3.5 stars
Veera Tripathy (Alia Bhatt), the babied lass of a fat-cat Delhi family, is scheduled to take the plunge. Before the wedding ceremony, she forces her betrothed to take her on a secret drive but is taken hostage at a gas station, which was being burgled. Veera's links in the corridors of power make ransom out of the question. But their adamant leader Mahabir Bhati (Randeep Hooda), who also has a dark secret from his childhood, is rigid to do whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the law. He takes her on a cross-country trek down India’s variegated highways, past breathtaking panorama of Delhi, Haryana, the deserts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Kashmir, and finally the snow-clad mountains of Himachal Pradesh. Veera, bound and gagged in the back of a colorful truck, soon leaves the gang nonplussed with her unpredictable/self-centered behavior, especially when she starts hugging trees, playing malicious pranks and chatting out loud to herself in bad impro. Mahabir secretly falls for her. Veera wishes her kidnapping would never end as she feels free for the very first time.
Imtiaz Ali, the romantic czar's idea of a romantic road movie is a rehash of one episode in his own tele series 'Rishtey' aired long back on Zee TV. HIGHWAY is unusual and daringly different. A rich concoction of authenticity (production designer: Acropolis; art direction: Manini Mishra), -- right from Veera's home, truck out on the highways to roadside dhabas and shops -- casting (Mukesh Chhabra) and the enthralling cinematography (Anil Mehta) with unique camera angles. In a long......very long time has came a Bollywood movie that is consummately rich in the scenic beauty and how! Soul-lifting visuals entwined with intoxicating score by the Indian Beethoven A. R. Rahman and such meaningful lyrics by poet par excellence Irshad Kamil add life & make HIGHWAY a *beautifully looking/feeling film*. In fact, Anil Mehta & A. R. Rahman are the bona fide winners of the enterprise. Aki Narula's costumes have the indispensable contrast as per the mood/settings of the film. Since HIGHWAY is Imtiaz Ali's first foray into digital filmmaking, his directorial insight/trademark ingenuity/subtle touches, with which he handles the subtlety and serenity of the film, are impeccable. A character-driven film, Ali's handling of the dramatic scenes, placing reliance solely on the characters against pin drop silence, is emotive and thankfully there are no such tacky sea of schmaltz alike Rockstar (2011). His spontaneity in some scenes is likely to be figured out only by dedicated cinephiles. Drifting away from his high-payback true-blue romcom genre, Ali avowedly is adroit at the creation of his own fantasy world and giving the characters free rein to project themselves with dexterity. Scrutinizing merely on Imtiaz Ali's direction, the flick is an achievement indeed in commercial Bollywood cinema and worth waxing lyrical about him. The first half is quite propitious.
Clocking in at precisely 133 minutes, the latter half's pace and editing (Aarti Bajaj) are sluggish. The story starts meandering somehow but gathers momentum in the last 25 minutes or so. Revealed much later in the story, the elements of Stockholm Syndrome, to rationalize the connection between the leads, does *not* gel well as the angle is effete. To give the film some ponderosity, the screenplay (Imtiaz Ali) has some forced moments especially an out of the blue narration of Veera's secret about her childhood and an utterly arbitrary shootout scene towards the closing moments. Given the terrain of Imtiaz Ali’s repertory of relatively meaningful work, the flick has some unexplained moments as well. Traversing the landscapes of North India, the truck is stopped only *once* by cops and throughout the aimless journey, nobody recognises Veera -- the kidnapped daughter of a dominant Delhi tycoon. Laudable though Imtiaz Ali's aim might be, but feeling liberated, frenetic and on the loose with a ruthless captor is not discernible with the masses.
The unconventional pairing of very diametrically opposite actors like Randeep Hooda who adheres to playing the grey hued characters and Alia Bhatt who is predominantly vibrant and fashionably candyfloss in her ways, fetched attention since the release of film's trailer. Wearing rough hair, rugged clothes, a pink sleeveless sweater and a plaid blanket over his shoulders, Randeep is menacing in the first half, growling at Veera and his own colleagues. He's also pure enough not to be a prototypical villain and from his mastery of the local language to his irreconcilable feelings for Veera, he carries off the responsibility with aplomb. But his acting prowess has been overdone in the second half where his introverted character softens in Veera's company eventually and breaks down towards the end. Alia Bhatt, without breaking sweat, pulls off the deglamourized role like a pro. Stupefying, heartbreaking and side-splitting, she evokes veritable emotions. She is truly endearing, as she enjoys her new-found life outside the gilded confinement. She takes the cake right from the penult to the ultimate moments with the scenes of making maggi and her outburst in front of her family members, respectively.
The relatively unknown supporting actors like Hemant, Saharsh Kumar Shukla, Durgesh Kumar and Pradeep Nagar are peerless.
Film connoisseurs are likely to be moved by fantastic performances, breathtaking vistas and a riveting score. Not a dose of tossed out regular Hindi movies, this one's for the Intelligentsia rather! For taking Indian cinema to the next level, I doff my hat to the maverick, Imtiaz Ali. Take this highway and feel the journey, pronto!
