Motherjane-Maktub Launched

27/09/2008-Mark this date. This is a day that will go down in the annals of Indian rock as one which witnessed the start of a new revolution. It was a day filled with anticipation. Most of the Janeheads stayed at home to witness the live weblaunch of Motherjane's new album 'Maktub'. The last 9 days been a great build up to this special day. On each day, we were treated to a sample from each of the 9 tracks. Accompanying these samples were the short writeups on the track of the day by vocalist Suraj Mani. The philosopher par excellence that he is, these writeups were a collection of inspiring thoughts that made us think. The culmination of all this was the launch function that happened on saturday. At 8 PM IST, as promised earlier, Motherjane made their grand entry on the web. And what an entry it was!!!Potent enough to surprise even longtime 'Janeheads'. They came with half their faces painted in kathakali designs. Hats off to the man behind this idea. It gave a refreshing new feel to the band. And yes, there was that unmistakable Kerala touch.

After the intro of the band, Suraj Mani gave a brief overview of the album. Then it was straight to hig octane action with the video premiere of 'Chasing the sun'. It was a breathtaking to say the least. Heard that it was shot in the hills of Ponmudi near Trivandrum. The images of the sadhus bathing in the ganges near Varanasi and the innocent children walking on the road fit in like a 'T'. The rosebowl team surely did a great job with this video, which according to Suraj was shot in just 15 minutes flat. Gotta take some more looks at the video before I can comment more on it. After the video preview, it was time for the phonecalls. The who's who of Indian rock including guys from Parikrama,Pentagram and Joint Family called in to wish the band luck. There were some problems in the telephone line after this that prevented them from getting more calls. Then, there was the video preview of 'Fields of Sound'. Though it didn't match up to the brilliance of the earlier video, it was still a great work. Shot near a flowing river in an area with a dense collection of trees, the band seemed to enjoy this one a lot. With this the web launch function came to an end. Truely, a great experience which am sure is a sign of the things to come.

The site became active in about 10 minutes and the songs were up for download. One interesting feature of this is that you can decide the value of each song and pay whatever you like. That is you can pay anything from Rs.0 to Rs.(as much as u like). This is truely an innovative idea considering the fact that each of the songs are worth their weight in gold. Anybody will think twice before putting anything less than Rs.20 for each of those songs. There's also a pay later facilty wherein you can listen to the songs now and pay for it later. Kudos to the guys behind this site and the ones who devised this marketing strategy. In this era of piracy, innovative methods such as these can save the sagging music industry from bankruptcy. There are a lot of merchandise to be purchased from the site ranging from t-shirts and keychains to even mouse pads. The cd will release officially by the 15th of october.

Wait for a full review of the album soon. But don't wait to read that, I guarantee you, its worth the money. Having listned to al lthe songs, I can safely say this-Just go and buy it now.

PS-Photo No.1 courtesy Govind, our band stoneage's drummer who was present there with his drumkit. You can see the Kathakali designs painted on the band members there.
Photo No.2 courtesy-Hari's blog

My previous posts on Motherjane
Preview of the 'Maktub' album release
Motherjane-Homecoming
Motherjane-Rock In India

your crusader Praveen

Wanted-Musicians for news channel

WANTED-Musicians with 3 to infinite years of experience to work with a reputed media group famous for their news operas. You should be having a good ability to manipulate people with your music. You should be able to produce apocalyptic as well as emotional tunes at short notice. Experience in composing for bollywood tear jerkers or saas-bahu serials will be an added advantage. You should be present in the studio 24X7 with whatever instruments you are using.

Don't be too surprised if you see an ad like this in some newspaper in the coming days. Its just a reflection of a growing and disturbing trend with respect to private news channels in India. These days, whenever there's a special report on some important issue in any of the number of news channels, you get to hear a soundtrack matching the mood of the news in the background. If you dont see the visuals and just listen to the sounds, you would easily mistake it to be from a movie. The narration by the reporter will also be like this. The reporter will acquire an eerie tone when describing some shocking events and that emotional 'bahu'-wala tone when describing sensitive issues. The aptness of the soundtrack sometimes put even Hollywood movies to shame.

Yesterday, I was watching some report on those filthy terrorists in some channel. And what I heard in the background gave it the effect of a Ram Gopal Varma movie. Is this what we call news? Isn't it better to watch a drama rather than this? These are the depths of sesationalism. Who gave them this whole idea of dramatising important news? Sometimes it looks plain stupid, especially the fake expressions of empathy on the reporter's face. They are experts at making mountains out of mole hills. Hours of constant blabber on some trivial stuff like the commisioner's missing dog or Rakhi's boyfriend end up making it issues of national importance needing urgent public attention.

