Art & Entertainment

Road

Road does not catch you by the collar and take you to the edge of the seat. Nor does it make you bite your nails in fear. It just keeps a hold on you with constant, unexpected twists and turns.

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Road
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That Rajat Mukherjee wants to tread on a road less travelled is apparent in the title sequence itself with the spiffy credits rolling out like a simulated drive on an expansive virtual freeway. There are other definitive ways in which the film tries to swerve away from mainstream traffic—it has a script that doesn't meander too much and a narrative which largely stays on course. Most of all, it's different in the way it tries to take the audience along on its protagonists' journey, at the end of which everyone's left wondering whether it's more dangerous to offer a lift to a stranger or to take one.

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Road is a racy road movie, a tingling thriller, an unusual love story and also a disturbing comedy. Most of all, it's a character exposition. The entire narrative moves with one individual alone—the bizarre Babu, played with an obvious relish and uncanny flair by Bajpai. Regular guy Arvind (Oberoi) and impetuous and effervescent Lakshmi (Antara) decide to elope and get married. On the way, they encounter the stranded Babu who turns their trip into an endless nightmare. Babu's strange motivations are never fully explained, nor is his past laid out in detail. You never get to know what really made him go awry. But his queer unpredictability is the source of all the jolts and jerks in the plot and makes for some capricious viewing. Just when you start smiling along with Babu, he decides to give you a little startling scare and in the thick of tension he breaks into a caricaturish song. All the other characters are like props that help in fleshing out Babu's many eccentricities. Even Oberoi doesn't really have much to do other than chase Babu. Only Antara, as Lakshmi, grabs a meaty bite because much of the focus remains on the changing dynamics of her relationship with Babu.

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Don't expect Road to be a shocker. It doesn't catch you by the collar and take you to the edge of the seat. Nor does it make you bite your nails in fear. It just keeps a hold on you with constant, unexpected twists and turns. In that sense, the movie is like a bumpy road itself—a pothole here, a curve there, a speed-breaker right ahead. In the days of HAHK, DTPH, ABCD and WXYZ, here's one film that takes its name seriously. Which is not to say Road's perfect. It could have been tighter, slicker and racy, and it could have done well without all the irritating, and absolutely pointless, song-'n-dance items. However, these flaws notwithstanding, Road doesn't take the viewers for a ride. As a bonus, you also get a sneek peek at the intriguing trailer of Ram Gopal Varma's Bhoot. Watch out for it.

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