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There's rarely a way to compliment a director for trying without it seeming both condescending and like foreshadowing a lengthy exegesis of their film's failure. But it is important to note that Imtiaz Ali is not some run-of-the-mill hack, and that when he goes awry, it's from having tried something interesting that didn't work, rather than trotting out shopworn banalities. There's a lot to like in Ali's latest, "Highway," which is a gorgeously assembled, ambitious piece of work, although it doesn't coalesce into a holistically successful film.

It opens with Veera ( Alia Bhatt ), convincing her fiancé to take her for a drive to escape their all-consuming wedding preparations. The fiancé, under duress, complies, and per his fears about straying too far from the house at night, when they stop at a gas station, Veera is abducted by masked bandits making an escape. When her abductors find out who she is—the daughter of an extremely rich and influential man—the leader of the group panics and Mahabir ( Randeep Hooda ), Veera's initial abductor, takes her and sets out on his own to ransom her, seething with anger at the ruling classes. And yet, from this decidedly unpromising starting point, romance first buds and then flowers between Veera and Mahabir.

It's to Ali's credit that he controls the tone and pace to such a degree that the romance feels organic, rather than a screenwriter's contrivance. Veera finds, in fairly short order, that being held hostage by a band of quasi-radical bandits is actually less constricting than upper-class bourgeois life. Her ease with the bandits throws them all for a bit of a loop, and gradually chips away at Mahabir's monolithic, humorless exterior and before he knows it, he's taken with her incongruous pleasantness, and he begins to see her as a young woman rather than a symbol of the hated plutocracy.

Once Veera and Mahabir are in love, the film suddenly finds itself without apparent options, and its metaphorical highway becomes something of a dirt road through the woods on a foggy evening. The ultimate resolution becomes fairly inevitable at a certain point, however much one might wish it to not happen. The last few minutes of "Highway" are very awkward, especially in contrast to the lyrical sweep of the previous hour and a half or so, and lead to an extremely muddled final image, which suffers in contrast to the clarity of the rest of the piece. And so it ends, and too bad.

To leave off on a higher note than the film itself does, "Highway" has a number of virtues. Anil Mehta's cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, with some sublime panoramic shots once Veera and Mahabir get to Himachal Pradesh in northern India. And, as for Veera and Mahabir, Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda give passionate if slightly raw (especially in Bhatt's case) performances. Their chemistry is terrific, even if the continuity from scene to scene flags a bit in places. When they're at their best, though, the two leads are a delight to watch, and Bhatt in particular should have a long career ahead of her if she continues to get good parts in interesting films.

For, whatever else can be said about it in terms of it working or not working, "Highway" is a kind of film there should be more of: an impeccable display of craft, with both a brain and heart, that tries something new. Its peaks are wonderful; the one among which not yet mentioned being "Pataka Gudhi," the song immediately post-interval, the proverbial "good A.R. Rahman song," which textually coincides perfectly with Veera's first realization of her complete freedom from her stultifying home life. If not for the film's tendency to drift off into the ether to the complete loss of all its momentum and purpose, and for the horribly awkward conclusion, "Highway" might be a very good movie indeed. Instead, it's an inconsistent, if intermittently splendorous, work. There are, to be perfectly clear, far worse things in life.

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Film credits.

Highway (2014)

133 minutes

Alia Bhatt as Veera Tripathi

Randeep Hooda as Mahabir Bhati

Durgesh Kumar as Aadoo

Pradeep Nagar as Tonk

Saharsh Kumar Shukla as Goru

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Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Shrini G 31 158 days ago

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Superb all ...Alia Randeep Durgesh Imtiaz

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Amazing acting skills but something unsaid

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good movie with amazing acting skills

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Somewhat confusing but good movie

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Telugu actor Raghu Babu's car rams into a bike on highw...

Randeep Hooda reacts to Kangana Ranaut calling Alia Bha...

Randeep Hooda reveals he maintained distance from Alia ...

