HIGHWAY ("NOT THE BEST OF WAYS")

February 21, 2014.

Cast: Randeep Hooda, Alia Bhatt.

Director: Imtiaz Ali.

Veera (Alia Bhatt), a business tycoon’s daughter is kidnapped by Mahabir’s (Randeep Hooda) gang by mistake. What follows is a case of the Stockholm syndrome where Veera starts falling for her captor Mahabir.

As always Imtiaz Ali comes up with something different (though the central premise is love just like all his previous films), a road movie that takes you to several Indian states with stunning landscapes captured beautifully by Anil Mehta. Though it’s an AR Rahman musical you only get to hear “Patakha Guddi” mainly (Maahi ve comes during the end titles) and a few BGM scores placed at long intervals in an otherwise silent movie. Now that might be an important point to take note of for the ARR fans.

Highway is a film loaded with positives and negatives to the extent that makes most of the audience indifferent by the time the film ends; the positives mainly being the terrific performances by Hooda and Alia (except for a few scenes in the beginning that are strikingly similar to Kareena’s role in Jab we met which really puts you off). Hooda who is silent most of the time offers an intense screen presence and is equally good when he breaks down at a later point in the film.

The screenplay shows hints of the normal Imtiaz Ali with humor at regular intervals, though less in quantity compared to his previous films, but other than those occasional scenes what you get is total silence most of the time which becomes a bit too much as the film progresses. Imtiaz Ali seems to have deliberately made that decision but it backfires big time mostly.

The history of the lead pairs ,especially Mahabir, seems a bit too stretched, unnecessary and boring. The argument that it is necessary for the lead pair to develop an intense bonding cannot be made considering the messy and stretched execution especially when the rest of the film contains lengthy silent sequences.

Still what keeps the film going are the strong performances as mentioned earlier and some really good scenes that come every now and then. One really big miscalculation on the part of Imtiaz Ali is the blatant preaching session in the climax which really takes away the mood and the film ends up much lesser than what it could have been otherwise.

I am giving a generous 3 for Highway considering the novelty and boldness. But I would not recommend that you watch it!

Rating Scale (Out of 5)

Less than 2                   -           Unwatchable.

2    to 2.25                   -           Below average.

2.5 to 2.75                   -           Average.

       

3    to 3.25                   -           Good.

3.5 to 3.75                   -           Really Good.

4    to 4.25                   -           Great.

4.5 and above               -          Extraordinary.