''Rock N' Roll'' is a 2007 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

-language

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

written and directed by

Ranjith Ranjit or Renjith may refer to: Religion * Anton Ranjith Pillainayagam (born 1966), Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic priest, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Colombo * Malcolm Ranjith (born 1947), Sri Lankan Cardinal of the Catholic Church, Archbi ...

. The film stars

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...

Lakshmi Rai Lakshmi Rai, professionally credited as Raai Laxmi, is an Indian actress and model who predominantly works in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages. Early life Raai Laxmi was born in Bangalore, Karnataka to Ram Rai and Manjul ...

, Siddique, Lal,

Mukesh Mukesh is an epithet for the Hindu god Shiva, and literally means "conqueror of the Muka demon". It is commonly used as a male given name in India. People with the name Mukesh include: * Mukesh (singer) (1923–1976), Indian playback singer from ...

, Manoj K.Jayan, Rahman,

Anoop Menon Anoop Menon (born 3 August 1976) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter and lyricist. He worked in television before acting in Malayalam films and has acted in more than 75 films. Menon won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Supporting ...

Harisree Ashokan Harisree Ashokan (born 6 April 1964) is an Indian actor and director who is known for his comedy roles in Malayalam films. Ashokan has acted in more than 200 Malayalam films. He started his career as a mimicry artist in the troupe Harisree and ...

and

Jagathy Sreekumar Sreekumar Achary (born 5 January 1951), better known by his stage name Jagathy Sreekumar or simply Jagathy, is an Indian actor, director and playback singer, who has appeared in over 1500 Malayalam films in a career spanning almost four deca ...

. The film tells the story of seven musicians in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, the major centre of film production in

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

. It was released on 9 November coinciding with

Deepavali Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual ...

. It received negative reviews and was considered a commercial flop at the time of release. Over the years, the movie along with

's performance has attained a cult status.

Suraj Venjaramoodu Suraj Vasudevan (born 30 June 1976), professionally credited as Suraj Venjaramoodu, is an Indian actor, comedian, impressionist, and television presenter, who appears in Malayalam films, television and stage plays. He has acted in more than ...

's cameo role as a fraud musician was widely acclaimed and is often considered one of his early breakthroughs.

Plot

The film tells the story of Chandramouli (

), a composer and drummer, of his return to

from South Africa for a brief visit and of the incidents happening in that short span. Gunasekharan ( Siddique), a leading music composer, is busy with his composition for the latest film directed by

Lal Jose Lal Jose is an Indian director, actor, producer, and distributor who works in the Malayalam film industry. He started his career as an Assistant director in the Malayalam cinema. His directorial debut was with the 1998 film '' Oru Maravat ...

. He feels that it would be better if he gets the help of his old friend, Chandramouli, who is now busy with his international concerts. But Mouli, a fun-loving and jovial musician, makes a surprise landing in

and helps Guna in his work. Mouli falls in love with Daya Sreenivasan (

), a female playback singer, who is also an ardent fan of him. But because of the compulsion from her parents and fiancé, Vivek (

), she moves back to

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. Mouli plots a plan with his friend, Thabala Balu, (

) to bring her back to Chennai. He convinces Daya that he is composing a dozen songs for a film and wants Daya to sing them. Daya comes back to Chennai but is not impressed by Mouli's tunes. When she openly expresses her unhappiness over the tune, Mouli takes it as a prestige issue and composes a song entirely dedicated to her. However, Daya is unable to reach the studio on that particular day because of her engagement ceremony with Vivek whom she feels is too arrogant and sophisticated for her. Knowing this, Mouli enters the engagement venue and takes Daya to the studio for half an hour despite the opposition from her family members. Daya, who is in love with Mouli, realizes his love for her and opens her mind to him. The film ends with Mouli relaxing at a beach with Daya but his old habits of carefree nature and passion for girls are still not gone.

