'Highway'...is the right way!

-Spoiler Alert-

what happens when two damaged individuals take a journey together? Highway revolves around this question.

A simple plot of a girl, Veera tripathi (Aliya bhatt) getting kidnapped by Mahaveer Bhati (Randeep Hooda), and held for ransom, moves ahead with a journey through beautiful and scenic roads of Uttarakhand and unfolds into a very delicate treatment of one of the most sensitive issues - Child abuse. Even while having such a serious issue as one of the supporting pillars of the story, the movie does not get too serious and retains its entertainment value. Entertainment while dealing with a social issue - a pleasant surprise!

It seems like at some point, the director decided to chop off all the unnecessary scenes, resulting into a gripping storyline. Without forced jokes, the characters make the audience laugh. There is no 'Koochi-kooing', so its a safe watch with kids and elders. There are some scenes in the movie that will remain in one's mind even after leaving the theater, in a pleasant way. I personally have two such favorite scenes - 

• Aliya Bhatt's dance sequence and
• the small conversation - Veera : "ek goli mein ek admi to mar jayega na?", Bhati : "Do...Jispar chale hae, aur jo chalave hae." 

Aliya Bhatt shows a lot of potential and I shall look forward to her better performances in future. The role had a lot of scope and an experienced actor could have done much better. To totally appear and be the character that one plays, is mark of a matured actor; Randeep Hooda has it. Another character that deserves a mention is 'Aadoo' played by Durgesh Kumar. Though Aadoo has only a small role, he manages to leave a mark. He even makes audience clap for his dance performance. if you've already seen the movie, you'll know what I'm talking about; if you haven't, when you do, you'll agree. A. R. Rehman's music does little to add to the movie. It shall remain only something to be used for the promotions. Take away the music, and yet the quality refuses to diminish. 

For some mysterious reasons, the movie 'Ye Jawani hai deewani' was portrayed as a movie having Travel/Journey to do something with the main plot, which I beg to differ, immensely. Highway does justice to this idea. Being subjected to crass movies in past few weeks, I was loosing hopes with Hindi Cinema. 'Highway' restored my hopes. Hats off to Writer/Director Imtiaz Ali for this masterpiece. 

If you haven't watched this movie, go for it. 
Rating 7/10