This Yashraj- follow-up to Chak De India from the talented team of writer Jaideeep Sahni and Shimit Amin is another good if a bit lengthy film based on a similar theme based on an underdog outsider taking on the system. But if last time it was the world of sports, then this time it is the corporate world of sales and service!

Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) is a perfect example of an Aam Aadmi. He is an average (in fact, barely pass-class!) student, living in a modest apartment with his grandfather and whose greatest ambition after graduation is to work as a salesman! The lanky Sardar gets a job in a leading computer-selling company but almost immediately he gets a taste of the cut-throat corporate world. Just when he is coming to terms with the basic dirty tricks of the sales-trade (like getting pally with the watchmen, secretaries and middle-rung managers to get the required info!), blinkers come off his eyes and he sees the widespread (and taken for granted!) corruption. His naïve honesty makes him the butt of office-jokes and turns him into a persona-non-grata there. The only way he can hit back is to become his own boss and start his own 'company with the company'. Will his audacious plan succeed?

Jaideeep Sahni's story is a throwback to RK's Shree 420- theme of corruption of idealism but it also manages to bring in the contemporary sensitivity. The modern-day office environment it presents is superbly authentic with loads of interesting side-characters. The side-burned scheming second-in-command sales wiz (Naveen Kaushik), the porn-addicted computer-service-guy (D. Santosh), the office tea-boy (Mukesh Bhat), the haughty office-secretary (Gauhar Khan) and the unscrupulous boss are all well-written and well-acted characters. As the hero's customer-turned-lover Shahzahn Padamsee is just about okay and as it is the love-angle is just a mere side-dish here.

Shimit Amin keeps a nicely balanced and realistic directorial attitude. The film shuns glamour and keeps it simple and close to real life. Of course, the 'Honesty is the best policy' and 'After-sales service is more important than just selling the product'- path taken by the hero to counter corporate greed and the film's turnaround ending, it all seems too idealistic and improbable in contemporary world. But if that is made believable then it is because of Ranbir Kapoor's superb portrayal of the main protagonist. He looks great as a Sardar and wins us over with his sensitivity and sincerity. Like his illustrious grandfather Raj, he speaks a lot with his eyes, like his father Rishi he brings in a natural flair and like his mother Neetu Singh, he has a bubbly youthfulness.

Rocket Singh is a nice, down-to-earth film with a message. It is funny, it is poignant and it is worth a watch. But question is whether without the famed Yashraj song-and-dance and glamour-and-romance will the general audiences take it to heart! I wish they do!