Road, Movie

The movie is awesome! A very brave attempt by the director!

The worst thing that could happen to a director is getting extremely shallow reviews. And which, unfortunately, happened with Dev Benegal. Although critics/reviewers appreciated the movie,but I believe, almost all of them could not decipher the metaphors, woven to form the story, which actually was the backbone of the discourse.Every character, every event in the story is well crafted. So, in this article, I just plan to throw a few hints on the metaphors used in the movie. For the sake of exhaustiveness of this article, I would like to mention that direction, cinematography etc. etc. are superb.

Superficially it seems that the story shows journey of a young boy, 'Vishnu' (Abhay Deol), from his home town to Samudrabad on road. But actually this was a philosophical portrait of 'The journey of life', and subtle metaphors were used as colors.Every thing is very cleverly shown. 1.Huge stress has been given on 'water'. Does 'water' signify water or something else? 2.What do those weird characters (group of water searching ladies, water lord etc.), portrayed by the director, signify actually? 3.Things, like the character of mechanic who always gives the right suggestion or the strange fair that suddenly appeared out of the blue an vanished in Shoonya, mean something ? Or probably are the side effects of Director's Block . 4.What does the 'Atma (means 'soul' in Hindi) Oil', that magically (and comically) solves every problem, signify? 5.At the very first thought, "Road, Movie", why this name?

.....and the list of all those riddles, which should spontaneously pop up in the mind of keen and intelligent viewer, go on . Solving and linking these riddles brings to you a great philosophical discourse.Special mention: The way in which the magic of the mesmerizing virtual world of film been picturized is simply admirable.

So Please go and watch out this awesome movie with the attention and respect that this movie deserves. (Originally posted at http://skepticeye.wordpress.com )

Dev Benegal's 2009 film was premiered on Channel 4, where I saw it. Radio Times, in their lazy and scant review, described it as 'plays out like an Indian Cinema Paradiso set in the deserts of Rajasthan', which is only partly true.

Almost nothing can stand up to Cinema Paradiso, that being in my top 5 films of all time, but Road, Movie certainly has its charms. The centrepiece is a colourful, ageing truck that is also a mobile cinema. This van is the ticket to freedom for Vishnu, a restless young man, who wishing to escape being sucked into his father's hair oil business (yes, this is a gentle comedy) and he has a buyer for it; a museum in a town by the sea.

To get there, he treks across the desert (gravelly, but still tough) and his journey and the characters he meets, including the mechanic called upon very early (it HAD to be a temperamental van!) who becomes the projectionist and general fixer-up of everything. There's also a young lad, a runaway urchin. These two could be seen as the Philip Noiret character and the boy in Cinema Paradiso. Then a visually striking gypsy woman, who becomes a romantic distraction for Vishnu, is picked up when they run out of water and she has some.

Bollywood films are the most watched in the world, apparently and so obviously various flicks are shown in sprawling communities, projected onto the walls of dwellings and such.

Shot in deeply saturated colour and looking very attractive, it's not a deep, meaningful film but a nicely distracting, accessible one, nostalgic about long strips of celluloid and the joy that they can bring - and one that western audiences can easily appreciate and enjoy.

It looks like it's generally unavailable in the U.K, at least as a region 2 DVD. I only found this region 1 on Amazon by typing in the director's name and not the film's title - as that brought up hundreds of connotations, but not the right one.

Hopefully now, Channel 4's airing will have it released properly. It certainly deserves to be.

The pace of the movie acts against it. So does the technicalities. While the sunny sides are too many, Road, Movie proves to be a simple movie talking simple story.

Abhay Deol is very good, so is the supporting cast. The deserts & roads & travelogue has been wonderfully shot & photographed. There's nothing much in the dialogs or the score, but the music is kinda cool. Now the makers seem no masochists by implying what they consider the main point of the movie. It talks about life & how every person has to choose the way he lives life. And traveling begets thought.

A very slow, calm movie worth giving a look. The end title sequence will blow your mind.