Imtiaz Ali calls Alia Bhatt 'unexpected actor' for 'Hig...

Revisiting the Highway journey

Short film on road safety to hit the screens

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Highway movie review: Anand Deverakonda's serial killer film tortures you more than the killer his victims

Highway movie review: kv guhan’s serial killer film starring anand deverakonda and abhishek banerjee is illogical, bland, and lackluster in every way conceivable..

There is a scene in KV Guhan’s thriller Highway, where the serial killer D ( Abhishek Banerjee in his Tollywood debut) tapes his victim’s eyes open so that they can witness their own torture. Frankly, watching the film for two hours felt a lot like that--tortured, painful, and waiting for it to end. Highway is a simple film with a promising premise, which falters so badly in execution that you wonder how one can make such a lackluster film with a decent plot and good actors. Also read: Abhishek Banerjee says co-star Sunita Rajwar would get upset with him

Highway, set in the outskirts of Hyderabad, introduces us to photographer Vishnu (Anand Deverakonda), who is travelling to Bangalore for an event. Along the way, he helps a runaway teenager named Tulasi, who needs to get to her estranged father. A parallel track sees police officer Asha Bharath (Saiyami Kher) hunting a dangerous serial killer, who has killed five women and is on the hunt for more. How these two stories converge and Vishnu finds himself in a dangerous situation forms the crux of the film.

As I said, an interesting premise but it all goes downhill from here. The plot has more holes in it than a kitchen sieve, the acting is either monotonous or over-the-top (there’s no middle ground), and the background music is a serious assault on the senses. The comedy is so cringeworthy, sexist and forced that it often feels like you are watching something from the 90s.

It seems the makers and writers of the film have never met real people or observed how real people behave. Because in this film, everybody behaves as illogically as possible, as if it’s a stupidity contest. Cops can’t see an obvious clue dangling in front of their eyes, the killer tries his best to behave like a killer at every possible moment without any worry about getting caught, and women disregard safety while a serial killer is on the loose. I stopped noticing logical flaws halfway into the film because it was hard to keep up by then.

The film lacks finesse and subtlety, with every character repeating what is happening on the screen just so that the audience do not miss it. It is like hammering a nail that is already all the way inside the wall. It’s redundant and infuriating. But is there anything redeeming in Highway? Abhishek Banerjee, of course! The Pataal Lok-fame actor has been handed an undercooked and unidimensional character with no coherent back story and he still manages to do something special with it. He is menacing, scary, and at times, even fun to watch. Everyone else falls flat sadly. Saiyami Kher, normally a reliable performer, has been reduced to just standing at crime scenes exasperated. She and her character both deserve better. Anand Deverokonda is lackluster and frankly looks like a cardboard cutout at times. Manasa Radhakrishnan tries to play the part of a hapless, innocent teenager to the best of her abilities. But sadly, the script and direction do not help her much in the process.

Highway began streaming on Aha Telugu from Friday, August 19, and frankly it is a good choice that the film chose not to release in theatres. On OTT, it may find some audience. But it’s hard to see why anyone would voluntarily watch this film. It’s a cautionary tale on how not to approach an interesting subject. Watch it only if you are prepared to be disappointed in more ways than you can count.

Director: KV Guhan

Cast: Anand Devarakonda, Abhishek Banerjee, Sayami Kher, Manasa Radhakrishnan

Abhimanyu Mathur is an entertainment journalist with Hindustan Times. He writes about cinema, TV, and OTT, churning out interviews, reviews, and good old news stories. ...view detail

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Book Reviews

With four kids in an old studebaker, amor towles takes readers on a real joyride.

Heller McAlpin

The Lincoln Highway is a joyride. Amor Towles ' new Great American Road Novel tails four boys — three 18-year-olds who met in a juvenile reformatory, plus a brainy 8-year-old — as they set out from Nebraska in June, 1954, in an old Studebaker in pursuit of a better future. If this book were set today, their constant detours and U-turns would send GPS into paroxysms of navigational recalculations. But hitch onto this delightful tour de force and you'll be pulled straight through to the end, helpless against the inventive exuberance of Towles' storytelling.

