NH10 (2015)

You won't be disappointed!

Very well executed

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Once you start watching, you can not leave your seat. The brutality is horrific. It is not advisable to watch with family members. Anushka is superb. The most part of the movie is the night and dark environment; especially at latter part of the story. That is the only drawback; but the story demands like that. The plot is very good. It is not a movie of a standard plot. There is no song in between which weakens the tension.The message in the movie: Do not jump into a trouble and make a mess around you.The only weak portion of the movie, which I feel, is that Arjun shoots an innocent man, who was little bit mentally challenged, of the gang in an accidental fight. Why should the gang take a mentally challenged member in a cruel operation?

There have been several Hollywood movies tackling the theme which involves the horrors of traveling on highways but this is fresh for Bollywood. Director Navdeep Singh, inspired from the British thriller,Eden Lake, did an excellent job of creating the realistic violent action in this slasher thriller starring Anushka Sharma. Meera (Anushka Sharma) and her loving husband Arjun (Niel Bhoopalam) are young professionals living in Gurgaon. Meera leaves a party late one evening to head back to work when she is nearly attacked violently on the way. Unable to identify the attackers, the police suggest that Arjun uses his contacts to secure a gun for Meera's protection. He feels guilty for not being with her during the attack, so he takes her on a luxurious holiday to help her get over her traumatic experience. They drive along the lonely National Highway 10 and go off track. On the way, they stop at a dhaba (roadside restaurant) where they witness a couple, Pinky and Mukesh, being violently beaten and forced into a jeep. No one around is willing to help but Arjun intervenes and gets punched in the face. Little are Arjun and Meera aware of how this is the start of their dangerous series of events.Driving away from the dhaba, the angered Arjun spot the same jeep and follow them despite Meera's plea not do so. When he catches up with the hoodlums and their abductees, he sees that the couple is still getting brutally beaten up. Arjun sees that he can't fight against the guys and decides to go back to the car. While Arjun and Meera approach to get in their car, an unexpected iron rod is swung at Arjun's face. Terrified and overwhelmed, Arjun and Meera are caught by the group. With their gun in the hands of the thugs, they are left defenseless. Furthermore, the beating and torture of the couple turns out to be an act of honor killing, by Pinky's brother, Satbir (Darshan Kumaar) and his friends. Pinky is shot and Mukesh is beaten relentlessly until he is dead. Arjun and Meera fear that they are next and manage to secure their gun by trading their car keys to the simpleton in the group. Now begins the cat and mouse chase that goes through the whole night.Fleeing on foot with the killers in their jeep, Arjun and Meera try to elude their chasers. An altercation with one of the thugs leaves Arjun stabbed in the leg. Meera has no alternative and leaves her husband under a rail bridge to seek help. She runs frantically in the dark until she reaches a hut where she sees a phone. She calls the cops and starts describing what happens, that she had witnessed a case of an honor killing. As soon as he mentions that, the man in the hut grabs the phone and hangs up. Frustrated, Meera is on the run again for a larger village when the police officer she was speaking to on the phone picks her up in his SUV. She discovers that he too, is a part of this honor killing conspiracy and is taking her to the killers. She stabs him in the eye with a pen and uses his vehicle to escape the killers who are now in hot pursuit of her. She makes her way to the nearest village where she seeks the help of the Sarpanch - village head, (Deepti Naval) who is in fact Pinky's mother who ordered the honor killing. Through her ingenuity, she escapes the Sarpanch and heads back to save Arjun. Upon reaching, she sees that he is no more. The goons have already murdered him. Meera is filled with rage. She summons all her strength and heads back to the village to confront the killers.NH 10 tries to deal with two social issues, the violent racist caste community that exist outside the city boundaries as well as the dangers of what could happen on a lonely highway. The action scenes, in the cold and barren badlands of Haryana, were very well choreographed. The pacing of the movie will keep you on the edge of your seat right to the very end. The only minor flaw in this film was the second twist where the Sarpanch turns out to be the mastermind. Having already experienced the first twist when the police officer was in on the honor killing, the second twist was rather predictable.The movie's dark tone and grungy feel is boosted with Karan Gour's soundtrack including Chhil Gaye Naina. The film does not feature your regular mainstream songs but then again, neither is this film nor Navdeep Singh, your mainstream director.

