There\u2019s something about National Award-winning director Nagesh Kukunoor\u2019s films. They aren\u2019t perfect products, but his attempt to be honest with the subjects<\/p>\n
has always been refreshing. Be it Hyderabad Blues, Rockford or Aashayein. The 1999 film Rockford is one of the most telling products of its time, as far as the<\/p>\n
student-teacher relationship is concerned. In fact, its relevance cannot be questioned even in 2018.<\/p>\n
At the surface of it, Rockford is a charming coming-of-age tale about a boy who\u2019s stationed at a boarding school. The film\u2019s protagonist is Rajesh Naidu (played<\/p>\n
by Rohan Dey), whose life takes an interesting turn when he arrives at Rockford High School for Boys. Despite mediocre performances and bad editing, the<\/p>\n
movie manages to evoke a sense of struggle that students face in schools. There are instances of bullying bordering on sexual assault, and a particularly<\/p>\n
horrifying scene featuring a brother (of the church) molesting the primary character. Of course, it\u2019s a Jesuit school, so there\u2019s pressure to behave a certain way,<\/p>\n
and since there are no girls in the academy, the competition to be the ultimate model of masculinity is out there in the open for everyone to see.<\/p>\n
A scene that stands out in the film is when after facing defeat at the hands of Rajesh, Raja (another student) threatens to kiss and finger our hero to teach him a<\/p>\n
lesson on popularity. There\u2019s barely any light in the sequence, and Raja is uncomfortably close to Rajesh, almost blocking out his entire supply of air, it invokes<\/p>\n
shock and you feel real fear for Rajesh. One thing to remember here is that Rockford had released nearly two decades ago, and in nearly all its reviews, the<\/p>\n
movie was dismissed as just another generic tale of a kid attempting to come to terms with his environment. But Rockford had its moments.<\/p>\n
There were some memorable scenes of Johnny Matthew (played by filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor) and Rajesh. Kukonoor plays a PT instructor, who is your<\/p>\n
quintessential \u2018inspiring force\u2019 of the movie. There\u2019s a sequence where Rajesh asks Johnny to explain the term \u2018shag\u2019. What follows is a bemused Kukunoor<\/p>\n
striving to explain what masturbation means. Johnny aka Kukunoor reminds everyone of a friendly, well-meaning adult, who tries to do his best at adulting, but<\/p>\n
fails. He then offers to give Rajesh a book about sex in order to help him grasp the sexual world better. Now, a section of an audience might complain about the<\/p>\n
lack of understanding displayed by Johnny in the said scene, but remember the year the movie hit the theatres? The youth was all about the new age that was to<\/p>\n
usher in, they were waiting for 2000 to completely transform their lives. Y2K was something that everybody couldn\u2019t stop talking about. People were trying to act<\/p>\n
liberated, but they weren\u2019t really. And for the most part, we are still not entirely comfortable with the idea of sex unless it\u2019s made light of, or included as a part of<\/p>\n
some dumb horror flick. And this is where all the talk about masturbation in the movie does a good job. Kukunoor\u2019s character is hesitant because that\u2019s how<\/p>\n
friendly adults would act if you approached them to discuss sex, or anything remotely related to the subject. Yes, even today.<\/p>\n
Then there is the scene where Johnny encounters Rajesh for the first time. Johnny introduces himself as someone new to the institute, and so does Rajesh.<\/p>\n
There is a sense of equality that is established early on in the film. One trying to placate the other subtly of the newness and change. It\u2019s a small thing, but it\u2019s<\/p>\n
significant nonetheless. A trust is built as they share the mundane details. In another sequence, Johnny and Rajesh discuss the \u2018love\u2019 that Rajesh harbours for<\/p>\n
another teacher, Lily Vegas (portrayed by Nandita Das). Rajesh asks Johnny to give his honest opinion on whether he (Rajesh) would a stand a chance with Miss<\/p>\n
Vegas. It\u2019s moments like these that make Rockford stand out in the crowd despite its shortcomings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s something about National Award-winning director Nagesh Kukunoor\u2019s films. They aren\u2019t perfect products, but his attempt to be honest with the subjects has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25418,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25416\/revisions\/25418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}