Director: Dev Benegal
Star Cast: Abhay Deol, Satish Kaushik, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Mohammed Faisal Usmani, Virendra Saxena, Yashpal Sharma
Road Movie is an interesting movie in the sense that despite being labeled as an art movie belonging to parallel cinema, it has a mainstream actor like Abhay Deol.
But irrespective of whether it is a main stream commercial movie or not, a film works on the basis of its storyline and what the film wants to say. If the story is good, you are hooked to the screen and if it is not, you just want to get out. It means, a movie is successful if its viewer can understand and interpret what it wants to say. Road Movie, which talks of experiences of a young man on the road fails precisely here as you fail to understand the message it wants to give or what’s it all about.
Moreover, the makers of Road Movie have made the same mistake, which most film makers dealing with parallel cinema do – they have shown India as a land of poor, beggars, sick and hungry and drought ridden people.
This is a tale of Vishnu [Abhay Deol], who wanting to escape from his father’s falling oil business takes a journey on a truck. During this travel, he finds he is not merely transporting a worn-out vehicle, but an old on the road cinema.
Soon, on his way he is joined by other people like a young runaway [Mohammed Faizal Usmani], a wandering old entertainer [Satish Kaushik] and a gypsy woman [Tannishtha Chatterjee], all of whom he picks-up during his journey. Together, they roam around searching for water and mysterious fair. They are also interrupted in the way by corrupt cops and a notorious water lord.
The movie starts of well and certain scenes like Abhay’s interaction with kids and Satish Kaushik is thoroughly enjoyable. The film looks good till the sequence where Abhay and Satish show the movie to the cops but loses track thereafter.
The portion of the fair in the movie is confusing since the viewer fails to understand whether or not it’s a dream sequence. Other sequence like the scenes of water mafia, Abhay trading water for oil, and the romantic scenes between Abhay and Tannishtha are all absurd and do not attract your attention.
The story and the screen play of the film are weak, and the direction by Dev Benegal is also quite ordinary. The music of the film also fails to attract you.
On the technical front, it the great camera work by film’s cameraman and good dialogues that catch your attention.
Yes, it is the acting skills of both Abhay Deol and Satish Kaushik, which is the highlight of the film. They have been supported well by Mohammed Faizal Usmani, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Virendra Saxena.
Road Movie once again prove a point that art movies or parallel cinema is for a certain audiences only. Such movies may be praised at film festivals but do not go well with the people in general.
