Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Road, Movie

Vishnu is a young nothing from Jaisalmer, staring at a life of selling hair oil, his dad's business, and is not pleased. Fortunately for him, he stumbles upon an old neighbourhood uncle who is planning to drive his old Chevrolet truck (cinema theater on wheels) to a town by the sea and donate the damn thing to a museum. Vishnu volunteers to drive and envisages a long drive full of "foul smelling farts" - its not to be as he encounters 3 strangers on the way, who pull him away from life as he knows it.

Written & directed by Dev Benegal, 'Road, Movie' belongs to the burgeoning class of alternate / independent / not-fucked-up-Bollywood cinema. Whilst the plot seems familiar, the truck, the landscape and the sparseness of it all, makes it wurf-it. Abhay Deol does a good job as a young nothing - he is definitely an actor to monitor - got an eye for cool roles. I don't think the plot does justice w.r.t developing some of the other characters - the little boy and the fat man (Satish Kaushik). Last word: Mr. Benegal is, arguably, as pompous as his Bollywood director friends.

Rating: * * +

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