NH10

                   Why do multiplex audiences watch movies? More particularly, why do I watch movies? To unwind, de-stress and relax! Not necessarily for a good laugh! But to watch a good story being told! Or, to borrow Vidya Balan's phraseology, for 3 things: Entertainment, Entertainment and of course, Entertainment ! I headed to the nearest multiplex today, after a long spell of flu-enforced home entertainment, to see NH 10, thinking it was about women's safety and status in a dichotomous India, with all its urban-rural and other divides! And after 15 minutes into it, I knew I had made a mistake! 

                  It's a dark-dark film, with not a moment's respite! One has seen many Hollywood movies of the same genre, highway encounters, gory tails of adventure, blood and grime! But this was too much to handle! Anoushka, the modern "English type" girl from Delhi, and Neil, the hubby who lets her drive alone at night on highways, are on a well-earned holiday when they get embroiled in an honour killing in the shrub lands of Haryana. There is no law and obviously no law-enforcement. "Jahan tharey Gurgaon ka akhiri Mall howey, Wahan democracy Khatam ho Jawey" or something to that effect, say the Goondas, to justify their lawlessness! . Anoushka and Neil run for their lives; on foot, in jeep, in SUV and are hounded by the killers all through the night! Police chowki Constable and the I/C are, of course cohorts of the Family, Jati, Gotra leaders, but, in a grotesque scene, the Chowki I/C has to lose an eye to a combative Anushka, before he realises what he has on his hands! 

                An edgy drama, the movie is well directed, if you care for this kind of cinema. Anoushka has done well, both as a producer and as an actor! But the last half of the movie is unbelievable! Where does the city-slicker find the courage to do what she does? " Jo karna tha, so kar diya" ! I kept waiting for some positive twist to the tale, but there was virtually none! Even Deepti Nawal is cut in the same mould as the rest of the clan in the Jati/ Gotra bullshit! What bothered me was the hopelessness of the struggle, as even the young boys are being groomed with the same 18th century mindset and cultural conditioning! It's repugnant, grotesque, morbid.... 

                You may call it realistic cinema, ultra realistic even, if you please! To me it was macabre, with nothing to reduce the heightening stress, from one frame to the next! Too many stupid, split-second decisions, without a thought for the consequences and the dangers kept mounting. As a result, I was left asking myself some questions all through the movie. Why does Neil go after the goondas when he is on his way to a great holiday; has a pretty, young wife with him in an expensive SUV? Why doesn't Anoushka stay in the car when the hubby goes off, trying to find the goondas to scare them a bit? How come the one house she finds shelter in, happens to belong to the perpetrators of the heinous crime? The one jeep -load of rural people who realise that "bechari ladki kasht me deekhey hai" , do nothing to help her? Maybe that's what life is and maybe that's what the director is trying to say: good people must do more than offer lip-sympathy! But hey, it doesn't make sense. Because the Good Couple does something and what does that lead them into ? I accept that it's a realistic portrayal of what goes on, but it was just too much to stomach! I sat through with a pounding headache and heightened palpitation, just to see what happens in The End!