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Critics Review
4.00
Highway is a Journey into India�s Heartland
�Highway� is riddled with ironies, not necessarily intentional. Veera falls in love with Mahabir�s angst-laden past, but is aware she has no future ahead with him. So the tragic ending, when it comes, is no surprise. A responsible director can�t be accused of glorifying a life of crime. Hence in the end, the entire premise of the love story, constructed with painstaking intensity, falls apart all of a sudden, leaving us with a sense of emptied-out expectations. we are left with a deeply dissatisfying film whose very incompleteness lends a sense of beauty to the narrative. �Highway� is a sprawling stretch of splendour, created by a director who shoots every frame in a painter�s vein. Layered, luminous and evocative, this is a world that M.F. Hussain would have created if he were a filmmaker.(more)
Source: Subhash K Jha , IANS
3.50
Highway is not a sunny, funny road-trip
Wealthy Veera is kidnapped by brutish Mahavir. Is she on a highway leading to hell - or away? It is Imtiaz Ali's starkest, darkest work yet. Rich Veera (Bhatt) steps away from her Monsoon Wedding-style shaadi preparations (a handheld camera capturing gold, ghaghras and a girl going, "Bhaiyya, flavvers lappet do!") for a break with her reluctant fiance. Driving into a foggy Delhi night, Veera steps out to breathe free - and gets kidnapped by violent criminal Mahavir Bhaati (Hooda) and his gang. Gagged, tied-up, slapped and starved, Veera's thrown onto a terrifying truck that drives off on a never-ending highway, leaving established society far behind. What does Veera experience on this trip?(more)
Source: Srijana Mitra Das, Times Of India
4.00
Highway makes for the kind of cinema we need, perhaps not something we entirely deserve.
Highway is Imtiaz Ali's fifth film and, I suspect, his first film too. His previous efforts seem like milestones on a modern highway, designed to bring him closer to the movie he really wanted to make. The signs were visible: road trips, eloping couples, destructive alpha males, epiphanies around snowcapped Kashmiri peaks, meditative montage sequences. As exemplary as his filmography has been, the focus has always been on a couple, on relationships, hence making it easier for his work to be flawed. In cinema, there is no right way to portray fictional characters; there are only good or bad ways. (more)
Source: Rahul Desai, Mumbai Mirror
4.00
Don't miss it!
Sify.com / Movies / Reviews / Bollywood / Highway Review: Don't miss it! 6 Mail Print Highway Review: Don't miss it! Sonia Chopra 8 Comments Movie: Highway Director: Imtiaz Ali Cast: Alia Bhatt, Randeep Hooda Avg user rating: The film is about two people. Or even better, the people beneath those people. Beautifully written, deeply philosophical, visually astounding and absolute fun � Highway is unadulterated joy. Veera (Alia Bhatt), the daughter of a Mr. Moneybags, has been kidnapped by goons. She�s bundled up in the back of a truck with a dirty rag stuffed in her mouth. The look in her eyes� a mix of helplessness and fear� could haunt you for days. It�s a ransom deal and the leader Mahabir (Randeep Hooda) instructs his men to keep watch. The film is about a beautiful bond between two people� a bond that peels away the layers and makes them both see inside themselves. In other words, as it often is in true love� they become each other�s best friend and shrinks rolled into one. The superficial age and background disparity only adds to the fun. You won�t find a more unlikely pair, and yet they�re so similar intrinsically. I refuse to divulge anymore of the story, as the fun is in the ride, as one character evocatively says in the film (in any case, they�ve said too much in the film�s promos).(more)
Source: Sonia Chopra, Sify.com
4.00
Highway will be a special experience for you, especially if you like road movies.
Film has an anti-capitalistic undercurrent in its theme. The hero (even though he appears in antagonist attire), portrayed on screen by Randeep Hooda, hates rich guys and the girl he kidnaps is the daughter of an insanely rich businessman who can go to any levels to get his daughter back. The protagonist Veera (Alia) has seen everything what rich can offer and is bored of it. She throws clothes of her artificialness of a rich, materialistic life behind and starts a journey with her own kidnappers; a journey in which she starts to get some fresh air and 'feel' her life. At this point, film touches the philosophy of new age Gurus like Osho. Cinematography of Anil Mehta and tranquila music of AR Rahman takes the film into a whole different level. (more)
Source: Venkatesh Prasad, One India
3.00
Highway dishes out a trip that is definitely worth the price of the ticket.
Writer-director Imtiaz Ali has hit a road less taken. The result is a stylish two-hander that is defiantly unconventional, if not entirely satisfying. Shot on stunning locations spread from Delhi all the way up to the slopes of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, via the plains of Rajasthan and Punjab, the film yields bewitchingly beautiful images. But it isn�t just the visual and auditory delights on offer that make Highway a sensitive, understated entertainer. Its two exceptional characters sway to the kind of subtle emotional riffs that usually elude mainstream Hindi cinema. Days ahead of her wedding, Veera Tripathi (Alia Bhatt), happy-go-lucky daughter of a politically connected Delhi tycoon, goes for a spin on an impulse in her beau�s swanky sedan. At a deserted gas station off the highway, the city girl is abducted by a gang led by a gruff, rustic criminal, Mahabir Bhati (Randeep Hooda).(more)
Source: Saibal Chatterjee, NDTV Movies
2.00
HIGHWAY is a triumph for Alia Bhatt, who delivers a marvelous performance
Who would've ever thought that Imtiaz Ali would opt for an offbeat pairing in HIGHWAY [Randeep Hooda, Alia Bhatt], after casting perfectly-matched couples in JAB WE MET [Shahid, Kareena], LOVE AAJ KAL [Saif, Deepika] and ROCKSTAR [Ranbir, Nargis Fakhri]? But Imtiaz is known to think differently, he goes by the dictates of the story and his films reflect that distinct quality. HIGHWAY is no different. The film takes an altogether different route, in terms of casting as well as content. The sole aspect where one can draw parallels between Imtiaz's earlier films [JAB WE MET in particular] and HIGHWAY is that this one also traverses the landscapes of India. First the plot before we move forward. A city girl, Veera [Alia Bhatt] -- young, full of life -- is on the highway at night. With her fianc�. They are scheduled to get married in four days. Suddenly, her life is swung away from the brocade and jewellery of marriage to the harsh brutality of abduction. She is taken away by this group of rustic criminals. (more)
Source: Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama
