Imtiaz Ali's first movie, Jab We Met, was a marvelous Bollywood romcom, funny and touching and perfectly reconciling modern romance and old-fashioned Bollywood storytelling. His subsequent movies have left much to be desired, which is why I did not watch his latest film, Highway, until I found myself bored on a plane. But having watched it, I am reminded that Ali is still a great writer-director who knows just how to merge the old with the new.
Highway stars the spectacular Alia Bhatt as Veera Tripathi, the daughter of a rich businessman who is about to be married. Tired of the endless wedding preparations and forced politeness to interfering relations, she persuades her fiancé to take her out for a drive in the middle of the night to get some fresh air. (Yes, that is literally all she wants to do, this is Bollywood after all.) However, when they stop at a gas station, they witness an armed robbery, and Veera is kidnapped for ransom.
The leader of the gang is a man named Mahabir (played with angry restraint by Randeep Hooda). He knows it was a mistake to kidnap the daughter of such a well-connected man and simply wants to obtain his ransom and unload her as soon as possible. However, matters get much more complicated. Veera's a rather chatty and neurotic woman, seemingly more suited to being a Woody Allen heroine than a Bollywood damsel in distress. After her initial terror, she grows accustomed to her bizarre life on the road, and becomes increasingly friendly with her captors. But before you chalk this up to a case of Stockholm Syndrome, halfway through the film she reveals something to Mahabir that makes it clear why she might prefer this dangerous life to the opulent one she left behind.
Imtiaz Ali concerns himself with character first and foremost, plot second. While the plot of Highway might meander slightly and veer in and out of cliche, Veera is a brilliantly realized character, full of dreams, darkness, ambition, and heartbreak. This is completely Alia Bhatt's movie; she commits wholeheartedly to this grimy, glorious role and her evolution over the course of the film is remarkable. Hooda does a tremendous job as well, but his character's natural reserve makes it more difficult to plumb his inner depths. But he still has both darkness and light within him and the two actors complement each other perfectly.
Highway may not be innovative by Western standards, but it is certainly a valuable addition to the modern Bollywood canon. From a technical standpoint, Anil Mehta's cinematography is luscious, capturing all the beauty that the Indian countryside has to offer along with the dirt and chaos of its cities. A.R Rahman's magnificent music doesn't drown the scenes but uplifts them, lending even more emotion and pathos to the proceedings. But at the heart of it all are those wonderful performances and that powerful script that has such a sad but necessary tale to tell. This is an honest coming-of-age movie and it is refreshing to see Ali return to his roots of empowering female characters and giving them the agency in film that they still lack in real life.
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