ranbir Kapoor, we have found the next big thing. As with all his other movies this year, he gets right under the skin of the character, hence making it utterly believable. A director's actor, never the star. 2009 may well be the year in which all his movies came oh too close to being the biggest hits of the year. Rocket Singh may well be the next in that category.

With a funny sounding name and Ranbir Kapoor as a lead character, I assumed that this might be one of the popcorn movies that target the college going demographics, who want a "time pass" movie. But boy I was wrong.

This movie is not a typical Bollywood movie. There are no spoilt rich college kids, characters do not hangout at McDonalds or other "hip" joints, no designer clothes, no gaudy weddings and "balle balle" dances, characters do not break into a song every 5 minutes. There are no "Rahuls" and "Priyas" and "Poojas".

The movie deals with the issue of business ethics - especially ethics in sales and its importance in customer relations. The hero - who is almost a failure in studies, but has very high moral standards, tries to fight and survive in the dog-eat dog world of selling assembled computers.

The story line is taut, focused and do not deviate from the main theme, the direction is excellent. In directorial terms, Rocket Singh is far ahead of Chak De India. I think that has more to do with storyline.

The only weak point is an unnecessary love angle - the director could have complete avoided that character. Also, the storyline could have avoided a predictable mushy ending

Also, why does characters have to swear so much - "s**t" word is careless tossed around in the movie, while the female characters uses the word "a@@&**e". Is swearing in English considered to be "hip and cool" while criticising Vishal Bhardwaj for using Hindi swear words in "Omkara"?

But the real show stealer is Ranbir Kapoor. He breathes life into the role of computer salesman. He gets into the skin of character, he is not afraid playing a role of loser and does not look uncomfortable speaking Hindi or Punjabi. I hope he gets a nomination for this role.

9/10 - 8 would have been fine, but 9 because it is a Yash Chopra production and still avoid all the clichés of Yashraj banners.

This is not an usual Bollywood flick with songs, action and comedy. The movie revolves around a Sikh graduate(portrayed authentically by Ranbir Kapoor) who aspires to be salesman. As he steps into the corporate world, he is shocked by the reality of sales business where unethical practices, cut-throat atmosphere, unrealistic targets, selling products with high markups are norms & customers are seen just as numbers. He doesn't wishes to abide by these norms drawing a lot of flak from seniors and colleagues and gets isolated by them.

He realises that by being nice one can never survive in this competitive world. So he decides to crave his way through the sales business by following his ideology of treating customer as people with heart not as numbers as they are the one who gives business to them and not the other way around. Also stressing on services before sales.

Realistic movie, definitely worth a watch.

Rocket Singh:Salesman of the year 8/10

One of the best movies of this year.

Well, watched it last night but couldn't get a chance to write about it. I had my eyes on it since its news came in papers that a movie of such a name is going to be released. I made a it in my mind it being a must watch and yesterday I got a chance to watch it.

Its about a new guy in salesman-world, how he handles all those un-realistic goals set by his boss, clients and tackles his ideologies.

Now the movie has very dynamic characters with most witty and cut-throat dialogs ever seen or heard.

Don't go to watch this movie thinking of watching Ranabir giving a very powerful performance. IMO each and every character has given same brilliant performance as anyone.

Specially mentionable are D. Santosh (PC assembler), he has the most witty and funny lines in the movie. After he opens his mouth in the movie for the first time, you'll always be eager to listen to him whenever he comes again. And, he never disappoints you. Koena (Gauhar Khan as operator) has the all cut-throat dialogs. Executes her role properly. Nitin (the boss) is very good. His parts are very well crafted. One thing I want to mention is that, only two scenes in the movie brings out the feel that this is a movie and its the two scenes where he's leading. Chotelal as peon, is a good character. Puri as the M.D. is also good character.

Another thing I like is the choice of girl as GF for Ranbir. She is not very beautiful or so-called actress material. She is just another girl-next-door character that u interact everyday but ignore. Yes that is the kind of gal who can be GF of the character Ranbir is playing in this movie. Hats off to whoever did the casting. Not a single character is out-of-place.

If I analyze the movie:- Acting: Brilliant Screenplay: Asset of the movie Directing: Brilliant Cinematography: Very good, just watch out for the initial scenes when the title rolls and the background chosen for it. Simple but portrays enough. Editing: One and only weak point of this movie. Could have been much shorter than its current length. A few stretched scenes just spoils its sleek approach.

In a nutshell: its directed to a part of the crowd, not everyone would like it or understand it. But, whoever is somehow related to sales or any corporate would find something in it. (At least for India its true :P)