Road, Movie (2009)

A young man's journey across the mythic Indian landscape becomes a life changing odyssey.

Director:

Dev Benegal

Writer:

Dev Benegal

Stars:

Abhay Deol, Satish Kaushik, Tannishtha Chatterjee

2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Abhay Deol	...	Vishnu
Satish Kaushik	...	Om
Tannishtha Chatterjee	...	The Woman
Mohammed Faizal	...	The Boy (as Mohammed Faizal)
Yashpal Sharma	...	Waterlord
Virendra Saxena	...	Police Chief (as Veerendra Saxena)
Amitabh Srivastava	...	Aatma - Father
Suhita Thatte	...	Mother
Roshan Taneja	...	OPJ - Truck Owner
Shradha Shrivastav	...	Sister (as Shraddha Shrivastava)
Hardik Mehta	...	Masseur
Shabbir Hussain	...	Hair Oil Convention President
Bharat Vaibhav	...	Head Constable
Rajinder Grover	...	Waterlord's Driver
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Niraj Kothari	...	Developer

Storyline

VISHNU, a restless young man, itches to escape his father's faltering hair oil business. An old truck beckons, which Vishnu sees as his ticket to freedom. He offers to drive the antique Chevy across the desert to the sea, where it has been sold to a local museum. As he sets off across the harsh terrain, he discovers he's not merely transporting a battered vehicle, but an old touring cinema. Along the way, Vishnu reluctantly picks up a young runaway, a wandering old entertainer and a striking gypsy woman. Together they roam the barren land, searching for water and an elusive fair. The journey turns dire when they are waylaid by corrupt cops and a notorious waterlord. The key to their freedom is the eccentric collection of films and the two forty-year-old film projectors in the back of the truck. As in 1001 Nights, if the films are good, they live and move on. If the films are boring, they face death in the outback. The journey proves transformative for each of the travelers, but ...

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Plot Keywords:

truck | water | desert | mechanic | death | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dev Benegal has directed two movies, Road, Movie (2009) and English, August (1994), with commas in the title.

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Goofs

When showing the arrival of performers for the fair, the setting sun is first shown about to disappear behind the horizon and a few scenes later it is higher above the horizon.

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Crazy Credits

Before the end credits, the film acknowledges to have ended by a slide-show of the words "The End" in different fonts, types, colors & even languages.

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Connections

Features Ram Jaane: God Knows (1995)

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Soundtracks

Courage
Written by Eric Haman
Performed by Vieux Farka Touré featuring Issa Bamba

User Reviews

Strange !

The first thing that you would probably feel at the end of the movie is - The movie was Strange. The movie basically doesn't have a "real" story as in nothing really happens. I would liken this movie to something very loosely on Easy Rider. The protagonists in that movie were on a trip to Mardi Gras, here the Mechanic is searching for a Mela. They encounter few people on the way, they reach the destination and the movie ends - to put it in a oversimplified terms.

This movie does contains few moments of subtle laughter - but doesn't give you enough. The scene with the local water don is quirky and it seems that the movie is going to change some pace - but it is left at that.

Abhay Deol seems to have carried his Dev D attitude in this movie which sometimes feels like a misfit. Satish Kaushik's character as the Mechanic is the best cast.

May be few years down the line this will be termed as a defining piece of work in Indian Cinema - Bollywood does needs to change its face to catchup with the global scene and not be a laughing stock with its song and dance sequences in huge bungalows. This just might be a baby step towards that direction.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India USA

Language:

Hindi English Rajasthani

Release Date:

5 May 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Road Movie

Company Credits

Production Co:

August Entertainment, Indian Film Company, Studio 18

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor) Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1