Come Together

I saw Rock On late last week.

A very simple plot outlines the canvas. Four friends, aiming for the top spot at a amateur band competition, make a mess of a winning platform. Speed ahead - ten years later.

Each member is now entrapped in a capsuled life away from the others. There is some connect between a couple of bandmates but nothing that flows across all of them. Throughout the movie, there is a continuous switch between the present and a flashback, which aims to fill in the missing pieces of a jigsaw.

Every now and then, I was finding moments in the film that I could relate to. Ohh....ATKT days! Even the pathetically worded verses made me chuckle. Who hasn't gone through all that? The antics and mannerisms by each character build up a striking collage of young & ambitious minds on loose ground - egos, constraints, opinion clashes and misaligned goals. I recalled celebration milestones too. Dedications and sacrifices that strengthened bonds and brought closer, each member to the identity we swore by - ATKT (Ata Tari Kaadhoon Taaka, a mockery in Marathi of souls desperate to rid themselves of a plethora of KTz. No, we weren't those souls. )

An astounding musical score to accompany the script. Floored by the brilliance of the compositions, I decided I was going to buy the soundtrack. And I did so today. I felt there was also a slight touch of Indus Creed to the band's sound. Explosive openers like Socha Hai and the climax track Sinbad The Sailor stuck instantly. Great bass lines in both these songs. The softer and Rampal led Tum Ho Toh is a dreamy ballad, again, with a pleasing feel to its progression.

I liked the CD package too. Casual artwork and colours thrown in all over and a feel of the No Code (Pearl Jam) album in this aspect. Also, the sleeve cover is very very reminiscent of the Beatles album cover of With The Beatles. That same sequential layout of band members' portraits.

Go watch this one if you haven't already.