Sometimes I feel good old doordarshan is better. They still show news as news. Yes, plain news with no extra frills, no music and no dramatic reporting. It still has the old dull look of a crow after taking bath. The expressionless news readers stare straight at you(fool, its not you they r staring at:P ) and delivers news without any change in the tone. Its plain boring, but an overkill of breaking news and news dramas sometimes make it look so much better. Its time the private channels realised this folly of theirs and put an end to this disgusting trend.

your crusader Praveen

Buy 1, Get the shop free

Consumers today are spoilt by the sheer number of choices that are available to them in the market. From a small household item to the passenger car, we have thousands of options for each item in thousands of price bands. In a mainly consumerist soceity like India, this means that the companies will get richer and the consumers will get poorer. And from time immemorial, a popular way of attracting customers is the legendary 'free' offer. My earliest experiences of this 'free'fall are the tiny animal models that they used to give with the binaca toothpaste. I used to take more paste than that is needed to brush my small teeth to somehow finish it off and buy the next one so that I can add a new model to my collection of miniature animals. For your info, my teeth got its current yellowish appearance right from the day binaca stopped giving those animal models free. So, now you know whom to blame for my bad breath and yellow teeth. Another of my favourite free items were the tattoos supplied free with bubblegums some years back. I still remember how in 6th standard I raised quite a few eyebrows in school with that crazy tattoo of a gal on my arm. Thankfully for me, those kind of tattoos didn't survive beyond 2 days. Then, there were such bizarre free offers like 'buy a soap, get a pen free'. And that evergreen offer of 'Marry a girl. Get a child free'.

All those are out of fashion now. Now its a case of 'buy 50, get 100'. This happened last week. Me and my friend visited the brand factory here to buy a shirt for him. As we entered the shop what caught our eye was a 'buy 1, get 1 free' board. After some frantic searching, we selected 2 shirts and started walking to the billing counter. Thats when we saw the board 'buy 2, get 3 free'. WOW. We already had 2 shirts in our hand, now its only a matter of taking another 3. After one more hour, we had 5 nice looking shirts in our hand. Again we started walking to the cash counter. This time what amazed us was the 'buy 5, get 5 free' banner. Thats when we started thinking about the clever sales strategy that they've employed in the shop. They had actually made a guy who planned to buy just 1 shirt to take home 10 shirts. Yes, if he had taken those 5 shirts, he would be having 10 shirts with him. These kind of offers are irresistible to most consumers. They just go on piling up the clothes in their shopping carts as was evident from a 15 minute observation of the shoppers there. If any guy decides to go through all the offers they are giving, he may end up owning almost all the clothes in the shop. Its a clever way of luring the consumer into buying more of their products and thus cleaning up their shelves. And most of us fall for that. Anyway, in the end he controlled himself and bought only 2 shirts. So, beware when you go to shops like these next time. Buy only what you planned to buy. Don't fall flat for the seemingly awesome offers.

your crusader Praveen

Motherjane-Maktub album release

thts my 'insane biography' cd-with their autographs

Motherjane is back. The uncrowned kings of Indian rockdom is back in action with their new album "Maktub". And as with their music, the launch of their new album also is a fine example of innovativeness. In the first phase, its being launched on the web on 27/09/2008 at 8.00 PM IST. According to Sooraj Mani, the vocalist, who has posted the first message as part of the release yesterday on the official motherjane site-"You will be amongst the first to download, review and buy this album at values determined by you!". Hats off to the idea which was originally suggested by a fan. They might be following the footsteps of the band 'Radiohead' which released their latest album for free download on their official site. In any case, this is a first with regard to Indian music industry. And we could be witnessing a revolution here.

Their last album 'Insane biography' was sold out. I had a hard time procuring a copy of the original cd and atlast got my hands on one during the 'rock in India' concert this March. Luckily for me, got it autographed by all of them on the same day itself. If the sales of the 1st album is anything to go by, this will also be a record breaker. Am waiting to get my hands on the original cd. All the songs from the new album are already familiar with 'motherjaniacs'(a word I coined to denote die hard fans of motherjane, like me). They been performing these songs in concerts for the past one year. I wish they also release the reworked versions of the songs from the first album, especially the classic 'Mindstreet'. Will do a review of the album only after the official release. Am staring at that countdown clock running at the motherjane website. It now reads '189 hrs 36 mins 27 secs' to the album release.