Like his first two novels, The Lincoln Highway is elegantly constructed and compulsively readable. Again, one of the ideas Towles explores is how evil can be offset by decency and kindness on any rung of the socio-economic ladder. His first novel, Rules of Civility (2011), set among social strivers in New York City in 1936, took its inspiration from F. Scott Fitzgerald and its title from George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation . His much-loved second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow (2016), incorporated nods toward the great Russian writers and shades of Eloise at the Plaza and Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel . Mostly confined to a single setting — Moscow's luxurious Metropol Hotel — it spanned 32 years under Stalin's grim rule.

Towles' new novel ranges further geographically — from Nebraska's farmland to New York's Adirondacks by way of some of New York City's iconic sites — but its action-packed plot is compressed into just 10 days. The Lincoln Highway, which owes a debt to Huckleberry Finn, revisits American myths with a mix of warm-hearted humor and occasional outbursts of physical violence and malevolence that recall E.L. Doctorow's work, including Ragtime .

The novel begins on June 12, 1954 and ends on the same date, clearly not coincidentally, as A Gentleman in Moscow . When we meet him, Towles' latest hero, Emmett Watson, has been released a few months early from detention in consideration of his father's death, the foreclosure of the family farm, and his responsibility for his 8-year-old brother, Billy. (Billy has been ably taken care of by a neighbor's hard-working daughter, Sally, during Emmett's absence; she's another terrific character.) The kindly warden who drives Emmett home reminds him that what sent him to the Kansas reformatory was "the ugly side of chance," but now he's paid his debt to society and has his whole life ahead of him.

Shortly after the warden drives off, two fellow inmates turn up, stowaways from the warden's trunk — trouble-maker Duchess and his hapless but sweet protegé, Woolly. (In another fun connection for Towles nerds, naïve trust funder Wallace "Woolly" Wolcott Martin is the nephew of Wallace Wolcott from Rules of Civility. )

Eagerness to discover what landed these three disparate musketeers in custody is one of many things that keeps us turning pages. Expectations are repeatedly upended. One takeaway is that a single wrong turn can set you off course for years — though not necessarily irrevocably.

'A Gentleman In Moscow' Is A Grand Hotel Adventure

Author Interviews

Idea for 'gentleman in moscow' came from many nights in luxury hotels.

The Lincoln Highway is, among other things, about the act of storytelling and mythmaking. The novel probes questions about how to structure a narrative and where to start; its chapters count down from Ten to One as they build to a knockout climax. Towles' intricately plotted tale is underpinned by young Billy's obsession with a big red alphabetical compendium of 26 heroes and adventurers — both mythical and real — from Achilles to Zorro, though the letter Y is left blank for You (the reader) to record your own intrepid quest.

Billy is determined to follow the Lincoln Highway west to San Francisco, where he hopes to find his mother, who abandoned her family when he was a baby and Emmett was 8. (The number 8 figures repeatedly, a reflection of the travelers' — and life's — roundabout, recursive route.) Whether riding boxcars or "borrowed" cars, Towles' characters are constantly diverted by one life-threatening adventure after another — offering Billy plenty of material for a rousing Chapter Y, once he figures out where to begin. One thing smart Billy comes to realize: He belongs to a long tradition of sidekicks who come to save the day.

"Most of us shell our days like peanuts. One in a thousand can look at the world with amazement," Towles wrote in his first novel. Of course, Towles is drawn to that one in a thousand. His interest is in those whose zeal has not yet been tamped down by what Duchess (the only first-person narrator) describes, with improbable flair for a poorly-educated 18-year-old, as "the thumb of reality on that spot in the soul from which youthful enthusiasm springs." With the exception of Woolly, the teenagers in this novel are remarkably mature by today's standards, and burdened by cares. But at any age, it's the young-at-heart who are most open to amazement — people like Woolly, who may not be cut out for this world but who can appreciate what he calls a "one-of-a-kind of day."

