Road, Movie

The first thing that you would probably feel at the end of the movie is - The movie was Strange. The movie basically doesn't have a "real" story as in nothing really happens. I would liken this movie to something very loosely on Easy Rider. The protagonists in that movie were on a trip to Mardi Gras, here the Mechanic is searching for a Mela. They encounter few people on the way, they reach the destination and the movie ends - to put it in a oversimplified terms.

This movie does contains few moments of subtle laughter - but doesn't give you enough. The scene with the local water don is quirky and it seems that the movie is going to change some pace - but it is left at that.

Abhay Deol seems to have carried his Dev D attitude in this movie which sometimes feels like a misfit. Satish Kaushik's character as the Mechanic is the best cast.

May be few years down the line this will be termed as a defining piece of work in Indian Cinema - Bollywood does needs to change its face to catchup with the global scene and not be a laughing stock with its song and dance sequences in huge bungalows. This just might be a baby step towards that direction.

There are just four characters in the movie. Vishnu, played by Abhay Deol, wants to do more than just waste his time selling herbal oil as his father does before him. So, he volunteers for a friend to deliver across the desert an old truck which is a mobile cinema. The film is then about his journey, the movies that he plays & more importantly, the people that he meets on the way.

We have seen bits of brilliance from Satish Kaushik in the past, from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro to Calendar in Mr. India, but I think this is the one that he will be most remembered for as an actor. Cast as a veteran mechanic, Kaushik plays a central role in taking the movie in a different direction than the protagonist has planned to. He has been cast very well along with the little boy that Vishnu picks up early in his journey. Both these characters provide for the lighter moments in the film while also inducing some thought provoking dialogue. There is also scope for a female lead. A tribal whose husband was slain over a water dispute some years ago. As she mentions that she too wants to get lost in the magic of cinema, one can't help but wonder if there is a deeper meaning to this sentence. And this deep meaning dialogue is a standard feature of the film.

Wide angle views of the vastness of the desert that lead to nothingness in the desert and a set of women treading along for days in search of water are brilliantly executed. And, other than the road & the movies, they are a common string throughout the film.

The film exists at many levels. At the most superficial level, it appears to be a subtle comedy with situational jokes and a bit of slapstick too. You dig a little, and you find that it is a person's journey to finding himself by having to deal with an old truck, rough, dry weather and some people who have been through their share of pain & suffering and how they still manage to be at peace and look forward to some elusive tranquility.

Dig a little deeper and you find the film is about some inherent social problems that still affect most of rural & tribal India. That something as basic as water can be a reason for murder & arson is hard to imagine but it is brought to us with a lot of sensitivity. How the lead characters almost die of thirst, how they almost get killed for trying to steal water all help appreciate a problem that is alien to most of us.

Dig a bit more and we find that Indian cinema is trying to usher in the seemingly selfish directors who make films from the heart with a message that they want to send across to anyone who tries to understand their cinema. There is no plot in the movie that would build up into something big. For a film like this, there has to be no plot. Very few directors can do it and get away with it. It is a movie that should go down as one that shifted or at least tried to shift the paradigm of Indian cinema.

That said there is much that the director could do better explaining & elaborating a little. Like what is the protagonist actually wanting to do with the truck, how does a particular mela (caravan fair) disappear overnight and mostly, why such a brilliant film seem a bit too long even for its 95 minute run time.

It is most definitely a lesson in cinematographic excellence. One would just hope that it would be a complete movie in itself too.

The movie is awesome! A very brave attempt by the director!

The worst thing that could happen to a director is getting extremely shallow reviews. And which, unfortunately, happened with Dev Benegal. Although critics/reviewers appreciated the movie,but I believe, almost all of them could not decipher the metaphors, woven to form the story, which actually was the backbone of the discourse.Every character, every event in the story is well crafted. So, in this article, I just plan to throw a few hints on the metaphors used in the movie. For the sake of exhaustiveness of this article, I would like to mention that direction, cinematography etc. etc. are superb.

Superficially it seems that the story shows journey of a young boy, 'Vishnu' (Abhay Deol), from his home town to Samudrabad on road. But actually this was a philosophical portrait of 'The journey of life', and subtle metaphors were used as colors.Every thing is very cleverly shown. 1.Huge stress has been given on 'water'. Does 'water' signify water or something else? 2.What do those weird characters (group of water searching ladies, water lord etc.), portrayed by the director, signify actually? 3.Things, like the character of mechanic who always gives the right suggestion or the strange fair that suddenly appeared out of the blue an vanished in Shoonya, mean something ? Or probably are the side effects of Director's Block . 4.What does the 'Atma (means 'soul' in Hindi) Oil', that magically (and comically) solves every problem, signify? 5.At the very first thought, "Road, Movie", why this name?

.....and the list of all those riddles, which should spontaneously pop up in the mind of keen and intelligent viewer, go on . Solving and linking these riddles brings to you a great philosophical discourse.Special mention: The way in which the magic of the mesmerizing virtual world of film been picturized is simply admirable.

So Please go and watch out this awesome movie with the attention and respect that this movie deserves. (Originally posted at http://skepticeye.wordpress.com )

The pace of the movie acts against it. So does the technicalities. While the sunny sides are too many, Road, Movie proves to be a simple movie talking simple story.

Abhay Deol is very good, so is the supporting cast. The deserts & roads & travelogue has been wonderfully shot & photographed. There's nothing much in the dialogs or the score, but the music is kinda cool. Now the makers seem no masochists by implying what they consider the main point of the movie. It talks about life & how every person has to choose the way he lives life. And traveling begets thought.

A very slow, calm movie worth giving a look. The end title sequence will blow your mind.

BOTTOM LINE: Certainly, it is not my cup of tea when it comes to tiresome plots revolving around character's inner blankness. 5.5 out of 10.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

Mouth-Kiss/Foreplay: Mediocre | Sex/Porn/Smoking/Alcohol: No | Violence: Strong | Gore: Mild | Drugs: No

Just came back from watching this movie and realized why Robert DeNero wanted these guys to send him a DVD of the movie. The movie is brilliant. The story is nicely written, the direction and cinematography is superb and the background score could not have been better. Now to the important part, the actors. Mr Benegal got together an excellent cast for the movie and they don't disappoint. Abhay Deol, as usual is awesome. Satish Kaushik and Yashpal Sharma, seasoned actors do their part well, but adding to this was the excellent performance by Mohammed Faisal(the boy) and Tannishtha Chatterjee. And the reason I am ranting about the actors is that there is one scene in the movie which could have either made or broke a masterpiece.

This movie is a masterpiece. Go watch it.

Rating- 9/10