A roller coaster ride

This is amazing stuff at one level and disappointing at another and that is perhaps what makes a road film! Far removed from the candy gloss of urban relationships, Imtiaz Ali gives you some raw – Mahesh Bhatt like look at life. It may lack the Punjabi jest of ‘Jab We Met’ or the urbane attitude of ‘Love Aaj Kal’ or the angst of ‘Rockstar’, but it is a new paradigm and a fine road story. Arguably one of the best made at Bollywood.

Brilliantly canned by cinematographer Anil Mehta, the film takes you through Himachal Pradesh like no other film has. He pictures the ice clad mountains, the rushing waters and not to mention the dusty roads with equal flavour and that makes cinematography a star of the film. Joining him and giving the cinematographer great company is the brilliance of AR Rahman who moves away from the customary Sufi style or the western and leaves you with a kind of music that reminds of the mountains and the hills like Salil Chowdary did. The silence and the minimum background score is a wonderful milestone in our cinema. We have long spells of silence in the film and the engrossing moments of silence are worth listening to.

Veera (Alia Bhatt) eggs her fiancé Vinay to escape from a near claustrophobic marriage house the night before she is to get married. This turns into a disaster when she is kidnapped by a gang of professionals headed by Mahavir (Randeep Hooda). The Stockholm syndrome is at work. More importantly Veera experiences a spirit of freedom and a world that may be ugly but not hypocritical. As she is moved from one ruined setting to another, she gradually opens up to the kidnapper. It’s the kidnapper who he in his own shell and unwilling to come to terms. Amidst the picturesque and the muddy roads, an undefined warmth grows.

Director Imtiaz Ali is minimalistic with the dramatic moments. Instead he chooses to punctuate the road experience with the situational emotions that lead to a typical filmy, yet acceptable climax. The film throws up issues of sexual abuse being kept under the wraps. It deals with stifling hypocrisy in places but above all it tells the tale of the soaring human spirit. Ali juxtapositions the effervescence of Veera with the dark resignation of Mahavir, in a relationship that is suggestively romantic.

To the discerning ‘Highway’ is path breaking. Surely this is a milestone. Road journeys are not designed to be picture perfect so too this ‘Highway’. Full marks to Imtiaz Ali for giving us a film that is far from perfect but is still engaging and thought provoking. For sheer entertainment quotient, he may end up disappointing his expectant fans. However, he sure would pick up a few new hitch- hikers.

The film revolves around Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt. The former presents a nothing to complain, nothing to praise performance. Alia is mixed fare. She enriches the film with her timing sometimes and disappoints when high voltage drama is needed. She has an uncanny resemblance to Sister Pooja Bhatt and if she could be half the actress then would surely be very accomplished. Winsome and promising she obviously shows a willingness to accept a role that is a little hatke from the usual.

Not withstanding the speed breakers this ‘Highway’ journey is worth it if you are the kind that knows what to look for in a road film.