There's so much to enjoy in this generous novel packed with fantastic characters — male and female, black and white, rich and poor — and filled with digressions, magic tricks, sorry sagas, retributions, and the messy business of balancing accounts. "How easily we forget — we in the business of storytelling — that life was the point all along," Towles' oldest character comments as he heads off on an unexpected adventure. It's something Towles never forgets.

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Route 60: The Biblical Highway

Carving through the heart of the Promised Land is the Biblical spine of Israel, sometimes referred to as the "Path of the Patriarchs" and officially designated as "Route 60." A highway of de... Read all Carving through the heart of the Promised Land is the Biblical spine of Israel, sometimes referred to as the "Path of the Patriarchs" and officially designated as "Route 60." A highway of deep historical significance while often the scene of unrest and violence, this 146-mile roa... Read all Carving through the heart of the Promised Land is the Biblical spine of Israel, sometimes referred to as the "Path of the Patriarchs" and officially designated as "Route 60." A highway of deep historical significance while often the scene of unrest and violence, this 146-mile road of asphalt and concrete begins in Nazareth, Israel's largest Arab city, and ends in Beer... Read all

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The Highwaymen

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The Highwaymen depicts law enforcement's side of the Bonnie and Clyde manhunt -- a story that's unfortunately not quite as entertaining despite its marquee leads.

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‘Paradise Highway’ Review: A Test of Loyalty

A truck driver’s brother asks her to deliver a girl to sex traffickers in order to save his life in prison.

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By Concepción de León

Growing up in a violent home, Sally (Juliette Binoche) only had one person to rely on: her brother, Dennis (Frank Grillo).

Years later, Dennis is in prison, and now depends on Sally, who is a truck driver. When Dennis tells Sally that she must carry illicit cargo or he’ll be harmed, she is determined to come through, even after she finds out that the “package” she’s meant to deliver is a girl named Leila (Hala Finley).

“Paradise Highway,” written and directed by Anna Gutto (“A Light Above”), follows Sally and Leila as they run from both the benevolent F.B.I. agents, played by Morgan Freeman and Cameron Monaghan, and the sex traffickers looking to recover Leila. They are kept company only by a shotgun and the radio that connects Sally to a network of other women truck drivers. Their camaraderie and Finley’s performance as the troubled Leila are highlights in a film that otherwise does not quite hit its stride.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Binoche is not believable as a working-class American truck driver, and her lingering French accent seems out of place in that world. In addition, the vague danger to her brother is difficult to accept as enough motivation for her to participate in such a heinous crime.

Though it is refreshing to see members of law enforcement focused on recovering and supporting a victim rather than pursuing her abusers, it does not allow for much narrative tension. If only the film had taken a broader view, filling in more details about the lives and motivations of the truck drivers as well as the sex traffickers.

Paradise Highway Rated R for language and some violence. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV , Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.

Concepción de León is a writer and book editor based in New York. More about Concepción de León

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Highway is not an easy ride. But it offers fresh breezes and new sights.

Highway Movie Review

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Filmfare Awards

Shrini G 31 158 days ago

Anoushkha Nerurkar 228 1159 days ago

Superb all ...Alia Randeep Durgesh Imtiaz

Durgesh k 1419 days ago

Amazing acting skills but something unsaid

Durgesh 1419 days ago

good movie with amazing acting skills

Nandini 1 1419 days ago

Somewhat confusing but good movie

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• This film marks the first collaboration of uncle-nephew duo Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. Arjun is the son of Anil’s brother Boney Kapoor. Share
• This film marks the first collaboration of uncle-nephew duo Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. Arjun is the son of Anil’s brother Boney Kapoor.
• This is the second time Arjun Kapoor is playing a double role, the first being Aurangzeb (2013).
• The song ‘Yamma yamma’ from ‘Shaan’ is sampled in the song ‘Partywali Night' for the film.

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