Rocket Gang Review: Aditya Seal starrer has no horror, no comedy, but dance is its only saving grace

Film: Rocket Gang

Director: Bosco Martis

Star cast: Aditya Seal, Nikita Dutta, Jason Tham, Mokshda Jailkhani, Sahaj Singh, Tejas Varma, Aadvik Mongia, Jayshree Gogoi, Dipali Borkar, Siddhant Sharma, Ranbir Kapoor (cameo)

Bollywood Bubble ratings: 2/5 stars

Rocket Gang Movie Review: 

Rocket Gang, from the inception of its idea, promised a unique combination of horror, comedy and dance. Unfortunately, when I saw it, I just could find the latter part as the first two seemed to have whooshed away on a rocket itself. The film is clearly made for the kids demographic, but even a kids film can be at least entertaining for the adult audience. However, Rocket Gang somewhat falters in that. The first half seems too, for the lack of a better word, amteurish where things are too easy and superficial, and just too kiddish for my taste.

Thankfully, the second half offered me a lot more dance and being a dance enthusiast, I was pretty excited about it. But there too, even though Aditya offered the charm that he does, the kids just overpowered the whole gang of friends with their dancing prowess. It was quite literally, seeing like a whole season of Dance India Dance, with just focus on two groups. I wouldn’t say there was a lack in the acting efforts by anyone, be it the kids or the adults in the film, but they didn’t have anything solid in the form of a script, story or a screenplay to grab on to.

 

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Credit where its due, I quite liked the VFX in the film barring a few instances, like the introduction shot of Wunder Villa. The first performance that Aditya and his friends and the kids do after their team up, the seamless transition between shots of the kids and the adults actually was quite impressive. Hearing Ranbir Kapoor’s voice as the narrator and his cameo in the end was exciting and provided a familiarity, but the film just couldn’t cash in on it.

Just like it has become a bit customary for any dance film in Bollywood, Farah Khan had a cameo in Rocket Gang, along with Raftaar, Terence Lewis, Ahmed Khan, Caesar Gonsalves and the queen of cameos by now, Nora Fatehi. The second half is a bit more glamorous but by the end of it, it doesn’t do anything for you. The plot is a bit cliched, so even though Bosco tried hard to bring out some emotions by the end of the film, it just didn’t happen.

 

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Story:

Rocket Gang is a story of 5 friends Amarbir, Tania, Bunnu, Pia and Sahir who go on a weekend trip to a resort where they are greeted by 5 kids as the caretakers of the house. Some twist of events bring out the horror element in the film as the gang figures out the kids are ghosts and they have an unfortunate connection. How that connection leads them to team up to fulfil some dreams forms the story of the film.

Star Performance:

I must appreciate the acting capabilities of Aditya Seal in the comedy genre as the actor shows that he has potential to do good in this space if backed by a good script. But unfortunately, here he doesn’t get that support. His coming timing is good, he has an innate charm on screen that makes him appealing and he knows how to dance too. So, while he is a perfect choice for the film, the reverse might not be true.

Nikita doesn’t leave any particular impact in the film. It’s like she is just there. Apart from an aerial song sequence, there is hardly any moment that I can remember where she shined out. It isn’t to say that she was bad, it just wasn’t a leading capacity performance.

 

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Jason and Mokshda are dancers who the country and I have already seen in reality shows and loved, and Sahaj brings a new energy, but there wasn’t much expectations out of them in the acting department and they delivered what was written for them. Although, I must say that Mokshda maybe had more moments of shining out than Nikita. But the typical Punjabi jokes made on Sahaj’s character were just too outdated for my taste.

I wouldn’t judge the kids per say as they were there because of their dancing skills and they prove why with their performances, but even in the scenes that required them to emote, they did that beautifully, especially Dipali and Siddhant.

 

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Direction/Screenplay:

Bosco tried to incorporate his love and expertise for dancing in his debut directorial, but eventually, it’s only the dancing that shined. It’s visible that he put in a lot of efforts in the film, but they just lacked impact. The film is a bit too long for its genre at 2 hours 20 minutes. Close to a 2 hour mark would have been enough for it. The locations are captured beautifully though, especially in the song Trending Apni Yari. I feel like Remo D’Souza has set a bar for dance films in India with ABCD that even he hasn’t been able to match since, and Rocket Gang too lacked in it. But the kids’ innocence and dancing skills make seeing the film worth it at least.

 

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Conclusion:

I wouldn’t say Rocket Gang is a bad film, but it falls a little short of the average mark too. There is promise and some good takeaways from the film that can be utilised further, like Aditya’s comic skills, the kids’ dancing, but here, it doesn’t have the desired impact. It might turn out to be a fun outing for kids, but the accompanying parents might not enjoy it as much.

Watch the trailer of Rocket Gang after the film’s review:

Also Read: Ranbir Kapoor roped in for a special dance number in Aditya Seal’s Rocket Gang