BOTTOM LINE: Certainly, it is not my cup of tea when it comes to tiresome plots revolving around character's inner blankness. 5.5 out of 10.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

Mouth-Kiss/Foreplay: Mediocre | Sex/Porn/Smoking/Alcohol: No | Violence: Strong | Gore: Mild | Drugs: No

You were not forced to buy a ticket to this and neither were you going to the theaters for a women crying on the remains of her dead son/husband.

Road,movie comes as a completely basic story line that has Vishnu(Abhay Deol) as a boy who goes through a certain phase revolving around poverty stricken, starving population of the deserts and ends the movie as a man.

The others are cameos, Satish Kaushik carves the way with super acting amidst the most gorgeous the deserts have ever looked ! 90 minutes are not very long and Road is more than worth it for within a certain number of years the main behind cinema will shift towards cinematography and art direction.This is the bible for those days.

overall a 7/10 || 8/10 and a pleasure watching the closest Bollywood has ever come to "El aura".

'Road, Movie' is an extraordinary movie and one of the most beautiful films I've seen in recent years. This is the story of Vishnu (Abhay Deol), a young apathetic and carefree guy who hits the road in his old neighbour's very antique kind of a truck, a 1942 Chevy with a traveling cinema in its back carrying Victoria film projectors. For him, this truck is in a sense a way to escape his family's burden - selling Atma hair oil for his dad — and take a week of freedom while driving from Rajasthan to the sea. On his way, Vishnu picks up several passengers who go on this journey with him: a smart orphaned boy, an old wise mechanic, and a beautiful widowed gypsy. Even this barren place has its rulers, however, and they appear in the form of a sadistic policeman and cruel, water-hoarding gangsters.

This movie is visually stunning, poetic, artistic and completely real. Dev Benegal's direction is fantastic. In order to understand the true meaning of this symbolic piece, one would have to figure out what every object in the movie signifies - the oil, the water, the well, the people he meets and goes on this journey with, the group of water searching women he always encounters on his way. This is the journey of life, and everyone is free to interpret it the way they want. But it does not really matter if you just want to enjoy the film. The movie is just engaging, mysterious and interesting without forcing you to find a hidden significance in the story. The situations, the dialogue, the characters, the locations are so authentic and fascinating that the movie flows extremely well. I was captivated not only because it is visually stunning; it is also perfectly paced and has an inexplicably understated sense of life.

Road, Movie captures the serene and peaceful beauty of the broad and desolate desert landscapes. It is done is a way that is so precise that there seems to be no way possible to take your eyes off the screen. This is aided by two aspects which are of the strongest in the film: the exquisite cinematography and the superb background score. These two aspects, done with sheer excellence by Michel Amathieu and Michael Brook, respectively, are perfectly brought together on-screen to create a breathtakingly mesmerising visual treat. The music complements the images and vice versa. I loved the sequences in which the group started screening different classic films, used to relax the villains. From Deewaar (1975) to Jaal (1986) to Andaz (1971). And ironically, Vishnu's father's damned hair oil somehow always comes to his rescue.

As already mentioned, the film is extremely realistic, and the acting is roundly natural. All characters no matter how lengthy or brief they are look totally genuine. Abhay Deol leads this film, and this brilliant actor yet again proves why he is possibly the finest actor of his age bracket. He is a brave actor as he is not afraid to be unlikable or look selfish and he does it exceedingly well. Mohammed Faisal plays the nameless boy who is in search of a better life with ease and conviction. Tannishtha Chatterjee is mind-blowing as the mysterious and widowed gypsy woman. The scene in which she starts singing a beautiful folklore song is wonderful. However, the one who steals the show is undoubtedly Satish Kaushik - he is simply outstanding from start to end. He makes his character so authentic, likable and memorable. This is one of his finest performances and according to me the finest in the movie.

In one of the film's most wonderful dialogues, Satish Kaushik's character says something that really epitomises the power of this picture: "Ah, the magic of cinema - lets you forget life, pain, worry... Takes you far away into a world of dreams." 'Road, Movie' really is a lyrical tribute to the magic of movies - a breathtaking, beautiful and fascinating gem. This is a spectacular picture.