Film Festival Film #7: Road, Movie

[bcholmes]

This film turned out to have a lot more buzz than I was expecting: the audience filled the Winter Garden Theatre (I love that theatre). Road, Movie is Dev Benegal's latest film. It tells the story of Vishnu, a young Indian man who works in his father's hair oil business (Vishnu is played by Abhay Deol -- who appears to be very well-known to Indian audience members).

Partially as a way to get away from a business that he dislikes, he agrees to drive a truck to a distant town (I think it's only referred to as "the city by the sea"). The truck is an old 1942 vehicle that's been outfitted with two old movie projectors, as a sort of travelling cinema. Along the way, he picks up a group of travelling companions -- a boy who wants to try out life somewhere else; an older man who proves helpful on the many occasions that the truck breaks down; a woman wanderer who lives in the desert looking for water (the film consistently describes her as a gypsy).

Along the way, they encounter beautiful desert landscapes, corrupt police officers, a carnival that might or might not have been a dream, and an evil water-hoarding gang leader who admires the structure of corporations. The film flits around from mood to mood. One scene will be very serious; another will be whimsical. Sometimes it goes right into larger-than-life comedic standoff. In some ways, it's about the magic of cinema: the characters inhabit various cinematic moments, and only film logic applies on their travels.

Because it doesn't follow the Hollywood story structure, it's easy to have the sense that the film goes on a bit long in some places. And I think it does. But it was good fun, and I'm glad I saw it.