Highway
















I watched this movie today with my dad and we were just mesmerized.  A little background info on my father - he fell asleep before Mufasa died in The Lion King (which is basically the beginning of The Lion King) and usually falls asleep within 40 min of a Hindi movie.  So yes, it's a little rare for him and I to actually watch a movie until midnight with him wide awake and engrossed in the tale!

It's rare these days for a movie to truly bring me into it's world, where I feel like I'm actually watching a story unfold,  not just smirking/scoffing/blindly being entertained by song, dance, flashy costumes and toned limbs.  I'm a Bollywood fan through and through and I'm often inspired by the glitz and glamour but sometimes you just need to sink your teeth into something more than that.

This movie was amazing.  I'm not saying it's perfect, but... it's very, very close, as close as you're going to get when telling this story unless you're going to do a 3+hour film.  Alia Bhatt's performance was incredible - one of the best performances I've seen, I can't imagine anyone else being in this role.  Randeep Hooda was unrecognizable he was so the character.

I'm just in love with this movie.  Everything, the shots, the acting, the silence in this movie is so beautiful.  AHH. Love love lovee.  I was so intrigued by this film when the trailer first came out and knowing it was an Imtiaz Ali film with AR Rahman doing the music I was like for sure I'm going to watch this right away, kicking myself now that this never happened.

I think, the first thing that got me hooked in this movie (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) is the vividness with which Imtiaz Ali (the director) depicts Veera's (Alia's character) abduction.

I was so tense, I was cringing, my heart was racing, I really felt it.  Watching them shove the cloth down her throat, seeing her screams, her cry, her vacant expression as she resigns to her fate.. it was painful.  Obviously as a woman, I just feel this more than a male would.  You can't help but view it as real.  When one of the abductors tries to take advantage of her, the whole sequence just made me so tense.

Her innocence, her joie de vivre, her confidence, her pain, it was beautiful.  It's something I think I'm missing, I don't think I can ever look like that, I don't think a lot of people can look like that anymore.  She has something special - her innocent look is really unique.  I think the background that was written for the two characters and the way they shared it was perfect, it made the story what it was.

Anytime I feel like I can analyze something in my head, anytime cinema makes me think/feel, absorbs me into it's world... I'm the happiest person alive.  Art makes you feel something, and this movie made me feel.  Definitely going to sleep satisfied today.



Oh also - just love the fact that there's a mainstream movie that became a hit that literally just tells a story.  There's no objectification, there's no glamour, there's no item song.  It's a story about a girl and a guy, they look dirty for most of the film, they wear the same clothes, it's just pure.  I love that.

I actually just watched 2 States yesterday (my dad didn't watch the whole thing "slow moving" he said and left) and today when I put Highway in my dad was like Alia Bhatt again?? At the end of this movie he said "Now I like Alia Bhatt more, she did a good job, no joke", which essentially is like the highest compliment ever lol.