Movie review: NH10 is a necessary tale of revenge
Coming at a time when documentaries are banned for reasons unknown, and sexist comments by politicians are as frequent as rapes, the movie will add to the growing and necessary outrage against the violence inflicted on women.Rating:
Movie: NH10
Cast: Anushka Sharma, Neil Bhoopalam, Darshan Kumar
Director: Navdeep Singh
Rating:
Seldom does one see a woman driving a car in a chase sequence in Indian cinema. Driving, much like smoking is often seen as a masculine activity. Murdering the bad guys is also something that the man does, often in order to avenge some sort of threat to female 'honor', which he believes is closely linked to his. Anushka Sharma does all three in NH10, and to devastating effect.
Watch full interview of Anushka Sharma and Neil Bhoopalam
The plot revolves around an urban working couple Meera, and Arjun(Neil Bhoopalam) who decide to go on a road trip. This decision leads to a series of events that expose the false blanket of security we comfort ourselves with, in an urban space. As they travel via the highway NH10, things quickly deteriorate when they witness an honor killing. After attempting to intervene, the couple are hunted. This forms the crux of the movie. The cat and mouse game is played out in the badlands of Haryana, and the events take place during the course of the night. Although an adaptation of 2008 British thriller 'Eden Lake', the film blends in smoothly in an Indian context.
NH10 provides a rare perspective of the female. Coming from a male-dominated industry where pay disparity among the sexes is still a reality, the movie is laudable. Anushka Sharma, who has also produced the movie possibly plays the most convincing role in her still young career. She is ably supported by Neil Bhoopalam, as the husband Arjun and Darshan Kumar as Satbir, the brother out to regain his 'honor' by killing his sister. Despite this, theatre actor Ravi Jhankal, as 'Tauji' steals the scenes with his near-perfect Haryanvi diction, something Darshan Kumar clearly struggles with. The innocent-eyed veteran Deepti Naval as the sarpanch of a village is surprisingly brutal in the brief time we see her. The lack of a big name works in favor of the movie and it would not have had the same impact with one.
The urban-rural divide, which most of us live insulated from is also an ever-present motif in the movie. It is best encapsulated when a Haryanvi cop explains to Anushka, ''Gurgaon me jab aakhri mall khatam hote hain, wahin aapki democracy aur constitution khatam hoti hai". But in pursuit of this theme, the writing seems to become slightly one-dimensional. Most Haryanvi males are portrayed as uncouth and rude, which is a sweeping generalisation.
The simmering angst that builds up inside Meera throughout the course of the movie, boils over and turns into a cool and calculative revenge in the last 15 minutes. These last few minutes are the most powerful and stay with you long after the movie is over. These last few minutes also defy the conventions of the revenge genre, which are often male dominated. At a run time of an hour and forty five minutes, NH10 is tightly edited, which makes it all the more gripping.
There is a scene during which Meera is battered and bruised and locked inside a room. Trying to break through the door, she rams herself against it to break through. Weak at first, she slowly pushes herself further but to no avail. That locked door is not much different from patriarchy which locks a woman in her whole life. Coming at a time when documentaries are banned for reasons unknown, and sexist comments by politicians are as frequent as rapes, the movie will add to the growing and necessary outrage against the violence inflicted on women.