Go to http://www.motherjane.in/index.php to read a walk through of each song on each of the coming days leading to the album release. You can also listen to a sample of each of those songs on the coming days.

The lastest post on Motherjane is here-
http://crusadertvm.blogspot.com/2008/09/motherjane-maktub-launched.html

My previous posts on motherjane-
Motherjane 'Homecoming'
Motherjane-Rock In India(only partly motherjane)

your crusader Praveen

Brilliant Blog Award

Back here after a brief hiatus of 1 week. Had a rocking time back home celebrating onam with family and friends. And a great news was awaiting me here in my small blog. I've been conferred with the award-"Brilliant Weblog 2008" by Multimenon. Multimenon, a brilliant blogger himself, writes on a wide range of topics that are as varied as chalk and cheese. Been following his blog for the past few months and I love the vareity of stuff that I get to see there, especially the inspiration series.

Now to the award. It looks like this-
and this is the citation from Menon-

"For the crusader dude from Trivandrapuram(oiii!!!??its trivandrum ok??)whose blog,I happened to come across quite unexpectedly and ever since have been sorta addicted to it.He is a true genius,can write on literally anything and its just great fun reading his posts"

Am honoured to say the least. Thanks to Multimenon.

Here are the rules for the award-
* When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back
* Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design
* Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog Award'
* Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).
* And pass it on!

The following are the winners of "Brilliant Weblog 2008", IMHO. The list is no particular order.

Silverine-One blog which is on everyone's blogroll. I started reading her blog about 3 years back, when I was introduced to the world of blogs. Its an instantly likeable blog, the main reason being the witticism that is sprinkled amply in most of her posts. I like those posts with the flavour of good old Kerala that appear occasionally in her blog. Am sure, generations of bloggers to come will sing hymns for this lady who towers over the blogosphere.

Spark mathew- Fellow company mate. Got hooked to his blog from the company internal blogs. So my first job was reading all those previous blogs of him that I missed. There are still some left to be read. Though he's been spending his last few years in Germany, his writings are deep rooted in this country especially with some customary malayalam dialogues(written in english ofcourse) in many of his posts. Spark is indeed an apt name for this awesome blog.

Rockus Narayan-A fellow rock fan. Tech geek and what not. His indepth knowledge of tech matters and music has always amazed me. One of my first blogging friends. This guy who claims to have a 'dangerous mind' treats us to his 'confessions' on various matters in his blog.

Musicmania Hari- The youngest blogger in this list. Yes, a 15 year old guy whose writings display a maturity way beyond his age. His is a purely music blog. You can see no holds barred comments on everything related to music in his blog.

Tom-A junior guy from my college. I stumbled upon his blog accidently when I saw a witty post on my college there. Ever since I been a regular reader of this guy. All his blogs are derived out of his own real life experiences, mostly from his college life. And because of this one can easily identify with most of the stories in his blog.

Serenegurl Swats-This blog is one of the most recent additions to my blogroll. Her blog chronicles affairs related to India, giving it a twist in her own style. Truely one to watch out for.

Sid- A fellow member(as well as the most active) of the Jagruti blog. His writings show many facets of his wonderful personality. I love his political comments as much as those deeply thought provoking poems.

Dream World-Swapna Chechi- She deserves this award for those awesome stories she posts. Only problem is you have to wait for ages to see an update in her blog. And when she updates it, its sure to be a treat.

Kartoos Indu- A blog which changes moods according to the writer's mood swings. She is the blog and the blog is she. Should I say more?

There are many more to add to this list. But am stopping with this.

your crusader Praveen

Bengaluru Ganesha Fest 2

Day 2-Hariharan in Concert

Day 2 started with a fusion concert which didn't impress me much. The mammoth crowd that turned out for the concert was a stark contrast with day 1, when we could run around and sit where we wished. This was testimony to the fact that popular music pulls in crowd anytime of the year whereas classical will only appeal to a niche audience. Hariharan was felicitated before the concert and we had to bear with some stupid speeches. The concert started off by 8 O clock. Hariharan had the bangalore crowd in his hands with his first song, the kannada version of 'nyaabagam varuthe' from the tamil movie 'Autograph'. Next came up Rahman's classic 'Roja Jaaneman'. It was a dream come true for me to see one of my favourite singers singing one of my favourite songs. The Dasaavatharam song 'kallai mattum' came next. This Himesh song is worthy only because of Hariharan's vocals. The Rahman songs like 'Kurukku siruthavale' from 'Mudhalvan' and 'Vaaji Vaaji' from 'Sivaji' had the whole crowd singing and dancing.

