highway

REBLOGGED – Q & A with Imtiaz Ali on ‘Highway’ (via MoiFightClub)

Big shout out to the movie lovers at MoiFightClub. They do immeasurable service to the community by highlighting all things related to good cinema. Another such effort is to use their contacts to generate dialogue between filmmakers & their audiences. Here is a 90 minute session with director Imtiaz Ali talking to viewers after the screening of his movie “Highway”.

It takes a lot for a filmmaker to put himself out there and take direct questions about his story. Imtiaz Ali is humble, honest and bold all at the same time while discussing his film. Without undermining the intelligence of any question asked, he acknowledged his shortcomings and also provided his understanding the situations that led him to it. Few points for the lazy:

  • That sincerity with which he discusses his characters. He keeps telling us he was not sure of many things about where the lead characters would end up. It was visible in these conversations that he invested in the characters and was willing to change their behaviour based on actors feedback – “Because they were living in that story… Alia was living as Veera as we went shooting across the mountains”. Another memorable moment — he was asked why the characters never ended up sex. Why did the relation between Mahabir & Veera not consummate physically? The response – “It never went in that direction. Probably they would have if they stayed there for a few more days.”
  • An audience member observed that as the protags hid in the mountains, it seemed that the movie itself was trying to get rid of the shackles of a plot. Imtiaz smiled and concurred with that observation. He confessed that he doesn’t like movies that carry the weight of the plot on them. Unfortunately, for a larger audience this translated into a negative feedback.
  • In the first 10 minutes of the 3rd video, he discusses songs, singers & A.R.Rehman. How I wished someone asked him about the working process with Rehman at this forum!
  • In his defense, Imtiaz Ali spoke candidly about the process of movie making and the challenges posted by budget & time. With due credit to his razor sharp memory, a lot many stories tumbled out about the locations & the people that worked with him on this project.

This interaction was a trove of information and provided a peek of the brilliant mind of Imtiaz Ali and big thanks to the awesome folks of MoiFightClub for this. Keep up the good work, guys!

moifightclub's avatarF.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b

As far as the reactions go, Imtiaz Ali’s new film ‘Highway’ is more or less on the same track like his last film Rockstar – completely divided between lovers and haters. And like last time, Ali was quite open and candid to discuss the strength and every weakness of the film, and took it all head on. We love and respect those filmmakers who are open to such dialogues. So thanks a lot, Imtiaz Ali. Whatever film you make, hope you remain like this.

We also hope more bollywood filmmakers will be open to such Q and As. Who really wants to read about the film pre-release, which is still quite the norm in the country. And post-release, they just vanish.

Also, it all happened because Navjot Gulati took the initiative, contacted Ali, sorted the logistics and made it possible. And thanks to Mihir Desai,Aniruddh Patankar and Sumit…

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“Highway” and the 6 basic human needs

This post started out as a dissection of Imtiaz Ali’s latest “Highway”. But the smart folks at The Black Board forums gave me a completely different idea for a write-up. David Joyner started a thread on “How Movies Address 6 Basic Human Needs” and it was a worthy exercise to capture the viewing experience of “Highway” from a different light. 

About “Highway”:

Synopsis as per IMDB – Right before her wedding, a young woman finds herself abducted and held for ransom. As the initial days pass, she begins to develop a strange bond with her kidnapper.

Here’s the movie trailer with English subtitles.

“In bondage, she found freedom”

This one fired higher than my expectations

This one fired higher than my expectations

That’s pretty much all you need to know. Honestly, this wasn’t on my must-watch list. I bought the tickets hoping that A.R.Rehman’s tracks would provide some relief to a predictable story line. But in the nuanced hands of director Imtiaz Ali, the story turned out to be a completely different journey. I’m going to go out on a limb to defend the director here. A professor of film studies once told me that movies were never good or bad – they are either sold out or true their message. And that’s how I’ve been benchmarking movies all along. Highway is true to its story without giving into the trappings of commercial fare. Imtiaz Ali took a simple low-budget plot, extracted career best performances from rookies Alia Bhatt & Randeep Hooda and delivered a poignant story. Add Rehman’s ethereal soundtrack and you’ve got a magical combination that should ideally have set the box office on fire.

Few things work against giving this movie a wider appeal. There is a lazy convenience in the story’s motion to build a relationship between the protagonists. It seemed too linear for an audience who were eager to experience the complexities behind these strange decisions that pushed the lead characters together. Film critic Anupama Chopra was disappointed with the movie and she articulates my feelings correctly in her review – “Both Veera [Alia Bhatt] and Mahabir [Randeep Hooda] stayed with me. They are compelling, intriguing characters… I just wish they had met under different circumstances “

The 6 Basic Human Needs

Since the public verdict on this movie is already out, I figured Highway was the kind of cinema that would be best suited for The Black Board post. As per the theory, “the force of life is the drive for fulfillment”. In order to do this, all human behaviour is focused to meet 6 basic needs:

  1. Certainty: assurance you can avoid pain and gain pleasure
  2. Variety: the need for the unknown, change, new stimuli (direct conflict with the first need)
  3. Significance: feeling unique, important, special or needed
  4. Connection/Love: a strong feeling of closeness or union with someone or something
  5. Growth: an expansion of capacity, capability or understanding
  6. Contribution: a sense of service and focus on helping, giving to and supporting others

Fortunately, David has transplanted these ideas to define the needs for a movie going audience. Narrowing our study lens to the scope of the movie Highway, I’ll try exploring which of these audience needs were touched upon.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

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