I caught ‘NH-10’ on a lazy Sunday. It was at a single screen theatre, close to home and was a walk in purchase that too, nominally priced.
The movie’s basic premise was of a yuppie, upwardly mobile couple, living in a posh locality, in New Delhi/Gurgaon, holding well paying jobs. One night after a party, Meera(Anushka Sharma) is driving back in her SUV and gets waylaid at a traffic signal by a couple of biker goons. Since her husband, Arjun(Neil Bhoopalam) knows the local DIG of Police, they are able to log a complaint against unknown assailants as also apply for a gun license.
Then it’s Meera’s birthday and they both decide to go for a romantic outing, driving down the NH10 cutting across the Haryana badlands. While the initial few miles/minutes were good, they do get a sample of the local unfriendliness when they get off to ask for directions.
A chance encounter with locals who carry out a honour killing in front of their eyes, sets of an irreversible chain of events that turn their whole world topsy-turvy and thereafter, what was originally a pleasure outing, turns into a desperate fight/flight to survive the night and get back to civilization, as we all know it. Out there, as a cop succinctly puts it, the law of the land ceases to be in force the minute one crosses the last mall in Gurgaon. After that, the Khaps rule with an iron fist and the entire populace, including the cops are part of that parallel system.
The pace is frenetic each scene draws the viewer into the picture and one wonders what is going to happen next.
There are no songs as such, but the background score is terrific. Majority of the shooting is at night, and the couples travails and struggle to survive has been well depicted. All of this, in the course of one night.
In that rural jungle, there is nobody to help, nobody to turn to. Just have to survive on raw adrenalin and smarts.
Majority of the dialogues are in Haryanvi and may take some getting used to, but the expressions/tone, leave no scope for misunderstanding as to their intent.
Best scenes:
Meera driving away after the first assault by the bikers
Meera stabbing the cop in the eye with her ballpoint pen as a reflex action
Her climbing up the rock face
Her desperate run thru the night to get help for her wounded husband
Minimalist, but hard hitting, dialogues in the rustic Haryanvi dialect
The picturisation of the honour killing was captured in its gory detail
The cop explaining the whole caste concept and justification for why the station in charge refused to help her.
Her meeting with the local sarpanch(Deepti Naval) in a different role
Meera holding the kid hostage to escape from the clutches of the killers
The climax when she turns into an Indian version of the ‘Bride’ from ‘Kill Bill’
No songs. Terrific background music in keeping with the mood/tone of the events on screen.
Couldn’t really think of anything that could have been done better, accept maybe, wish that Arjun hadn’t been so foolhardy and got himself and his wife into this whole sordid mess.
This movie is not for the weak hearted as a day later, I still can visualise the extent of danger driving on those streets. How a simple case of road rage can lead to a brutal killing since the people there are more brawn than brain.
This is one exposure, us city slickers haven’t had and wouldn’t really mind not having, ever!
The reviews say this is an adaptation of some English movie, but then, I have neither seen nor heard of it, so will restrict my comments to this movie.
Me and my wife thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a totally new and different movie experience.
Rate it 4*. Wouldn’t mind catching it once again.