Half way through the concert, Hariharan introduced his 2 sons. The 1st one sang 'Krishna Nee', the Colonial Cousins track, alongwith his father. This guy sang adequately but with his weird hairdo and dressing, almost looked like a lady. Hariharan on the contrary was style personified. He changed his costumes about 3 times during the concert. His 2nd son played guitar and sang Oasis's evergreen number 'Wonderwall'. But the local crowd didn't like it and many were booing ferociously. Sad state of affairs indeed considering the fact that he was doing a good job with the song. Hariharan rocked on with some more Kannada numbers. Though I haven't heard those songs before, I loved it. The two female vocalists were doing extremely good. Special mention has to be made of the instrumentalists. My favourite of the day was the rendition of 'Aye Hairathe' from 'Guru'. It was pure heaven to say the least. In most of the songs, Hariharan did his trademark improvisation and that made it all the more sweeter. Another nice one was 'chande re' from 'sapnay'. It was replete with improvised vocals. 'Yaadein' title song struck a chord with the audience. I've always wondered how the mediocre Anu Malik managed to compose such a beautiful song. The concert went on with songs like 'Nila Kaagiradhu', 'Mudhal Mazhai , 'Telephone Manipol' etc. Atlast, my friend dragged me out at about 11 O Clock saying that we won't get any food if we stay one more minute. So, while Hariharan started to sing 'Chappa Chappa' from Maachis, I started my bike and headed home. One great thing I missed in the concert are 2 of my all time favourite Hariharan songs-'Uyire' from 'Bombay' and 'Tamizha Tamizha' from 'Roja'. Barring this, it was an awesome night of great music for me.


PS-Will miss Wednesday's Sivamani and U.rajesh concert and saturday's and Balamuralikrishna concert as am going home for onam tomorrow. Wish you all a very happy onam. Enjoy maadi.

your crusader Praveen

Bengaluru Ganesha Fest

Ghatam Giridhar,Ganesh,Kumaresh

Ghatam Giridhar,Ganesh,Kumaresh,Keith Peters(Bass)

The weekend that just got over was enriched by two exceptional musical nights. First one was on saturday, the violin concert of the brothers Ganesh and Kumaresh, accompanied by such great artists as bassist Keith Peters and flautist Ravichandra. The second concert was on Sunday-Hariharan's concert. The concerts were held as part of the ongoing Bengaluru Ganesha festival. Missed the santoor concert of Pt.Shiv Kumar Sharma and his son Rahul Sharma on Friday.

Day 1-Ganesh/Kumaresh Violin Concert
The venue for all the concerts was the same-APS college grounds, Basavanagudi. We reached there well before the scheduled time and were welcomed by the vacant seats. The evening started off with a sanskirt recital praising Lord Ganesha by some renowned scholar(forgot his name). He went on explaining the meaning of the slokas in Kannada. Yes, it was like listening to the Japanese translation of a Chinese song. But, that was my thought before listening to it. Once he started explaining, me and my friend managed to understand most of what he said. Hmm..Guess, our Kannada knowledge is improving. So, after 1 hour of sanskrit and Kannada and some Vinayaka Puja that was happening near the venue, the artistes strode on to the stage. The brothers Ganesh and Kumaresh looked almost alike. They started off with a mellow piece. Don't expect raga details and all from me. My knowledge of that is zero, only thing I know is to enjoy carnatic music. Next was a vocal performance by Ganesh of a song written by Adi Sankara praising Lord Vinayaka.

The real concert started with the uptempo 'adbutha', a part of their 'Swar Utsav' album. Infact, it was the only album that I've heard of them before this concert. It was a concept album based on the 'navrasas'. Each of the songs concentrate on one 'rasa' each. 'adbutha' had the audience in raptures. Flautist Ravichandra did a breath taking solo in between the song. Ghatam player rocked the audience with his dexterity. True to the song's name, it took the audience by surprise. The next track was 'Karuna', a mellow track again with low sounding drums and the ghatam guy taking rest. The song created a kind of sorrow feeling all around. 'Shringara', the next track indeed sounded like a conversation between two lovers. To be more precise, two lovers having the same thoughts and speaking the same words. The two violins playing the role of the lovers here. Karthik's nice vocals were put to good use in this track also. 'krodha' was like a jamming session in full swing with the vocal recital of the 'chollu'. The 'thaniyaavarthanam' of the drums, ghatam and bass was great. A word has to be said of the bassist Keith Peters, A.R.Rahman's long time bassie. He stood his ground and delivered some killer bass lines. At one point, he played a nice solo too with some good slaps thrown in. The drummer Arunkumar also enthralled the audience.

