The recent remarks of Madhya Pradesh CM , while on a trip to US, were the highlight of the week. He stated that the roads of MP were better than those of US. This has generated a lot of media buzz and the issue of roads has come back into focus, though unwittingly. I am reminded of a comment that the roads of Patna were better than cheeks of Hema Malini: another utterance by one of our political leaders, Lalu Prasad Yadav.
The roads have been used very well in narratives in Hindi films, specially in later years. However, the genre of Road Movies goes quite a few decades back. The concept is to have majority of events while in transit ( on roads) and thus, reminding the viewer of the excitement he is missing while sitting in the confines of his house. This could be an effective tool with Tourism agencies for their promotion.
Let us try to retrieve the Road Movies on Bollywood.
The first film that comes to mind is Chori Chori ( 1956), the film inspired by the template of It happened One Night and inspired by the recent Roman Holiday ( 1953) !
The format of carefree hero + runaway heiress + road travel formula has been a popular one in hindi films, ever since. Even when the road angle has been exploited partially, it makes for a good watch.
An year later, Nau Do Gyarah ( 1957) - the directorial debut of 21 year old Vijay Anand was released. As the name suggests, it is a film which had characters ' on the run' !
Dev Anand's trip to Bombay in a truck has its own moments, specially as the heroine Kalpana Kartik , a runaway bride disguised s a Sikh boy, is hiding in the vehicle. The two take turns in driving but only till the truth about Sardar Nihal Singh is out !
There have been a number of films with Road in the title , suggestive of the content being substantially related to adventures on the road. In the 60s, there was a film Road No. 303 ( 1960), Burmah Road (1962) and Road to Sikkim (1969). Not much is found on internet about the plots of these films and it appears that they must be having some content related to road trips.
One of the most popular Road Film was the iconic Bombay to Goa (1970), which narrates the hilarious trip on a bus from Bombay to Goa. The characters in the bus are as different as could be. The amusing portions of the film include the following:
The driver and cleaner are called Rajesh and Khanna, respectively. The hitch-hiking by Kishore Kumar ( playing self to shoot for a film Love in Bombay--a film which was released years later!). The hero was Amitabh Bachcan and he was paired with Aruna Irani, who later on played comedienne and vamp also.
In 1988, an autonomous entity called the National Highways Authority of India was established in India by an Act of Parliament, and came into existence on 15 June 1989. The Act empowered this entity to develop, maintain and manage India's road network through National Highways. However, even though the Authority was created in 1988, not much happened till India introduced widespread economic liberalization in the early 1990s. Ever since NHAI got operational in February 1995, more than 1 lakh kilometres have been added, a quarter of them being highways, carrying 40% of the traffic !
On to the Nineties...
The 1991 film Dil hai Ki Maanta Nahin starring Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt was a remake of Chori Chori. The film had good performances, great music and a Mumbai-Bengaluru trip to boot.
Heroes, released in 2008 was a great road trip film with a difference. it tells the story of two film academy students, played by Vatsal Seth and Sohail Khan, who have to make a documentary in order to go to US for graduation. They have to deliver three letters to families of martyred armymen by going on their motorbike. The experiences and interactions with the families changes their outlook.
Post -Piku there have been a couple of films like Khel To Ab Hoga Shuru and Traffic, both in 2016. The latter was a remake of a Malayalam thriller film in which the challenge is to beat the traffic for an urgent heart transplant. The film was acclaimed for its tight story-telling.
The latest release of the genre is Jia aur Jia, last week, incidentally !
Whether the roads of our country are better than foreign lands or not, our politicians are hell-bent on proving that they are totally out of touch with the ground realities of their own motherland.
A thought for the road....
The roads have been used very well in narratives in Hindi films, specially in later years. However, the genre of Road Movies goes quite a few decades back. The concept is to have majority of events while in transit ( on roads) and thus, reminding the viewer of the excitement he is missing while sitting in the confines of his house. This could be an effective tool with Tourism agencies for their promotion.
