SYNOPSICS
The Good Road (2013) is a Gujarati,Hindi movie. Gyan Correa has directed this movie. Ajay Gehi,Sonali Kulkarni,Shamji Dhana Kerasia,Priyank Upadhyay are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2013. The Good Road (2013) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
Pappu is a truck driver. Supporting his parents and extended family is beyond his means. Now, he has been presented a plan. An accident will be staged. Pappu will "die". Insurance payments are substantial.David and Kiran, a middle class urban couple, with their son Aditya, are on a holiday. Aditya will be accidentally separated from them during a brief halt at a Dhaba. And his loss will only be discovered several hours, and several hundred kilometers later. They must double back to find him. Poonam is an 11-year old-year-old child from the city. She is looking for her grandmother, living in a town at the end of this highway. Tired and hungry, Poonam wisely stops at the Topaz, what seems to be a small garment dying unit.Aditya will be found by a local dhaba owner, and put onto Pappu's truck. Has Aditya found a new and unlikely home on this truck? Later, when it is too late, Poonam will discover that the Topaz is not quite the place for her. She will be confronted, forcefully, with the ...
More
The Good Road (2013) Reviews
Interesting Stories, But Fails to Have Any Sort of Impact.
A truck driver, unable to support his extended family properly, gets some outside help to stage an accident for insurance claims; a couple, on their journey through rural Gujarat, finds their son missing due to their carelessness; a small girl, who on her way to her grandmother's house, accidentally and unwittingly halts at a place which is darker than it appears to be. Three interesting stories, beautifully entwined with each other, keeps you hooked till the very end. Though the screenplay is thought-provoking, the movie ultimately fails to have any sort of impact on you. The overall acting is just okay; the performance by the two small kids and the truck people really stand out, and is quite commendable. The cinematography is spectacular, and elegantly captures the rural Gujarat; it adds to the beauty of the stories. The music also helps create a good feel to the film. With a better screenplay, a superior direction, and more skillful acting, the movie could have had better impact on the viewers. Though the movie doesn't bore you in its 90 minute long well-paced screenplay, ultimately it becomes one of those movies which can be seen and forgotten.
And The Oscar Hope Loses Its Audacity. ♦ 62%
Let's not compare movies here, for God's sake. The Lunchbox is a fine authentic movie. The Good Road is adventurous, rusty & indigenous. But, to be frank, the epistolary drama would've had a better chance at Oscars. Talking about three partially inter-connected stories, The Good Road moves with a gradual pace. A kid accidentally left out in a local diner as his parents swoosh off in their jeep, a small girl trying to get to her granny & an illegal deal involving two cocky truck drivers - the story connects at the end chafing the low story-depth it had carved since the beginning. The implications are high & vague at the same time, as the plot talks about parents' carelessness towards their children during trips, corruption among policemen, how hapless truck drivers get involved into illegal deals, how young women get lured into whorehouses & regard it as their homes in a fore-course and it is the will of a person that drives him/her towards something. Out of line, the plot concentrates on the story of the kid & the truck drivers & ounce of humanity that joins them together. Now, all this is told in a slightly rough manner. It totally depends on the viewer, given the DVD English subtitles suck to core & are inappropriate, too. Apart from that, the cinematography & direction is fine. Cast performance by seemingly amateur actors is okay. Dialog delivery is great, so is the music. Locations are fine. I am disappointed with the camera work & editing, though, mostly as the lighting works against it. Summing it all up, The Good Road is an average road flick which tries hard to succeed harnessing innocence of children, yet ends up as a partial winner. BOTTOM LINE: An average afternoon-watch flick, not to be taken seriously. As a matter fact, some elements also seem to be cooked-up. And about the Oscar, Indians can expect another loss at a time when countries like Pakistan are leaving no stone unturned to send a film for the first time in 50 years. 6.2 out of 10! Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES Profanity: Very Strong | Vulgarity/Nudity: No | Violence: Mild | Gore: No | Alcohol/Drugs: No | Smoking: Mediocre | Porn: No
a directionless good road
I do not understand why this movie was even in the selection for the Indian offer to the Oscars. I watched it, because of the Oscar hype. The concept, though unoriginal, was interesting and the script was decent. The treatment and the direction were abysmal. The performances were not convincing, except maybe by the child actors. There are many movies made with low budgets but are brilliant in every aspect. Salaam Bombay is a fine example. 'The Good Road' lacked decent direction and showed mediocre acting. It could have been a brilliant film but failed in very important aspects. On another note, I am still confused why this was selected over 'The Lunchbox' for the Oscar contention.
Great Triumph
Not seen many movies you have seen which are very Indian at it's core and will not change much if you take out all Hollywood know-how! I mean Authentic Indian movie, movie that can portray Indian image using Indian real life scenarios instead of all theatrical sets? I remember people talking that Gujarati movies industry being dead because "Gujarati" as a language not being able to manifest itself in literary mainline cinema. If I remember other movies, so far I have not seen any Bollywood movies trying to capture Gujarati essence and being successful. Maniratnam's "Guru" made me feel like Dhirubhai Ambani was born in some south Indian Village and nowhere close to Gujarati. Sanjay Leela's Ramleela is theatrical overdoing of Gujarati cultural heritage. Gyan Correa has not only captured Gujarati realism but also made it seem possible to make Gujarati mainline cinema in seamless ways. The music, cinematography, and acting of not so known amateurs makes wonderful impact that did not exist for long time. Nomination in Oscar seem to be working against movie instead of in favor, but If you look at history Gujarati film Industry, "The good Road" is Breakthrough! Being Gujarati, I have never been able to relate to Gujarati movie at this level before.
The Undulated Road!!
I have decided to watch this film first rather than "The Lunch Box" out of excitement. The essence of the film is interesting and appealing - "A tale that tracks down the life styles and emotions of three people (and their peers/kin) with different backgrounds making their way on a High- way". But remember, Oscars are never given to summaries or ideas behind the films. They acknowledge the film itself, the art involved and the the science made use of. I don't find a pinch of the former one in those 92 minutes or so. Coming to the plot, It narrates the events that happened in a single day of the lives of an educated family from the city who are on a holiday trip, a truck driver who is fighting with destiny to feed his family, and a poor little girl from the city who is on a ride towards her grandmother living in a far city on the high-way. While continuing the journey on the highway towards their relatives, the child of literate couple from the city goes missing, which they fail to notice for a long time. The rest of the plot narrates their quest of the lost child. And wait! This is nowhere close to the word 'interesting'. All the elements like script, direction, and action are near-terrible. You will never actually feel that "a child is missing". And I can not imagine how a 7-year old fellow who went missing on a deserted highway does not panic and enjoys his adventure kind of struggle. However, the child is certainly a strength to the film as he pulls of some good eye- catching performance. The second story that runs along is of a truck driver who is on a ride with illegal stock which he has to deliver and then disappear with the money received. He along with his assistant encounter the missing kid of the city couple and try to find his parents. This is the part where the writer did a fair job. Dialogues and emotions were well scripted. However, the poor performances drag the script down. The third story is about a poor girl who ends up finding a brothel to ask in her ride towards her grandmother's place over the highway. She realizes the truth only when she has been 'picked' while "performing on the stage". Test rest is about how the girls gets on to the right path out of the brothel. Positives: 1. Both the child artists 2. Cinematography that captures the beauty of "Rann-of-Kutch" Negatives: 1. Poor script 2. Some terrible acting Bottom line: Not a "Good Road" to the Oscars!!