Ganesh and Kumaresh matched each other note to note. Their endearing smile and matching expressions added to the sweetness of the violin. They proceeded on to play all the 'navrasa' tracks. By the time they ended the 2 hour concert with 'Ananda', they had made everyone happy with their sheer brilliance. And, I was all the more happy after I met Ganesh, Kumaresh and Keith Peters backstage and had a nice small chat. Also got their autographs on a piece of paper I had shamelessly taken from the ground and cleaned with my shirt.

your crusader Praveen

Wheels Of Fortune

*************Wheels of fortune*********

Its a time of moving away
Of everything which held sway
in my life till yesterday
Is it God who's making me pay?

Been a 60 year old spoilt brat
Flew menacingly around like a bat
Seen quite a lot of spilt blood
And its been a strange rush for my head.

Lives crushed beneath my feet
Many Mothers missed their heartbeat.
Played the devil a million times
My hands trembled, not a single time.

Now, rolling my hands over the wheels
And staring at my lifeless heels
I realize, afterall there's a God
And you'll meet him before the end of the road.


Haven't written a song in a long time. Wrote this after 12 AM yesterday. Still donnow what made me write this. Just had a thought of this man sitting in his wheelchair and repenting the cruel actions that he did, until one day the hands of God ruffled his feathers or rather legs.

your crusader Praveen

Cutting Onion without crying

This is a plain translation of my Malayalam blog here-ithihaasan

A question which has been on the minds of scientists, expert chefs as well as housewives for millions of years-how to cut an onion without crying. A housewife crying incessantly in the kitchen after an onion cutting exercise is a common sight. When we started cooking in our flat, we had to face the same problem. Even when my friend cuts onion in the other room, I used to make a scene howling, screaming and crying. So, you can imagine what will be the story when I do it myself. Its at this juncture, when onion cutting turned into a constant nightmare that my mind began thinking deeply on measures to be taken to fight this onion monster.

This thinking first led me to my black cooling glass. And one day I tried it. I put on the glass and started cutting onion. The only thing that happened out of this experiment was that the red onion appeared black. The screaming and crying remained as it is. Some more days passed. One day, when I was preparing to cry, my eyes fell on the towel that I use to dry myself after a bath. I didn't give it a second thought. And so happened my successful experiment in tearless onion cutting. The steps to be followed in this are-

Step 1-Take the towel that you use to bath. Please don't take thick towels. Better to have a light one with small small holes.

Step 2-Tie the towel around your head in such a way that it covers your eyes. Take special care to not make yourself blind by tying it around 2-3 times.

Step 3-After tying the towel, take a look around your surroundings. Make sure that you can see everything clearly as before.

Step 4-No more steps. Just take the onion and start cutting. (with a smile)

PS-While doing this, if anybody mistakes you for a taliban terrorist and beats you to pulp, am not responsible


your crusader Praveen

Pick this Flick(5) Special-Rock On

"Live your dream"-so screamed the catch phrase of the movie 'Rock On'. And the movie did match every word of the title and the catch phrase. If you are expecting the usual bollywood masala fare, you'll be disappointed. If you are expecting 'dhak dhak' beats of the dholak or copied and remixed music, please stay away from this. Because here's a refreshing whiff of fresh air that is blowing and it has broken all stereotypes of a typical bollywood film. Agreed, there are shades of 'Dil chahta hai' lying somewhere underneath its musically fertile surface. But that doesn't rob this movie of any piece of accolade that it deserves. Its a musical as well as an emotional drama rolled into one.

Just a short synopsis of the movie(no spoilers). Directed and written by Abhishek Kapoor, 'Rock On' chronicles the life of four guys Aditya Shroff(Farhan Akhtar),Joe Mascrenhas(Arjun Rampal),KD(Purab Kohli) and Rob(Luke Kenny) who set out to form India's greatest rock band 'magik'. But somewhere down the line, they falter. Personal and creative differences are the culprits here also. They all go their separate ways leaving behind their rock dreams to gather dust. Now they've all settled into their mundane lives. 10 years down the line, Aditya's wife Sakshi(Prachi Desai) stumbles upon a bunch of photographs and other materials of the band in the attic. This, and a chance meeting with KD paves the way for a reunion of the band. See the rest for yourself.

