A journey down memory lane... Review on Rockford

INTRO--

The movie chronicles the arrival of a (Hindu) student to a strict all-boys Christian boarding school in India and his assimilation into the school. The change is quite dramatic to the protagonist and there are a lot of events that would look extremely abusive to the viewer.

PLOT-- (Short and sweet) Mr. and Mrs. Naidu admit their son, Rajesh Naidu (Rohan Dey) at the Catholic School called Rockford School. There Rajesh is meant to spend his time to learn and play, make enemies and friends. And he does so. He also becomes romantically involved with Malati (Usha Krishnamurthy) from a nearby girls Catholic school. He also gets indirectly involved with Malati's friend, Shariyar (Shilpa Pai), and a School-teacher, who is accused of demanding sexual favors from Shariyar. Apart from coming to the aid of this school-teacher, Rajesh must also endure bullying and ragging by senior boys from this school, and his crush on another school-teacher, Ms. Lily Vegas (Nandita Das).

My views---Nagesh Kukunoor has presented one of the most wonderful, simple and realistic portrayals of pubescent kids growing up in a convent and dealing with their life, their world on their terms. A fantastic script that has been competently directed and crisply edited, Rockford had me smiling the throughout the film. Kukunoor deals with the issues of 12-13-14 year olds with such seriousness and sincerety that you appreciate his respect for the audience's intelligence. All of the child actors in the film are extremely natural and portray themsevles as aspriring adults that you can relate to (having been there, done that) rather than some cliched caricatures. The protagonists struggle with his self-esteem, his self-image; the influence of his mentor on his life and his victorious struggle with his demons (literally speaking) was funny, moving and most definitely brilliant.

Cast and crew

Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor

Cast Nandita Das .... Lily Vegas

Rohan Dey .... Rajesh Naidu

Jayant Kripalani .... Brother Lawrence

Usha Krishnamurthy .... Malati

Nagesh Kukunoor .... Johnny Matthews (PT Instructor)

Imran Mirza Shilpa Pai .... Shariyar

USP- ---

Otherwise not a great piece of cinematic pleasure, this movie is no ''BLACK'' that any director can boast off, but this movie has its own place and leaves an impact on the mind of the viewers. The biggest USP of this movie is its language. Dialogues are in English (Best part is the accent of most of the crew is stupendous, u wnt feel patrified with some south Indian or punjabi touch with English language) MOst of the characters are young, which make the movie as fresh as a new born. Apart from Nagesh Kukunoor and Nandita, u wnt find many familiar faces in the movie. Some scenes are pretty bold, but can be related with life of any off the hostel groomed student. Well! all of us who have had seen hostel life, would easily relate with the situation presented in this movie.

LAST WORD- A must watch for all teens, and even if u have grown up enough to be called as teens, u will still enjoy this situational comedy.