The Good Road (2013)

The " Good Road" first caught my attention when it was pitched against "Lunch Box" as our country's submission for the best foreign film category in the academy awards. I quickly put it done in my " To watch" list and forgot about it. Recently during one of my random visits to the Music store, I chanced upon this movie. Thankfully it came with subtitles.

The "Good Road" is a Gujrati film by first time director Gyan Correa who has gathered most of his film making expertise while making commercials. But the movie surely   does not have any of the gloss that can be  associated with typical TV commercials.

The movie has three intervening story-lines which takes place in the highway 378 which runs along the Rann of Kutch.

David and Kiran (Sonali Kulkarni), a city dwelling middle class couple are on a holiday along with their son Aditya. Accidentally their son Aditya is left behind is a obscure street side dhaba while the parents continue their journey on the highway. The parents realise this miss after several kilometers and this starts a massive search.  Pappu ( Samji dhana Kesariya ), a poor truck driver is struggling to make his ends meet. He comes across a proposal to combat this. The plan is to stage his death so that he can claim the insurance money which is substantial. Poonam is a little girl on the highway trying to reach the village of her grandmother. She lands up taking shelter at a Cloths dyeing center which doubles up as a street-side brothel at night. The three stories intersect with each other at some point in the movie. Reminded me of Babel.

Aditya is found hanging around the dhaba by Pappu's boss and he forces pappu to take him along to the next diner.

Correa has experimented with several non professional actors to give an authentic feeling. Samji Kesariya who played the role of Pappu the truck driver is a truck driver in real life as well and with next to negligible exposure to the world of Cinemas. Thankfully Pappu is taciturn by nature hence his dialogues are cryptic in nature.

 The cinematography was note worthy. The beautiful arid Gujrat landscape and the rann of Kutch leaves a lasting impression.

Lunch Box was probably a better made movie, but the natural acting of some of the real life characters, Amithaba Singh's cinematography, the simple yet unique story line definitely makes the "Good Road" worth the travel.

Verdict :- 6.5 out of 10. Watch it for an unique experience.