Highway : A soulful journey

The first movie which took me through a journey was not exactly a road trip, half of it was on train, half of it was on road. It was Satyajit Ray's thriller way back in 1974 - "Sonar Kella". Most of the Indian movies which takes you through a journey would invariably in northern India, due to it's wonderful roads. Imtiaz himself had a hugely successful journey in his 2nd venture (Jab We Met) majorly in a train, traveled through Punjab and Himachal. So it was expected that he would take us through another wonderful journey.

This film has 1 narrative through Veera (Alia Bhatt), a simple girl from not so simple family, accidentally abducted by Mahavir Bhati (Randeep Hooda), a contract killer. Beauty and Beast started their journey from Delhi, went through 5 more states (Mangar Village - Gurgaon-Faridabad Road) Haryana, (Ajmer, Bikaner, Sambhar Salt Lake) Rajasthan, (Firozpur) Punjab, (Tabo & Kinnaur) Himachal Pradesh & Aru Valley, Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir). 

Imtiaz by nature is a romantic, sufiana, very very soulful storyteller. Like his every movie here also he throws the question to us

Aahein, Dar, Khushi, Raaste
Kachchi Baatein, Sachche Raaste
Kahin Pe In Sab Mein
Kahaan Hoon..Main

This visual poetry brought me back to my favorite lines by Abbas Tyrewala 

Manzilon se raahein dhoondti chalin
Kho gayi hai manzil kahin rahon mein

Veera was never scared, anxious, under any sort of trauma on the face. She was surprisingly amazed, talking to herself, cried and laughed, explored herself in every fold.

Mahabir the beast, was never sure what to do with her. He never had a plan as such. The abduction was an accident, the affection was an accident, his self-exploration was an accident. Only thing he was sure about that, he is going to die. Randeep at his best, being the killer and being the lover. It really amazed me how Imtiaz subtly dealt with his love for himself through his lady love.  

Imtiaz is great in characterization, but I'm not excited about his films yet. Being privileged by the story, Anil Mehta as his eyes and 2 oscar winners ARR & Resul Pookutty as his ears, this film appeared to be a pretty ordinary to me. Aarti Bajaj's editing was a bit abrupt. Imtiaz followed the same treatment as Rockstar starting with handycam shots. The way it worked for Rockstar, it didn't worked here. The bracketed expression required the treatment in Rockstar, which appeared pretty much imposed for Highway. The initial credits starts with random highway shots with apparently no chronological connection with the story. It has a brilliant score "Implosive Silence". But repetitive use of this music somewhat lost it's charm. The typical "maa" angle of bollywood movies took away the charm of this journey from highway to melodrama. Don't know why Veera started dancing all of a sudden.Is it because "Wanna Mash Up" already being scored and they didn't find a suitable place to fit it? I simply couldn't understood why Mahabir's gang-mate traveled all the way to Kolkata to make a phone call and buy Anandabazar, to click a photograph, which they never used. 

Except the scene where Veera ran away and came back and the montage of Pahalgam the camera work is very ordinary. 

A R Rahman has made a very soulful music. Irshad Kamil did a complete justice to his music, or should I say it's otherwise. Overall the album is a good mix of sufi songs to lori to dance number.    

Resul has done his best wherever he could. I loved the way he played with the song "Tu Khuja" during their Ajmer stay.

The ending was very cheesy. Don't know why forcibly Imtiaz has to make it a "boy meets girl" movie. 

Alia is brilliant. She has done whatever she could. She has long future with her singing. Her portion in "Sooha Saaha" says it all. Randeep Hooda did an impressive performance. 

Overal it's a pleasant one time watch with some decent performances and some beautiful glimpse of Himalayas.