Synopsis In the absence of love and attachment – you turn into a demon – a devil! Male EGO may cost you (males) your life!!….even female ego can…basically EGO is harmful!! Do not interfere in someone else's affairs…Oil you own machine (famous quote in Bengal).Kudos to Anuskha (Anu)! Here is the storyline.Both man and wife (Anushka) are working in the corporate sector. Anu is a Product Manager & is shown giving a presentation of a Woman's hygiene product and her job is to spread (effectively launch & market) the product in the rural areas of India. She suggests the name 'Sathy' (meaning Friend) because usually the rural area ladies seldom go to the market, are shy and therefore send children to the market to buy stuff. Thus an easy name is suggested so that children can remember it easily! She then shows some graphs and charts trying to 'understand the rural India' trends and successfully convinces the board of presenters of her idea…and knowledge of the rural areas…..Immediately after the presentation, she had planned to go on a holiday with her husband – by road – and thus the meeting is broken abruptly – like no questions asked – as the Boss mentions about Anu's holiday plan. This is not taken very well by the other male subordinates in the board room…showing: be it village or town or city…a talented and versatile woman is difficult for the males to digest! Anu was in possession of a licensed pistol – which she had reluctantly accepted only when a police officer had suggested her to carry one. He mentions something like – when an area is going through a teething phase (development), untoward incidents are bound to happen (like she was about to be nabbed by a couple of street thugs …at midnight while she was driving back alone)!! The area happens to be Gurgaon btw…..outskirts of our capital city New Delhi! The beginning of the END: Both drive off and decide to stop by a local dhaba for refreshments. Suddenly Anu and her husband witness a crime scenario – where a brother is seen dragging his own sister by her hair and others in his gang were brutally hitting a boy (sister's lover) right in front of everyone else!! Hubby tries to stop but he gets a slap in return….by the brother……and his male ego got hurt…badly hurt! Hubby could not get over the insult and decides to scare the – supposedly illiterate and naïve villagers – with the pistol – much to Anu's disapproval. Bad decision. Hubby witnesses the brutality with which the brother and his gang members kill the lovers (Manoj and Pinky – both belonged to the same Gotra – a sub-class of caste system – which is not approved by the village elders!) Hubby tires to run away…but unfortunately they (hubby and wife) are caught eavesdropping and the villagers – the gang of 6 people ie. – decide to kill them as well…since they had witnessed the crime! They somehow escape but could not go further and the husband gets badly bruised. Anu makes her husband wait and runs for help towards the village….she reaches the local Police station and finds, to her dismay, that the cops were well aware of the incident and it was considered an 'honor killing' in the locality! The police of course gives his point of view too – saying that they live among the villagers and in order to survive, they have to listen and obey to what the majority believes and follows! The Inspector himself tries to hand over Anu to the thugs – who were first planning to rape her and then of course murder her as well! Hubby was closely related to a senior Police officer in the city – D.I.G rank but the villagers didn't pay much heed to the designation! Tie your safety Belts……Meet the village Lady surpanch! She reaches the village Surpanch (Panchayat Head) and finds that it was headed by a lady – Dipti Navel! Little did she know that Pinky was Dipti's daughter and it was she who had given the orders to kill her daughter Pinky for daring to fall in love and trying to elope with the boy!(yea – the same Anu had made a presentation in the morning saying that villager ladies were shy and do not speak up – lol – and Dipti is shown slapping her grown-up son for being careless!! – like how many educated working mothers residing in Metropolitan cities would dare to slap their sons – even when the son is totally at fault??!not many I am sure – none in fact…….meaning that graphs and charts and venn diagrams do not say a thing about human psychology…and it is such a waste of time and effort!!) Anyways, till the time Anu was concerned about her husband's health, she was scared and anxious to reach him help. She somehow escapes from the brutes but finds that her husband had already been killed by the thugs. It is at this moment, Anu turns into a blood-thirsty she-demon from being a knowledgeable, versatile, talented and intelligent corporate woman…and rightly so! She kills all 5 of them…heartlessly, as cold blooded-ly as they were in killing the couple ..and is shown as a changed woman – re-born in her new avatar – 'a heartless cold blooded killer woman' on her birthday! See, as I started… In the absence of love and attachment – you turn into a demon – a devil! Conclusion: Ego – of hubby took his life ! Hatred – Born out of caste-creed system – killed the couple! Revenge – Anu's vengeance killed the 5 thugs.

First things first, I was a little doubtful of this movie when I was purchasing the tickets because of all the negative reviews I had been hearing on the radio, on TV, and from friends, etc. Turns out, these were the best 100 bucks (yes, 100 bucks; perks of living in Greater Noida) I have spent in a while. The movie was brilliant! A high society couple hailing from a metropolitan of North India head out with nothing but a great weekend on their mind. Little do they know that this adventure road trip of theirs would be met by an incident, pertaining to one of the many social evils that still prevail in the rural parts of India, which would turn their simple journey on National Highway 10 (often abbreviated as NH 10) into a life-altering experience.I was seriously blown away by the acting and direction, which defy most typical Bollywood movie template where the protagonist fights off three dozen gravity-defying goons of the villain but its a neck to neck battle with the antagonist himself, while his lady love (or rather a sidekick with almost no role to play in the movie) dances around needlessly and both survive in the end with a happily-ever-after ending. Obviously, it is seriously not meant for people who love Chennai Express-type movies. If you still decide to give it a shot, expecting even a pinch of romance, believe me you will be disheartened and disappointed with it, just like the couple sitting behind me who walked out of the theater in under 15 minutes. I liked it because it had a beginning, a mid, and an end. And all the three were properly executed, and did not completely defy logics OR physics, as is the case with most action Bollywood movies nowadays. Anushka was outstanding as the main lead, and other characters were pretty believable too. Nothing felt out of the place. And since its kind of a thriller, I really enjoyed the natural and expected behavior from the actors and I must say that in those regards, this movie even pips some Hollywood same-genre movies in which people are shown doing dumb things and act as if they are devoid of any and all common sense when in a life-threatening situation. I must say I was intrigued as well as immersed in the movie, especially in the beginning and in the end. The cast as well as the director were successful in keeping me from getting bored throughout the movie. And so, I hereby declare it a movie which is a bang for your (the no-nonsense and serious movie-goers') buck, and deserves my 9 rating stars.Just a heads up, the movie is rated A, probably because of the one cuss word which is muted out towards the ending. Or maybe its because of violence, which most reviewers here are dubbing as "not- for-the-faint-hearted" *shrugs*. But meh.... No nudity or obscene shots, it is okay to watch it with your family, in my opinion.