Zee Studios’ Rocket Gang is the story of five ghosts whose last wish is fulfilled by five friends. Amar (Aditya Seal), Tania (Nikita Dutta), Bunnu (Jason Tham), Sahib (Sahaj Singh Chahal) and Pia (Mikshda Jailkhani) are close friends. They have their own problems in life but otherwise, they are all in a fairly happy space. The five are invited to Wonder Villa one day. Although they do not know, the one extending them the invitation is the ghost of a dead person, Tony. In the villa, the five friends meet the ghosts of five children — Kiara (Dipali Borkar), Sehar (Jayshree Gogoi), Ganesh (Siddhant Sharma), Montu (Aadvik Mongia) and Padrick (Tejas Verma). The five ghosts tell the five friends that they had been killed when the car in which they were travelling had had to be diverted into a valley to avoid an accident with a car (coming from the opposite direction) which was being driven by Amar and in which the other four friends were having fun. The ghosts of the five kids and their driver, Tony, had landed in Wonder Villa in the accident. They also tell the five friends that they were on their way to participate in the finals of the ‘Dance India Dance’ television show when the accident took place. The five friends don’t believe the story but soon, Amar recalls such an incident. When the five friends return to Wonder Villa, the ghosts of the five kids tell them that it was their ardent desire to partake in the TV show’s finals. That’s when the five friends — who, incidentally are bad dancers — ask the five spirits to enter their bodies. Amar names his dance group Rocket Gang (which was also the name of the dance group of the five kids), and they all participate in the finals. In this way, the last wish of the five kids is fulfilled. Also fulfilled is their wish to meet their parents who have all come to attend the finals.
Bosco Leslie Martis has written a childish story which appears quite illogical. Ditto for the screenplay, penned by Ravikishan Shankaran and Jasvinder Bath. Amar and his friends are shown to be ignorant about as serious a fact as a carload of people having died because of their stupidity. The last wish of the spirits of the five dead kids is shown to be to participate in the finals of the TV dance show. This appears a bit weird because there would be many more important things in a kid’s life than a dance show. For, a dance show cannot be the be all and end all of any kid’s existence. After a point of time, the screenplay becomes predictable and loses charm. The drama has less comedy than was necessary. A couple of emotions touch the heart and also bring tears to the eyes but there should’ve been more of them. Romance is too little. Ravikishan Shankaran and Jasvinder Bath’s dialogues are quite good.
Aditya Seal does a fine job as Amar. Nikita Dutta is good as Tania. Jason Tham is alright as Bunnu. Sahaj Singh Chahal is okay in the role of Sahib. Mikshda Jailkhani is average as Pia. Dipali Borkar performs ably as Kiara. Jayshree Gogoi does well as Sehar. Siddhant Sharma leaves his mark in the role of Ganesh. Aadvik Mongia is so-so as Montu. Tejas Verma has his moments as Padrick. Others lend ordinary support.
Bosco Leslie Martis’ direction is average. Amit Trivedi’s music comprises fair songs. The absence of hit music is sorely felt. Lyrics (Kshitij Patwardhan, Raftaar and Mohd. Talha Siddiqui) are ordinary. Song picturisations (by Bosco-Caesar, Suresh Mukund and Paul Marshal Cardoz) are quite nice. Amar Mohile’s background music is fair. Sunil Patel’s camerawork (with additional camerawork by Manoj Lobo) is quite eye-filling. Afzal Usman Khan’s action and stunt scenes are ordinary. Production designing (by Dipankar Dasgupta, Prashant Rane and Shyam Bhatia) and art direction (Sunayana Paradkar) are fairly nice. Yusuf Khan’s editing (with additional editing by Avinav Chaturvedi) is crisp.
On the whole, Rocket Gang has some heartfelt moments but that’s about all. Its box-office prospects are poor.
Released on 11-11-’22 at Inox (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Zee Studios. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.