Rock n' Roll (2007 film)

Rock N' Roll
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ranjith
Written by	Ranjith
Produced by	P. N. Venugopal
Starring	Mohanlal Lakshmi Rai Mukesh Lal Siddique Manoj K.Jayan Rahman Harisree Ashokan Jagathy Sreekumar Anoop Menon
Cinematography	Manoj Pillai
Edited by	Ranjan Abraham
Music by	Vidyasagar:(Songs) Bijibal:(Background Music)
Distributed by	Marikkar Films
Release date	9 November 2007
Running time	140 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Rock N' Roll is a 2007 Malayalam musical comedy film written and directed by Ranjith, starring Mohanlal, Lakshmi Rai, Mukesh, Lal, Siddique, Manoj K.Jayan, Rahman, Harisree Ashokan and Jagathy Sreekumar. The film tells the story of seven musicians in Chennai, the major centre of film production in South India. The film was released on November 9 coinciding with Deepavali. It received negative reviews and was considered a commercial disaster at the time of release. Over the years, the movie along with Mohanlal's performance has attained a cult status. Suraj Venjaramoodu's cameo role as a fraud musician was widely acclaimed and is often considered to be one of his early breakthroughs.

Plot

The film tells the story of Chandramouli (Mohanlal), a composer and drummer, of his return to Chennai 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. 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 Chennai and helps Guna in his work. Mouli falls in love with Daya Sreenivasan (Lakshmi Rai), a female playback singer, who is also an ardent fan of him. But because of the compulsion from her parents and fiancé, Vivek (Anoop Menon), she moves back to Mumbai. Mouli plots a plan with his friend Thabala Balu (Harisree Ashokan) to bring her back to Chennai. He convinces Daya that he is composing a dozen songs for a film and wants Daya to sing it. 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 attend the studio on that particular day as she is to marry Vivek, whom she feels is too arrogant and sophisticated for her. Mouli enters the wedding venue and takes Daya to the studio for half an hour despite the opposition from her family members. Daya, who within time is fully 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 with his old habits of carefree nature and passion for girls still not gone.

Cast

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 in the charts for many weeks. The failure of the movie also resulted in a small spat between Mohanlal and Ranjith which continued till the due came together for the hugely successful Spirit in 2012.

Soundtrack

The film's background score is composed by Bijibal, while the songs are composed by Vidyasagar with lyrics written by Gireesh Puthenchery. 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 Ranjith