After scintillating performances in Dev D, Manorama Six Feet Under and Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye, Abhay Deol’s typecast acting in his recent flick Road, Movie was a major turn off. God knows what Robert Di Niro found impressive in this haphazard and loosely handled movie! Probably, the importance and value of water, money and hunger struck a chord with the Hollywood superstar. Though the plot was good, the execution was dismal. The message was very unclear and the story became boring right after half an hour. My hopes from the talented Deol were dashed to the ground because his acting prowess did not match the storyline or probably both were not up to the mark.
The storyline just dragged and the jokes were not funny at all, very very repetitive indeed. The movie started on a comic note where Abhay’s father in the film wants him to pursue the family biz of selling ’Atma’ hair oil despite its detestable stench and low sales record. However, Abhay plans to escape the torture by offering his old uncle a helping hand in parceling an old truck to a distant museum located somewhere near Rajasthan. On his way Deol unwillingly accepts the entry of a street urchin looking for a better way of livelihood and a motor mechanic (played by the versatile Calendar oops I mean satish Kaushik!). Then begins the journey of the trio that at first promises a search-for-the-soul kind of a storyline. The three, later joined in by a tribal woman set forth a journey in search of water for the parched land and its inhabitants and even fight a Waterlord and hoodwink a corrupt police officer.
The most ugly, unacceptable and highly unconvincing part of the movie was the Mumbaiah accent of the Rajasthani lad and the suave English accent of the tribal girl played by Tannishtha. Even Deol couldn’t help keeping away from his Punjabi accent at times. The way the water Mafia was fooled by Deol was very very juvenile and silly. He sold his father’s hair oil bottles in return for a few litres of water for the villagers, the message that his arrogance changed into an empathetic attitude was understated and hence unclear.
The importance of happiness and laughter via the medium of Cinema was again not presented well. I had to rack my brains to put these concepts together post watching the movie so that I could write this review.
Mr Deol broke my heart with his monotonous dialogue delivery. He looked as delusional as he was in Dev D. The only redeeming feature of the flick was Satish Kaushik’s exemplary performance. He overshadowed the rest of the cast members with his versatility and ease with which he handled a challenging role.