Highway - A journey that is Beautiful and Captivating!

The Real People:

Directed and Written by Imtiyaz Ali

Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala & Imtiyaz Ali

Cinematography by Anil Mehta

Music & Background Score by A.R. Rahman

Alia Bhatt as Veera Tripathy

Randeep Hooda as Mahabir Bhati

At A Glance:

The movie cannot be summed up in a glance! From the aesthetics of the visuals to the depths of the characters to the sound details captured in the silence....an experience. There is simplicity in this story and there is depth; There are moments and scenes in the movie that touch you and completely captivate you! Imtiyaz sums up the movie in the following lines: (more or less)

Mai Jahaan se Aayee hoon,

Mujhe Wahaan waapis nahi jaana.

Hum kahaan jaa rahe hain,

Mujhe Nahi Pata...

Par Yeh Raasta...Yeh Raasta bass chalta rahe!

The people on screen:

There were only two....

Randeep Hooda as Mahabir. If you thought Hooda is an underrated actor...well, this movie will confirm that! Hooda gives a performance like never before and not as much through his dialogues as he does via his expressions! 

Alia Bhatt as Veera. Wow! Who would have known that there is so much talent and brilliance residing behind that cute and innocent face? Who else but Imtiyaz Ali. Alia Bhatt not only proves herself but she effectively sets an unachievable benchmark in performance for the rest of the year for the rest of the actresses! Its very uncommon and unexpected that you get to see such a wonderful performance from an actress who is only one formulaic-college-romance-movie old! She is simple and honest and makes you wanna fall in love with her character just as "Preet" does in Jab We Met! Wow Alia Wow!! 

The Tunes:

When Rahman is composing the entire music of a movie, there is hardly any room for a review! The music of the movie is simply fabulous, especially "Patakha Guddi, "Kahaan Hoon Mai" and "Maahi Ve". Alia Bhatt's voice in "Sooha Saaha" sounds as innocent as she looks in the entire movie. Irshad Kaamil of course writes the perfect lyrics and adds so much more meaning to the scenes on the screen! The single theme score composed and used through the movie is "Implosive Silence" and it is moving and haunting at the same time! 

This movie requires a special mention on the Sound Design. There are so many moments of total silence, so many moments where the natural sounds are used to create the ambience. If the cinematography completely enables you to visualize, the sound makes you feel the wind and the water as if you are right there! Resul Pukkutty proves his brilliance in this movie yet again!

Been-O-pinion:

I rate the movie 4.5 out of 5

Its only February and I think one of the best movies that one could expect of Bollywood is already out! No doubt that this movie's awesomeness can be attributed to the excellence of many departments like, cinematography, sound design, music, etc. but the real reasons are Imtiyaz Ali and the performance he extracts out of Alia Bhatt! Imtiyaz, as always, shows how his protagonist achieves a feeling of freedom when she breaks free from her life of comforts and luxury and ends the movie, as always, by showing us that lost love does not equal to pain and despair, but in fact it empowers you and helps you break-free from all your chains in order to live a life of happiness and of your choice!

Not only was I in love with what I was seeing but in fact, I did not want what I was seeing to get over. This Highway should have never come to an end!