Let us try to retrieve the Road Movies on Bollywood.
The first film that comes to mind is Chori Chori ( 1956), the film inspired by the template of It happened One Night and inspired by the recent Roman Holiday ( 1953) !
The format of carefree hero + runaway heiress + road travel formula has been a popular one in hindi films, ever since. Even when the road angle has been exploited partially, it makes for a good watch.
An year later, Nau Do Gyarah ( 1957) - the directorial debut of 21 year old Vijay Anand was released. As the name suggests, it is a film which had characters ' on the run' !
Dev Anand's trip to Bombay in a truck has its own moments, specially as the heroine Kalpana Kartik , a runaway bride disguised s a Sikh boy, is hiding in the vehicle. The two take turns in driving but only till the truth about Sardar Nihal Singh is out !
There have been a number of films with Road in the title , suggestive of the content being substantially related to adventures on the road. In the 60s, there was a film Road No. 303 ( 1960), Burmah Road (1962) and Road to Sikkim (1969). Not much is found on internet about the plots of these films and it appears that they must be having some content related to road trips.
One of the most popular Road Film was the iconic Bombay to Goa (1970), which narrates the hilarious trip on a bus from Bombay to Goa. The characters in the bus are as different as could be. The amusing portions of the film include the following:
The driver and cleaner are called Rajesh and Khanna, respectively. The hitch-hiking by Kishore Kumar ( playing self to shoot for a film Love in Bombay--a film which was released years later!). The hero was Amitabh Bachcan and he was paired with Aruna Irani, who later on played comedienne and vamp also.
Caravan ( 1971) was another film which had a road trip with a lot of songs.This was a film which had the elements of road journey of the heroine Asha Parekh who has run away, a happy-go-lucky hero Jeetendra and a seductress Aruna Irani !
The music of the film, by R.D.Burman, was its highlight , with foot-tapping numbers hummed to this day.
The music of the film, by R.D.Burman, was its highlight , with foot-tapping numbers hummed to this day.
One of the reasons we didn't have many Road films in the 70s and 80s was that the roads , specially highways in the country were not so good. In fact, between 1947 and 1988, India witnessed no new major projects, and the roads were poorly maintained, single lane and mostly unpaved.Only about 200 kilometres were 4-lane highways.
In 1988, an autonomous entity called the National Highways Authority of India was established in India by an Act of Parliament, and came into existence on 15 June 1989. The Act empowered this entity to develop, maintain and manage India's road network through National Highways. However, even though the Authority was created in 1988, not much happened till India introduced widespread economic liberalization in the early 1990s. Ever since NHAI got operational in February 1995, more than 1 lakh kilometres have been added, a quarter of them being highways, carrying 40% of the traffic !
On to the Nineties...
The 1991 film Dil hai Ki Maanta Nahin starring Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt was a remake of Chori Chori. The film had good performances, great music and a Mumbai-Bengaluru trip to boot.
- Daud ( 1997) was another 90s film of this genre which showed a small time crook on the run from both gangsters and police. A crime comedy, this Ram Gopal Varma film established him as a creative artiste. The film is an interesting watch with Sanjay Dutt and Urmila Matondkar in the lead and catchy music by A.R.Rahman.
- The Road movies in Bollywood came into their own post-2000.
Dil Chahta Hai ( 2001) a coming - of -age film with a road journey thrown in was a path-breaking effort and endeared the audience with sincere portrayal of three young men, finding their own bearings. Not strictly a road-movie , it had the road trip adding to the bonding of the friends.
In 2002, there were two great Road-centric films, Mr & Mrs. Iyer and Road.
Mr. & Mrs. Iyer was a multi-layered classic, exhibiting the tension between the characters based on their religion, against the backdrop of a road journey they are forced to take together. Rahul Bose and Konkona Sharma acted competently. One of the eminently watchable films of this genre.
