After Chak De India, the expectations are high from the men behind the classic – Shimit Amin (director) and Jaideep Sahni (writer) – who return with Rocket Singh – Salesman of the year, stars Ranbir Kapoor, Gauhar Khan, Shazahn Padamsee, D Santosh, Mukesh Bhatt, Prem Chopra and others.
The movie is about Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor), a below average student in school and college, who takes up marketing as his career. He joins a computer sales company, AYS, as a trainee. Under a corrupt senior, the job soon turns into one of his worst nightmares. Rocket Singh in short is Harpreet Singh Bedi’s journey from a zero to a hero.
Rocket Singh Review
What works in Rocket Singh – Salesman of the year
- Shimit Amin, the director of Ab Tak Chappan and Chak De India, is in top form. The feel of the corporate world has been captured very realistically. The writing (Jaideep Sahni) is top notch too, with several scenes making great impact – the first job interview, conversations between Harpreet and his senior manager Nitin, the scene in the club where Harpreet is insulted by his boss, when his boss gets to know about his secret company, his confrontations and many more.
- The second half is better paced (compared to the first) and much more entertaining.
- Like Chak De, Rocket Singh too has some fantastically written characters. The one that stands out though, is Nitin’s. We have no clue about the name of the actor, Yashraj hasn’t revealed it just yet. Nitin as Ranbir’s senior, is fantastic and easily the deserves the top acting honors.
- For probably the first time in his career, Ranbir Kapoor is not the pick of actors. While he does a good job as a Sardar, mingling with the others and completely looking the character, the others steal the scene.
- The romance too works largely due to Shazahn Padamsee’s sweetness, charm and fantastic screen presence.
- Its nice to finally see a Sardar, who are usually seen as clowns, presented realistically.
- Background music by Salim – Suleiman was good.
Performances, in no particular order, since all were good!
- The guy who played the character of Nitin, is by far the best of the lot.
- Ranbir Kapoor – As usual natural, perfect for the character and proves yet again why he’s considered, by many, as the next superstar.
- Shazahn Padamsee – Sweet, sexy and does very well in the acting department too.
- D Santosh – Was brilliant as Rajguru in the Legend of Bhagat Singh. In Rocket Singh, playing a sex-obsessed character, he does very well.
- Prem Chopra after a long long time is good as Harpreet’s father.
- Suri as the owner of AYS, is good.
- Gauhar Khan is as good as the others.
- Mukesh Bhatt too was fantastic.
Coming to the negatives
- Rocket Singh is too long, exceeding 3 hours (including intermission)
- The pace isn’t too great. The first half was slow and at times boring.
- Music is average.
Don’t go in expecting a comedy, Rocket Singh is a realistic film that deals with serious issues. Perfect casting, fabulous performances, good direction and writing make Rocket Singh a good one-time watch.
All said and done though, without taking any credit away from Shimit Amin, Rajkumar Hirani was probably the best man to direct a film like Rocket Singh.
Rating: 
With a bit of patience, you should enjoy this.