~~~~Highway reviews ~~~~~ - Page 4

Review:

There is something incredibly tantalising about watching an Imtiaz Ali movie. Like a messiah of the confused millennial generation, Ali descended into Bollywood to show them their love stories giving incredible gems at the start of his career such as Socha Na Tha, Love Aaj Kal and Jab We Met.

Then came the introspection. It seemed that with Rockstar Ali wanted to get into the zone of coming-of-age stories. This is a disturbing trend. An established director should seek to stay in his comfort zone if he sees that straying from his zone wreaks havoc. Highway continues this trend with an angsty protagonist played by Randeep Hooda (Mahabir Bhatti) and a rich brat Alia Bhatt (Veera Tripathi) who is about to get married falling in his clutches after a late night drive goes wrong.

Ali once told me that he loves the freedom of writing his own story, dialogues and screenplay before he wields the directorial mike. With Highway, Ali gets into digital filmmaking for the first time but the story and screenplay somehow never come together. Ali throws in too many unpredictability for the audience and moves the pace of the movie in a non-rhythmic manner. If this is meant to show the relationship between captor and captive and its progression from contempt to Bollywoodised Stockholm Syndrome, Ali fails to pulling it off.

The redeeming features though make this movie a one-time watch. Alia Bhatt tries hard to convince us of her ever-changing feelings for her surroundings and her wide-eyed wonder helps her to a great extent but she is still a rookie. Randeep Hooda is a delight though. From his mastery of the local language to his rural angst against the ways and means of the rich to his conflicting feelings for Veera, Hooda pulls off Mahabir Bhatti with aplomb.

The vistas are another feature of the movie. Even if the screenplay doesn't quite stand up by itself, the rolling hills of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, the fields of Punjab and the flat barrenness of Rajasthan are enough to mesmerise the audience.

A R Rahman's music is less powerful than his earlier scores but the songs in Highway nevertheless touch a chord. No matter how many times you listen to Nooran sisters rendered Patakha Guddi, when it finally comes on screen, you can't hep but hum along to the tune.

Highway is a great visual and audio treat with great cinematography and an effective background score. But the movie lacks something vital - something that Ali has always promised to give us in his films. Highway lacks heart.

To watch the trailer of this movie, click here

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