The Film: Road
Starring: Manoj Bajpai, Vivek Oberoi, Antra Mali, Rajpal Yadav
Director: Rajat Mukherjee
Producer: Ram Gopal Varma
Music: Sandesh Shandilya, Nitin Raikwar
Lyrics: Khilesh Sharma, Jaideep Sahni, Nitin Raikwar, Makrand Deshpande, Taabish Romani
Score: * * ½

Inspired by Hollywood film like Breakdown (1997) starring Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan, Road is a racy thriller trying to set a different trend in Indian filmmaking. Here is a good cake and it is half-baked. So you have the first half which grips you like anything while the 2nd half makes you feel like not praising the movie at all. Till the initial part of the movie, I thought here a nice breakthrough movie which will get top rating but unfortunately as the movie rolls you reserve those compliments.

Sadly, the director loses the pace and his focus goes more on the navel of the actress rather than the actual story that gripped you earlier.

The first thing that impresses you are the film titles, now that’s what I call creativity.

Set in a desert like the Hollywood film Breakdown, this film was shot in Rajasthan. The first half effectively captures the twists and turns of an undulating, picturesque yet treacherous landscape of the Thar Desert and Australian outback.

The Road crew endured some extreme conditions with temperature dipping to 5 centigrade and rising to about 50 centigrade in the dry heat of summer.

The story is about a young couple Arvind (Vivek Oberoi) and Lakshmi (Antara Mali) who are in love and run away from the family to get married in Rajasthan. Though their parents are aware about there aware this couple runs without informing them.

The girl’s father happens to be some DCP of Police but that hardly makes the difference on the script as the folks only wake up when the script demands!

On their way they find a car on the road which looks empty without any driver. Once they move further they find a man requesting them for a lift. The stranger called Babu (Manoj Bajpai) lies that his car had a breakdown and manages to get lift from them.

As they move further he start irritating the couple and there comes a time when he has a control over them by showing his pistol. He elopes with Lakshmi while Arvind has to chase him down with the help of a truck driver.

The stranger turns out to be a man connected with the under world, he is a psycho but at the same time he does not take the advantage and rapes the chick dressed in a sexy outfit.

He falls in love and keeps asking Lakshmi if she had a choice in her college to chose between him or Arvind then who would she opted for? He starts thinking that Lakshmi too has started liking him.

Some of the fight scenes between Vivek and Manoj are quite well shot, but the chase shown in the 2nd half is not very convincing.

Also you are confused as to what is happening though there are no sub plots here.

One wonders why the director only shows the couple meeting psychos and mad caps. During this journey, they come across eight abnormal characters.

Manoj Bajpai's character is the highlight of the film besides the background score given by Amar Mohile. Cinematography is also good. The music is hard-hitting and different, which will appeal to the youth.

Both Vivek and Anatara characters fit like a glove and they act reasonably well. But for Vivek there is not much opportunity for him to show more of acting skills like it was in Company. Also one can se that he is bit repetitive in his style – he surely has the Company hang over in this film. Also the dance steps of Anatara look like they have been inspired by Urmilla.

On the whole a movie worth recommending.