Highway: Review

Highway is slow, bland and keeps shuffling between entertainment and monotonicity with a gentle tilt towards the latter.

The fallacy of Imtiaz Ali’s Highway is that even though it does pass through all toll-ways and well made roads but in effect, it’s a smooth journey that lacks potholes or bumps (read, excitement and a surprise element).

In fact, there is little to check out for than what one witnesses in the promos – Mahabeer (Randeep Hooda) kidnaps Veera (Alia Bhatt) and they end up developing feelings towards each other.

Had it not been some decent performances by Hooda and Bhatt, and the outstanding work by the side-kicks, this over two-hour Highway ride would have turned into a boring one.

What goes well for Highway is a story that develops endearingly and convincingly with outstanding character descriptions and their evolution scene by scene.

As the two protagonists are on the run, various state’s police is on red-alert look-out for Veera and Mahabeer. But then that mad hunt by the police never seem to push you on the edge of your seat. In a sense you know that nothing’s going to happen till the end of the movie, so you end up sitting back and enjoy the little moments and jolly adventures of the characters on screen.

Highway touches upon the importance of tiny joys of life which are missing for many in urban set-ups. Early on, after a while into getting abducted, a claustrophobic Veera recovers from the initial agony and realizes that this (open spaces and freedom from everyone) is what she always wanted from a holiday. She exclaims: “Jab bhi holiday pe jaate hain, wahan hotel mein hi check-in karte hain. Tou phir kyon na Dilli mein hi kisi hotel mein check-in kar jaayen?” (Wherever we go for a holiday, we check-in to a hotel, they why not check-in to a hotel in Delhi itself!)

The movie is reminiscent of Jab We Met as far as inner turmoil of primary characters is concerned: On the run in reality but on-the-run from one’s own deeper repressions. And as in previous flicks, Ali’s detailing (on each aspect) remains meticulous in Highway, too.

Randeep Hooda remains cucumber-faced for a larger portion of the movie. That is an fairly easy feet to achieve but what’s not so simple is to subtly mold the facial expressions as the feelings within are transiting gradually. Starting off from a murderer to be a circumstantial kidnapper and then to a runaway, Mahabeer finally turns out be a tourist guide cum lover. Each transformation is a mammoth challenge and Hooda pulls it off more than convincingly on every occasion.

Veera doesn’t fear an endless travel with a bunch of junkies. Her talkative nature is infectious, both for the viewers and the side-kicks who keep dropping-off the odyssey in between. In one scene, an accessory of Mahabeer asks Veera to pose for a picture; after a hilarious exchange of dialogues he eventually tell her that she needs to portray a sad look so that seeing the picture her parents believe that she is under a state of distress (which she isn’t because it’s an adventure for her).

The movie touches upon another increasingly pertinent topic in our society: Child Sexual Abuse. Whereas one would develop sympathy for the victim but one doesn’t feel the excruciation of the victim that usually comes along post a horrendous event of this magnitude. The portrayal is incomplete in this aspect.

For Highway, where on one hand the cinematography is excellent and the location selection is sight-seeing stuff in itself, the background score, on the other hand, fails to click. Most of the folk songs are loud and they doesn’t force an adrenaline rush as the lorry twists and turns on the hilly terrain ride. To add to the viewers dilemma, there are a number of dialogues that Hooda says in complex Haryanwi; On each of them you have read to his facial expression because his mumbling is incomprehensible.

My rating is 3/5 for the freshness Alia Bhat brings in punched with brilliant performances by Randeep Hooda and his associates. Indeed, they do fill the auditorium with genuine guffaws on more than a handful occasions.