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/movies/highway/md2909.htm
Veera Tripathy (Alia Bhatt), the babied lass of a fat-cat Delhi family, is scheduled to take the plunge. Before the wedding ceremony, she forces her betrothed to take her on a secret drive but is taken hostage at a gas station, which was being burgled. Veera's links in the corridors of power make ransom out of the question. But their adamant leader Mahabir Bhati (Randeep Hooda), who also has a dark secret from his childhood, is rigid to do whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the law. He takes her on a cross-country trek down India’s variegated highways, past breathtaking panorama of Delhi, Haryana, the deserts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Kashmir, and finally the snow-clad mountains of Himachal Pradesh. Veera, bound and gagged in the back of a colorful truck, soon leaves the gang nonplussed with her unpredictable/self-centered behavior, especially when she starts hugging trees, playing malicious pranks and chatting out loud to herself in bad impro. Mahabir secretly falls for her. Veera wishes her kidnapping would never end as she feels free for the very first time.
Imtiaz Ali, the romantic czar's idea of a romantic road movie is a rehash of one episode in his own tele series 'Rishtey' aired long back on Zee TV. HIGHWAY is unusual and daringly different. A rich concoction of authenticity (production designer: Acropolis; art direction: Manini Mishra), -- right from Veera's home, truck out on the highways to roadside dhabas and shops -- casting (Mukesh Chhabra) and the enthralling cinematography (Anil Mehta) with unique camera angles. In a long......very long time has came a Bollywood movie that is consummately rich in the scenic beauty and how! Soul-lifting visuals entwined with intoxicating score by the Indian Beethoven A. R. Rahman and such meaningful lyrics by poet par excellence Irshad Kamil add life & make HIGHWAY a *beautifully looking/feeling film*. In fact, Anil Mehta & A. R. Rahman are the bona fide winners of the enterprise. Aki Narula's costumes have the indispensable contrast as per the mood/settings of the film. Since HIGHWAY is Imtiaz Ali's first foray into digital filmmaking, his directorial insight/trademark ingenuity/subtle touches, with which he handles the subtlety and serenity of the film, are impeccable. A character-driven film, Ali's handling of the dramatic scenes, placing reliance solely on the characters against pin drop silence, is emotive and thankfully there are no such tacky sea of schmaltz alike Rockstar (2011). His spontaneity in some scenes is likely to be figured out only by dedicated cinephiles. Drifting away from his high-payback true-blue romcom genre, Ali avowedly is adroit at the creation of his own fantasy world and giving the characters free rein to project themselves with dexterity. Scrutinizing merely on Imtiaz Ali's direction, the flick is an achievement indeed in commercial Bollywood cinema and worth waxing lyrical about him. The first half is quite propitious.
Clocking in at precisely 133 minutes, the latter half's pace and editing (Aarti Bajaj) are sluggish. The story starts meandering somehow but gathers momentum in the last 25 minutes or so. Revealed much later in the story, the elements of Stockholm Syndrome, to rationalize the connection between the leads, does *not* gel well as the angle is effete. To give the film some ponderosity, the screenplay (Imtiaz Ali) has some forced moments especially an out of the blue narration of Veera's secret about her childhood and an utterly arbitrary shootout scene towards the closing moments. Given the terrain of Imtiaz Ali’s repertory of relatively meaningful work, the flick has some unexplained moments as well. Traversing the landscapes of North India, the truck is stopped only *once* by cops and throughout the aimless journey, nobody recognises Veera -- the kidnapped daughter of a dominant Delhi tycoon. Laudable though Imtiaz Ali's aim might be, but feeling liberated, frenetic and on the loose with a ruthless captor is not discernible with the masses.
The unconventional pairing of very diametrically opposite actors like Randeep Hooda who adheres to playing the grey hued characters and Alia Bhatt who is predominantly vibrant and fashionably candyfloss in her ways, fetched attention since the release of film's trailer. Wearing rough hair, rugged clothes, a pink sleeveless sweater and a plaid blanket over his shoulders, Randeep is menacing in the first half, growling at Veera and his own colleagues. He's also pure enough not to be a prototypical villain and from his mastery of the local language to his irreconcilable feelings for Veera, he carries off the responsibility with aplomb. But his acting prowess has been overdone in the second half where his introverted character softens in Veera's company eventually and breaks down towards the end. Alia Bhatt, without breaking sweat, pulls off the deglamourized role like a pro. Stupefying, heartbreaking and side-splitting, she evokes veritable emotions. She is truly endearing, as she enjoys her new-found life outside the gilded confinement. She takes the cake right from the penult to the ultimate moments with the scenes of making maggi and her outburst in front of her family members, respectively.
The relatively unknown supporting actors like Hemant, Saharsh Kumar Shukla, Durgesh Kumar and Pradeep Nagar are peerless.
Film connoisseurs are likely to be moved by fantastic performances, breathtaking vistas and a riveting score. Not a dose of tossed out regular Hindi movies, this one's for the Intelligentsia rather! For taking Indian cinema to the next level, I doff my hat to the maverick, Imtiaz Ali. Take this highway and feel the journey, pronto!
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/movies/highway/md2909.htm
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