The trigger for Harpreet’s awakening comes when he is punished with a demotion for filing a complaint against a client who demanded a bribe. His bosses set impossible targets for the team and his colleagues silently adhere to this unreasonableness, reinforcing the corrupt culture of corporate slavery instead of fighting it. In the film, after Harpreet (Kapoor) takes up a job at a computer firm as a sales agent, he ends up getting a crash course in hypocrisy. Although, Yash Raj is widely commended for backing Dum Laga Ke Haisha in 2015 which went against these norms, not demanding Amin to compromise on his vision for Rocket Singh… should easily rank higher in its list of achievements. In a way, a large part of the credit might lie with Yash Raj Films, Bollywood’s most influential production house, reputed for both, lavishly budgeted A-list-led cinema and for needlessly dialing up the theatrics of its offerings.
It’s an especially miraculous feat given that back then, movies weren’t rewarded for withstanding the temptations of mainstream cinema like they are today. In comparison, the Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, a film that probed whether ambition came with a personal responsibility, swiftly flew under the radar despite it being the riskier outing of the two.įor one, the film – a rewarding upshot of the reunion of Amin and Jaideep Sahni (the duo had previously collaborated on Chak De! India ) – was one of the rare Bollywood outings that remained unconcerned about becoming box-office friendly.
SALEMAN DUM DUM SONG MOVIE
Wake Up Sid was an instant commercial success, unanimously lauded for being a movie that infused passion in profession and gave a face to youthful listlessness. The stark contrast in the approach to the same underdog story is at the heart of the kind of acclaim both these films eventually garnered. It’s perhaps why Sid came-of-age but Harpeet grew up, in the truest sense of the word. In a way, Shimit Amin’s Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year began exactly where Ayan Mukherji’s Wake Up Sid ended. In Rocket Singh…, after Harpreet (Kapoor) takes up a job at a computer firm as a sales agent, he ends up getting a crash course in hypocrisy. That both Sid and Harpreet were essayed by Ranbir Kapoor, the actor who keeps doubling up as the perennial poster boy for going against the tide, made it all the more poetic. So even as Sid went about making a spectacle out of rebellion in Wake Up Sid, Harpreet was obligated to be resourceful and look inward – his rebellion occurred undercover, devoid of any grand theatrics in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year. For him, fending for himself, even if it was through a nine-to-five job, was a necessity. It was, to put it simply, not cinematic enough. Unlike Sid, Harpreet belonged to a middle-class family, which meant that his coming-of-age story was shackled by the practicality of responsibilities.
Yet, despite their similarities, the language of Harpreet and Sid’s rebellion couldn’t be any more different. Sid found himself as a photographer and Harpeet turned into an entrepreneur. And both of them rebelled against what society expected out of them.
Harpreet was also lost in the same ways as Sid: He wasn’t particularly ambitious and resisted following convention blindly. Barely passing with 39 per cent in his BCom exams made it obvious that he didn’t have the aptitude for an MBA degree, either. Like Sid, Harpreet’s academic bent wasn’t remarkable. But if Sidharth Mehra got to wake up as Sid, Harpreet Singh Bedi never had the luxury to fall asleep in the first place. Sid failed his final college exams, made a routine out of clashing with his father, and mined this dependence on generational conflict – derived in part from the stubbornness of Indian parenting – to ultimately discover his passion. One of them was Sidharth Mehra, a Bombay slacker who prefered building daydreams instead of realising them, epitomising the ultimate cliche of a wealthy brat. Ten years ago, there were two carefree and directionless college graduates in Hindi cinema.
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