Taut and riveting

We all carry our little guilts and traumas in our psyche. Life is more than a bundle of nerves our anatomy has endowed us with. So is it with Meera (Anushka Sharma) and Arjun (Neil Bhoopalam). Graphic violence – mirroring the times we live in and spoken loudly through the media houses right into our drawing rooms matching Arnab Goswami’s overdo high decibel levels- that is what life suddenly has come to be. Director Navdeep Singh returns to tell a story and this he does in style.First the Hyderabad connection. The film’s cinematography is by Arvind Kannabiran and he leaves a definite impact with the camera work.

He speaks through the lens and ensures even a cup of tea at a wayside dhaba or a night shot at a railway bridge can leave a statement. In fact, one aspect of the film that lifts it above the normal is the cinematography.The tale is simple and told without too much compromise or wandering. It is taut and committed to a fault. We have Meera and Arjun, a happening young couple who are living life up the arrived street and with not many things to complain of. One party and quick admin call gets Meera returning late night in her car somewhere in the outskirts of Gurgaon- the new India. She scrapes past a disaster when a group of guys act fresh with her.

To get over the trauma, she and Arjun take a holiday and get on the road. Things have to go wrong and they do. At a wayside dhaba they witness a young couple being beaten up. Arjun’s guilt that he was not around to be protective of Meera that night after the party is working overtime as is Meera’s trauma of having survived what could have been a nasty experience. The nervy two react to the violent incident at the dhaba a tad differently but both get drawn into the vortex of a Khapp killing and a gruelling night when life just slips past them forever and impacting the viewer is a shocker of a film.

This is a tough tummy film. No respite here. It is a frightfully happening script reminding you rudely that it could just happen to any one of us. Urban India – nay India is telling its free citizen how disaster is lurking round the corner at every street corner. City Lights are backed by those dark corridors of high tempers, intolerance, caste and other divides al leading to a churning full of vitriol.The more we change the more we remain the same. So all the progress we have made, all the pride we have of happening couples and urban arrivals, is backed up by lumpen elements who believe ladies are meant to be raped if out there by night, men are ready to kill for marriages they oppose on the ground of gothra and though the constitution has arrived but not drinking water or liberal thought and tolerance.

Even as political heavyweights take sexist stances (now even in Parliament), violence escalates and gender divides sharply; we have a dekho at the underbelly that surrounds the glitter of Swachh Bharat. Forget the litter; it is the glitter that is getting ominous. The cast and the crew do everything they can to keep the film tight and gripping and succeed in a manner few films in recent times have. Anushka puts her talent where her money is and like someone familiar is willing to take on responsibility and fight a lone battle in testing times. This is a very testing ride but take it if you like good cinema.

Movie Name : NH10

Cast : Anushka Sharma and Neil Bhoopalam

Direction : Navdeep Singh

Genre : Drama (thriller)

Likes : Anushka and cinematogrphy

Dislikes : Wrenching

By L Ravichander