Road ( 2002), was, of course, one of the best. Vivek Oberoi and Antara Mali are on their way in a tata safari when they encounter Manoj Bajpai, a hitchhiker. They realise their mistake in giving him a lift, but by then it's too late ! The neo-noir drama captures the uncertainty of the impending events with chilling effect. Ram Gopal Varma showed that he is a master of the genre he picks up ( remember his Bhoot, in the horror genre ?)
- These two films paved the way for other film makers to include in their narrative a "road" angle , even tweaking the plot for this inclusion. Bunty aur Babli ( 2005) , Kabul Express ( 2006) and Jab We Met ( 2007) had interesting episodes on the road, though their stories were focussed on different themes.
Dhamaal (2007) was as slapstick comedy about four friends on a road trip to find a treasure, as was Bombay to Goa, released the same year, but was no patch on its namesake film.
The film to stand out was Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd ( 2007), which had six couples on a road trip, with a mysterious biker following them. The comedy-drama had competent performances by the ensemble cast and the Road was used an apt prop.
Heroes, released in 2008 was a great road trip film with a difference. it tells the story of two film academy students, played by Vatsal Seth and Sohail Khan, who have to make a documentary in order to go to US for graduation. They have to deliver three letters to families of martyred armymen by going on their motorbike. The experiences and interactions with the families changes their outlook.
In the last 10 years there have been around ten films revolving around the theme of Road trips. Anjaana Anjaani ( 2010) was shot mostly abroad, so we got to have a look on the roads in foreign land, finally. Liar's Dice (2013) was about the journey from a small village on the mountains called Chitkul which borders China to the industrial land of big dreams, Delhi city.
Films such as Finding Fanny ( 2014) , Ho Gaya Dimaag Ka Dahi ( 2015) and All is Well (2015) used the Road to take forward their story, but two films Highway ( 2014) and NH10 ( 2015) actually made the "road film" genre come alive again.
Highway is the story of a girl with the Stockholm Syndrome ( more on this in the article http://amitabhn-randomthinking.blogspot.in/2017/05/blog-post_19.html).
Alia Bhatt plays the kidnapped victim , who goes along with her kidnappers ( Randeep Hooda, in particular) in a journey, which takes her through six states.
A love story, a social commentary and an adventure story, all rolled in one!
Films such as Finding Fanny ( 2014) , Ho Gaya Dimaag Ka Dahi ( 2015) and All is Well (2015) used the Road to take forward their story, but two films Highway ( 2014) and NH10 ( 2015) actually made the "road film" genre come alive again.
Highway is the story of a girl with the Stockholm Syndrome ( more on this in the article http://amitabhn-randomthinking.blogspot.in/2017/05/blog-post_19.html).
Alia Bhatt plays the kidnapped victim , who goes along with her kidnappers ( Randeep Hooda, in particular) in a journey, which takes her through six states.
A love story, a social commentary and an adventure story, all rolled in one!
NH10 tells the story of a young couple whose road trip goes awry after an encounter with a group of violent criminals. Part of the story is loosely adapted from the 2007 Manoj-Babli honour killing case. The film's title refers to the 403 km long National Highway 10. Anushka Sharma and Neil Bhoopalam are the protagonists.
The anthology must have a mention of Piku ( 2015) whose posters displayed a commode-chair atop a vehicle which took Amitabh Bachchan, a grumpy old man ( mostly on account of his dysfunctional digestive system !) from Delhi to Kolkata. Accompanying him was his daughter played by Deepika Paudukone and the driver/owner of the taxi, played by Irfan Khan.
Post -Piku there have been a couple of films like Khel To Ab Hoga Shuru and Traffic, both in 2016. The latter was a remake of a Malayalam thriller film in which the challenge is to beat the traffic for an urgent heart transplant. The film was acclaimed for its tight story-telling.
The latest release of the genre is Jia aur Jia, last week, incidentally !
Whether the roads of our country are better than foreign lands or not, our politicians are hell-bent on proving that they are totally out of touch with the ground realities of their own motherland.
A thought for the road....
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