Cast

as Chandramouli, an international drummer * Siddique as Gunashekar, Music director *

as Vishwanath (Vichan), a re-recordist * Lal as Issac, a violinist *

Manoj K. Jayan Manoj Kadampoothramadam Jayan, also known as Manoj K. Jayan is an Indian actor who acts in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films in addition to a few Tamil cinema, Tamil films. Manoj has won three Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actor for h ...

as Gireeshan a.k.a. Saidapet Giri, an aspiring singer-turned don * Rahman as Henry, a keyboardist *

as Balachandran a.k.a. Balu, a tabalist *

as Khader Khan *

as Daya Sreenivas, a singer *

as Vivek Sreenivas *

as PP Shiju a.k.a. Maharaja (extended cameo) * Swetha Menon as Eleena *

Praveena Praveena is an Indian actress and dubbing artist who predominantly appears in Malayalam television series and films in addition to a few Tamil television series and films. She is known for portraying mother roles in films & television opera ...

as Maria *

Anil Murali Anil Murali ( – 30 July 2020) was an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 200 films. He started out in the film industry as a villain before later taking on character roles. He died on 30 July 2020, as a result of liver ...

as Satheeshan, Police Inspector *

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

as Production Controller Subramaniyam *

Rohini Rohini may refer to: People * Rohini (given name), including a list of persons and characters with the name * Rohini (actress) (born 1969), Indian actress, screenwriter, and director * Rohini (Buddha's disciple), female disciple * Rohini (goddes ...

as Nirmala *

Joju George Joseph "Joju" George (born 22 October 1977) is an Indian actor, playback singer, director, writer and producer who primarily works in Malayalam cinema along with Tamil, and Telugu cinemas. In 2015, he won the Kerala State Film Award � ...

as Hari, Gangster of Saidapet Giri *

Dinesh Panicker Dinesh Panicker is an Indian film producer, actor and Television producer, TV producer. He entered the film industry in 1989 by producing ''Kireedam (1989 film), Kireedam'', a critically acclaimed and commercially successful film. He went on to ...

as Sreenivas, Daya's father *

Chitra Shenoy Chitra Shenoy is an Indian actress and producer in South Indian movies and television series. She has acted in more than 600 films predominately in Kannada and Malayalam. She is known as the 'young mother' in the Kannada film industry having po ...

as Daya's mother * Sindhu Shyam *

as himself ( cameo) *

Vanitha ''Vanitha'' () is an Indian magazine published fortnightly by the ''Malayala Manorama'' group. It is the largest magazine in India by circulation according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, with an average of 687,915 copies sold (as of Decem ...

as Chandramouli's mother (cameo)

Reception

The film received mostly negative reviews. On the other hand, the music was well received. Vidyasagar's music was popular, especially the song "Chandamama", which stayed on the charts for many weeks. The failure of the movie also resulted in a small spat between Mohanlal and director Ranjith, which continued till the duo came together for the hugely successful '' Spirit'' (2012).

Soundtrack

The film's background score is composed by

Bijibal Bijibal Maniyil is an Indian music composer and playback singer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. In a career spanning more than twenty years, he has composed for more than 150 feature films, several television commercials and a few d ...

, while the songs are composed by Vidyasagar with lyrics written by

Gireesh Puthenchery Girish Puthenchery was a noted Malayalam lyricist, poet, scriptwriter and screenwriter, esteemed for his pivotal role as a lyricist in Malayalam cinema. He was often hailed as the aristocratic lyricist of Malayalam and was admired for his uniqu ...

. The songs were very popular.

Quotes

"Rock & Roll is an out and out musical entertainer set in Chennai milieu with the background of a recording studio and the world of musicians. It's a fun-filled movie with Mohanlal leading the pack of merry men." – director RanjithRelease news:Sify.com Sify.com

References

Musicindiaonline.com preview

Sunday Kaumudi preview

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rock and Roll (film) 2007 films 2000s Malayalam-language films 2007 musical films Films shot in Chennai Films scored by Vidyasagar (composer) Films directed by Ranjith (director)