At a time when the audiences are being fed nothing but cheap sleazy stories in the name of new age Nepali cinema by filmmakers who clearly have no proper understanding of cinema, Highway comes as a breath of fresh air. It is not your average tale with happy endings, in fact it doesn't even have a typical ending which many may find hard to digest but that's the beauty of this film. It is unusual.
Highway as seen in trailers is a story about a group of people who get stuck together in a bus due to Nepal banda, a situation we all have faced one too many times. As the journey proceeds, we are introduced to each character and through flashbacks we learn more about their personal lives.
We have the typical lahure Manoj (Dayahang Rai), who has just returned from India and can't wait to get back to his wife (Asha Magarati ), who is having an affair with a younger man (Vinay Shrestha). Then we have Pratiek (Eelum Dixit), a gay man who is trying to escape from his mother who believes he is possessed by an evil spirit. There is Pooja (Shristi Ghimire) who is on her way to Kathmandu to get married to Karma, but is secretly in a relationship with Saugat Malla. We also have a weird doctor played by Rabindra Mishra whose obsession with mannequins (which doesn't come across in the movie) is troubling his married life.
With so many characters coming in and out of the movie, it was hard to keep track of everyone. At times I went, 'Oh, even this person is in the movie? which is never a good thing because the character was forgettable. At one and a half hours long, the characters do not get much screen time for development. Each story is touched upon and right when we begin to feel a connection, a new story is introduced.
What Highway lacks in soul, it makes up in its story telling and novel presentation. Social issues that constantly hound us are presented without too much drama. Highway successfully manages to stay away from becoming a preachy, sad tale about the daily lives of ordinary Nepalis.
Performance wise, all the actors have done a decent job. Dayahang Rai and Reecha Sharma stand out amidst an array of characters. Rai is convincing as a lahure and manages to make us laugh. But it was Sharma who steals the show with her portrayal of a prostitute and a loving mother. As a debutant, Mishra is not bad in his role as the weird doctor. It is only when he has to speak that he begins to falter.
Overall, Highway is a good attempt by Rauniyar at breaking the monopoly of Bollywood inspired song and dance routines that have come to define Nepali cinema. In comparison to other Nepali movies that hit theatres in the past months, Highway is in a league of its own. My only complaint is that felt like it is a movie made for film festival goers rather than the general public. A few extra minutes wouldn't have hurt either, as Nepali viewers are used to watching two and half hours long movies.
The super spider
It sounds pretty childish to go crazy for grown men in lycra suits, but with movie franchises like Batman and Superman, comic book super heroes are the new 'it boys'. You can add another name to this list of super heroes: Spiderman. A reincarnation of the original movie franchise, the movie doesn't fail to impress.
The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), an outcast, high-school nerd, who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, and raised by his uncle and aunt. Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance, leading him directly to OSCORP and the lab of Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spiderman is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, the Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.
The well chosen cast and painstakingly detailed visual effects, will surely keep movie buffs hooked. The scene where Spider-Man goes inside New York's sewage disposal system and places nets to monitor the movements of the Lizard is just awesome. The romance between Peter and Gwen (Emma Stone) is sweet, but a little too in your face. Garfield looks his best, both physically and acting wise, while Ifans is convincing as a man with a lost limb. All in all, a fun, highly recommended watch.
