Rocket Singh – The Salesman Of The Year(2009)

Cast  – Ranbir Kapoor, Prem Chopra, Gauhar Khan, Shazahn Padmashee

Writer – Jaideep Sahni

Director – Shimit Amin

Who is Shimit Amin? The one who directed Ab Tak Chhappan or the one who directed Chak De! India and Rocket Singh. After watching Rocket Singh, I began to think is Ab Tak Chhappan more of a RGV Factory product than a Shimit Amin film? Is Chak De! India and Rocket Singh more of Jaideep Sahni films than a Shimit Amin film? Does Shimit Amin adapt himself to the company he works for? When he was associated with RGV factory he gave Ab Tak Chhappan that always looked like a factory product. When he moves out and teams up with Jaideep Sahni, his style of making film completely changes. I am not blaming Shimit Amin for making himself look adapted to the company he works for, I am just trying to figure out how much is Shimit Amin, the director, involved in making films? I wouldn’t call Chak De! India or Rocket Singh as regular Yash Raj films but yes, they have Jaideep Sahni written all over them. And I appreciate Shimit Amin not taking the credit for the film alone. Instead he has made sure that Rocket Singh is as much his film as it is of Jaideep Sahni. The first stills that came out of Rocket Singh had Ranbir Kapoor, Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni in it which is quite surprising. That itself showed Shimit Amin respects Jaideep Sahni for his contribution to the film. I haven’t seen such immense respect given to a writer before in Indian Cinema. Gulzar and Anurag Kashyap have got recognition for their writing too but then they probably got it once they entered the field of direction. Jaideep Sahni on the other hand is getting himself recognized only because of his writing skills and capabilities. We never heard the name of Shimit Amin alone whenever there was talk about Rocket Singh. We always heard Rocket Singh is from the makers of Chak De! India or Jaideep-Shimit duo are back.

Rocket Singh, one of the awaited films of the year, especially because of the fact that it is from the makers of Chak De! India, is about a fresh graduate Harpreet Singh played by Ranbir Kapoor, who trying to adapt himself to the job of a salesman. It isn’t a stylish film that shows the extraordinary capabilities of Harpreet Singh as a salesman, nor does it glorify the job of a salesman. Harpreet Singh is very much like a common man working in an office, and about a man whose ethics do not synchronize with the company he is working for.

The story of the film can well be compared to the silent era comedies especially the ones of Charlie Chaplin where he played the honest person forced to take the wrong way due to the situations in his life. And Rocket Singh references it very well with a transition effect which was used in the silent films. We can see the reference in the image below.

The script written by Jaideep Sahni is really the true winner of the film. The subtleness and the realism he gives to his characters and situations should be applauded. The atmosphere shown in Rocket Singh is very much real and how well Jaideep – Shimit have shown the atmosphere in different places (HOME, PARTY, OFFICE) and distinguished them is commendable. The best part of Jaideep’s writing is he is very honest to his work and no doubt in the fact that Shimit Amin does complete justice to Jaideep’s script. Through his work, one can see the effort he makes to make a scene look very much real. The characters in the film do small things that work like wonders in giving the film look real. Like right at the start, we see Ranbir Kapoor winking to his God and then apologizing right after that and then Harpreet Singh (Ranbir Kapoor) giving body massage to his father. Jaideep – Shimit establish the character so well in the film through their mannerism and dialogs they speak. Characters in the film speaking regional lines like “Nakko Re” for “No”, Harpreet Singh’s(Ranbir Kapoor) father calling him ‘Sardar’ in a informal way, speaking regional language while at home, etc makes the film look real.

There were plenty of comic scenes in Rocket Singh which obviously suited the film very well. Scenes like where the computer retailer says “Customer ke toh naam pe hi likha hai Cust-o-marr (Suffer and Die)”, Giri replacing the progress graph of the company with different sizes of bikini girls were superb and extremely funny.

Everything that went into the film was like a jigsaw puzzle which fitted into the film perfectly and the structure would be incomplete without any of them. It is amazing how Shimit Amin in every film has always managed to bring out the best from every actor. He worked with Nana Patekar who gave his career best in Ab Tak Chhappan. Shah Rukh Khan gave his career best performance in Chak De! India and now Ranbir Kapoor gives his career best in Rocket Singh. And it isn’t that Shimit Amin only takes out the best from the lead actors. Every actor involved in the film looks perfect and acting superbly to the situations. Prem Chopra as the father of Ranbir Kapoor in the film for me was the best of them. The efforts by Gauhar Khan, actors who played Giri, Nitin, Chottelal Mishra, the boss of AIS, friends of Ranbir Kapoor; they all stood out and were great. Ranbir Kapoor is having a dream run and is only going up with each of his performances and his films. It is good to see him experimenting right at the start of his career and leaving the easy way of getting hits by playing a Casanova kind of a role with Yash Raj Films like he did in Bachna Ae Haseeno. The year 2009 has truly belonged to him.

As this film doesn’t belong to the normal YRF camp, and is more real, it doesn’t feature too many songs. Still Salim-Sulieman does a very fine job. “Pankhon Ko” is one of the finest songs to come out this year. With the visuals showing photos of middle class family, the song suits the film very well. The other two tracks “Hadbaddi” and a promotional song “Pocket me Rocket” are quite catchy. The background music though very apt and perfect to the film’s situations was similar to the background score of Chak De! India.

While I liked the film very much for its simplicity, I had a few problems with the ending. Without giving too much spoilers, I would say the ending confrontation between the boss and Ranbir Kapoor looked similar to me as the confrontation of SRK – Big B in the climax scene of Mohabbatein. But the confrontation of the boss and Ranbir Kapoor in Rocket Singh and the conclusion wasn’t very convincing IMO. It could have been better. Though the minor details (drops of water on the face of Boss as it was raining outside) in the scene were again very good just like the rest of the film, the camera work in that particular scene was shocking to say the least. I don’t know why the director chose to use handheld camera in a scene which actually needed steady cam. The handheld camera movement in that part didn’t suit the film too well.

Though Rocket Singh is produced by Yash Raj films, just like Chak De! India, it is very different from the films that normally come out of Yash Raj Films. It looks like Shimit – Jaideep have opened a new office inside Yash Raj and work independently inside it without the interference of the producers. The film was quite a wonderful experience and remained honest to the subject. It engaged and entertained me from the very start to the very end. And it is good to see Yash Raj films and Dharma Production films getting into some serious subjects. The unwanted songs, actors doing lip syncs and all such things were absent from Wake Up Sid, Chak De! India, Kurbaan, Rocket Singh and MNIK is only going to follow it. The change is very good.