Bengali Movie Highway 2014 (Bengali Flim Review)

Highway

Cast: Parambrata Chatterjee, Koel Mallick, Silajit Majumder,

          Rita Dutta Chakraborty, Dipankar De, Sabitri Chattapadhyay

Direction: Sudipto Chattopadhyay

A name that brings to mind a road, maybe a road trip, and lots of adventure. Sadly, this Highway has none of that. In fact, at the end, you are left wondering why the film was given that name to begin with.

As for the movie itself, it's basically a two-hour play that was shot on celluloid by mistake; director Sudipto Chattopadhyay's, I guess. The stage-like positions and blocking of the actors, the lack of visual variety and the long scenes give the film the feel of a stage production. Not once is the picturesque setting of the hill town exploited to enhance the visual appeal of the film during its two odd hours of screen life. We understand it's been done to death, but sometimes, even repetitions can be refreshing. The storyline, too, is not worthy of celluloid. It's a play at best.

Moreover, the film lacks direction and is heavy on dialogues promoting a famous hotel in the hill town, where a major portion of the film is based. In fact, the beginning is beautiful enough to elicit genuine interest, but as the film progresses, it seems to get more and more obscure. Towards the end, you really start wishing there is some kind of twist. But I guess that's the real twist — there is no twist, no climax... just a mundane, yawn-inducing, and pretty shocking end. Shocking because you can't believe you spent money and time to watch 'this'!

But it's the acting that gives the film a decent bit of credence. All the seven characters the film revolves around deserve pats on their backs. Though Koel looks quite a bit older than her on-screen hubby Parambrata, we can't really strike out her name from the list of good actors in the film. She has done justice to her role. It's apparently the make-up artiste who is not quite up to the job, as even Rita looks over made up, though she does relatively well as the grieving mother. Parambrata, Silajit and Gaurav, too, justify their roles. But it's Dipankar De who takes the cake. In fact, his portrayal of the elderly Pulak is the most believable part of the film. And even Sabitri Chattapadhyay, who doesn't have a single dialogue, is good with her use of body language and expressions.

The music, too, is worth listening to, especially the Arijit Singh number, Khela shesh. The background score is not jarring and stays just where it's supposed to - in the background. Over all, Highway is a movie you can watch just to relive some basic human emotions, which the actors have expressed well. Or you can simply buy its music CD and listen to the songs (recommended). The choice is yours.