Wednesday

Desi Salsa – Rocket Singh

Rocket Singh tells the story of a simple man with traditional values, but because he’s not too smart, school that is, he’s having a hard time getting a job like his good friend who is going into the MBA program. With that said, I went to see “Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year” it on Saturday. Rocket Singh (Ranbir Kapoor) is the new guy in a salesman’s world. He is super stressed when he realizes that he doesn’t seem to know how to deal with the unrealistic goals set by his boss. He comes across a client who blatantly expects a bribe and Rocket must tackle his ideologies. When Rocket doesn’t offer the bribe and tells the client that he’s wrong, Rocket leaves and sees a complaint box and proceeds to place his complaints there. What happens next is what causes Rocket to eventually seeks assistance from some of his fellow co-workers.

I enjoyed this movie and I think the characters are great. Most of the dialogue is very witty and some of it is cut-throat. You can’t go into this movie thinking of Ranbir as being sexy, as he played in Bacha Ae Haseeno or Saawariya. It’s not the most powerful performance but I think overall, with the storyline and script, he gives a memorable performance.

I really liked the chemistry between D. Santosh, who plays the PC assembler and Ranbir. D. Santosh has some of the most funniest lines in the movie. I particularly like the scene with Koena (Gauhar Khan as the receptionist) who is really upset that they are going to be found out (since they started their own company within the company) and she keeps saying, “I knew something like this was going to happen,” Mr. PC Assembler says, “Well, if you knew this was going to happen, you should have told us then we wouldn’t be in this mess now.” Hilarious. While this is clearly Ranbir’s movie, the cast I believe is cleverly assembled. The girl chosen to be Ranbir’s eventual girlfriend, she’s not your typical Bollywood actress, but I thought she was pretty in a type of girl next door look. You know the girl you interact with on a daily basis but ignore most of the time. But this is the type of girl that was needed for Ranbir’s character, a man with ideals, morals and values. She is the perfect choice because she believes in him and what he stands for. Chotelal, is the chai walla, the peon and Nitin, who plays the boss, treats him very badly. Puri is the MD and while he gives a great performance, I don’t like his character, who is open to offering bribes and doing whatever it takes to remain #1.

While this is supposed to be a feel good movie, there really was only two scenes that bring out that feeling, when Chotelal tells off Nitin and when Rocket Singh finally tells Puri how he feels.
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