What strikes you at first is the uber-cool look of the movie. The styling guys deserve a warm round of applause for giving such perfect looks to almost all the characters. coupled with the styling is the cinematography which is just mind-blowing. For a minute, I wondered whether am watching a bollywood movie. The movie kicks off with the 'Socha Hai' song, which the band is shown performing live at a roadside concert. The way the concerts are filmed is just flawless. Right from this first one to the climatic big arena performance, the concerts oozes intensity. The instrument playing by the actors at most of the times were believable. This is a far cry from the days when you had to see the hero strumming his guitar as if he's playing some chord, while you are hearing some high speed leads being played. The live versions of 'Pichle Saat Dino Mein' and 'sindbad' is sure to make you jump from your seat. 'Zehreelay', the heaviest of the tracks is also picturised in a pretty aggressive manner(though its not shown continously) and its one real headbanger track. Without this soundtrack, the movie wouldn't have felt half as good. Shankar-Ehsan-Loy has really lent soul to the movie. More on the music here.

This movie is not just about the music or the band. More than that, it carries a high emotional quotient. And that exactly is what makes it connect with non-rokcers too. The four of them are so different in character and music is the one thing that unites them. Vocalist Aditya comes off as a pretty serious guy who's prepared to compromise on the content of their album for the sake of getting a contract. On the contrary, guitarist Joe is a true musician who loves his craft and no lure of money can make him do any compromises. To ease the tension, there's the joker and drummer of the band KD who provides comic relief with his blunders. And then there's the level headed keyboardist Rob who lives for the band. Farhan Akhtar shines as Aditya especially in scenes where he's required to emote. Prachi Desai is a picture perfect wife whose life revolves around her busy husband who doesn't have time even for himself. Arjun Rampal and the girl playing his wife(donnow her name) towers above the rest in the acting department. Purab Kohli as KD has done a world of good to his resume with his comical performance. Luke Kenny, Channel [V] India's all in all, does a role that reflects his real life persona.

'Rock on' has so many comical as well as thought provoking scenes. My favourite scene is the 'wedding rock' scene, where the band plays rock versions of old wedding songs so as to raise money to buy new equipments. Their attire and the expressions on their face at this concert will tickle your ribs. Then, there's the meeting with the recording company executive who insists on a 'remixed wedding song' on their album. He says this is what sells and this is what the youth wants. Indeed, a thought provoking comment on the rut that has settled into today's film music, the main selling point of which are remixes. One other scene is the one showing the transformation in Aditya's character. He used to be so engrossed in work as an investment banker. But after the band reunites and starts practising, he's shown grooving to music at work and then switching off the computer monitors early and running to practise. The scenes of the music video shoot where the band is made to wear some fancy clothing and bear with an idotic producer are also great. The only one thing I didn't like in the movie is the guest appearance by one of the musicians I hate most, Anu Malik. The copymalik looked out of place in the movie. Maybe, he was put there to show how Rob's life's going through a bad phase as he's working as a keyboard player to one of the most boring and unoriginal musicians of bollywood.

Watching this movie was a nostalgic as well as an emotional experience. It reminded me of the great days which I had with my band back home. And now am missing it all the more. There were so many scenes that can see parallels in the life of most of the bands in India. The lack of support at home, the perception of rock music in soceity as not a worthy career option and above all the compromises that bands in India have to make for them to forge ahead are all shown vividly. And the biggest message of the movie-'Never compromise with your dreams, Just live it and leave all the rest aside.' Sometimes the movie may seem cliched. But, who cares as long as it makes you let your hair down and enjoy. All in all, this is a must-watch movie for all the rockers as well as non-rockers of India. With its 'alchemist' like message, full scale rock concerts and underlying emotional drama, 'rock on' is one helluva journey.

At the end of the movie, there was a message to all of us-"Please don't download the music. Buy original CDs." Am happy that I brought one on the 1st day of its release.



PS-I heard some respected(I don't know who respects them) bollywood reviewers trashing this movie as lacking depth and having too much masala. Please don't listen to those jugheads and miss this movie.

PPS-I dedicate this movie review to all my band members back home. Missing them very much after watching this movie. Hope somewhere down the line a reunion happens.

your crusader Praveen