Rock On and The Lives Of Others

Given the paucity of coherently written scripts in Bollywood, I thought the script of Rock On rocked. The characters of Aditya and Joe were very well developed, and I was willing to forgive the compromises the script would have taken to get it made as a mainstream Bollywood movie - like its unauthenticity as far as the rock scene in Bombay is concerned, and the complete absence of sex and drugs as part of the lifestyle, which films from the West wouldn't shy away from. I was even willing to forgive it for its glaring weaknesses - the undeveloped characters of Rob and KD. Especially Rob's. The two dramatic moments that the script offers him are completely unconvincing. I also thought the script copped out when they show him dying of a brain tumour. Clearly, AIDS is still taboo in mainstream Bollywood.

Anyway, I thought the script still rocked. Until the next day, I saw The Lives Of Others. Suddenly, my benchmark shifted. The script sketches the character of the Stasi agent so strongly, it makes the two lead characters in Rock On look pretty tame.