Studio/presenter: Aarbhat production
Producer: Vijay Waman Ganu
Director: Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni
Writer, Screenplay : Girish Pandurang Kulkarni
Music: Amit Trivedi
Director of Photography: Sudhakar Reddy
Editor: Paresh Kamdar
Genres: Road Movie, Drama
Censor: U/A
Duration: 105 Min.
Cast: Girish Kulkarni, Huma Qureshi, Tisca Chopra, Satish Alekar, Renuka Shahane, Mukta Barve, Sunil Barve, Umesh Jagtap, Kishore Kadam, Nagraj Manjule, Vidyadhar Joshi
Over the years we have seen many ‘Road Movies’ in Hollywood and Bollywood like ‘Something Wild’, ‘Five Easy Pieces’, Bombay To Goa’, Journey Bombay To Goa’, ‘Road’, ‘Mr.& Mrs. Iyer’, ‘Jab We Met’, ‘Highway’ to name a few. All these movies were of different genres. Generally, in Road movies we expect, Auto race ,chase, adventure, horror , crime or comedy. Through a Marathi Road movie of the past, we saw Film maker Sachin Pilgaonkar presenting a Tourist Bus journey on a pilgrimage. And, it contained all the required happenings for entertaining the audience, during travel on the road.
Now, writer Girish Kulkarni and Director Umesh Kulkarni have offered a different type of entertainment, through their latest Marathi film ‘Highway- Ek Selfie Aarpaar’ which may be called a mix bag of journey. The writer and director have focussed their attention on the attitude and lifestyle of different type of people, from cross section of society; especially when they are travelling via road.
‘Highway’ begins with different people beginning their journey from Mumbai early evening, during daytime, taking different modes of transport and heading towards Pune. Among them is a couple travelling in their own car. Then, there is a TV actress, who is on her way to attend an event of a Political party in a private vehicle hired by an event manager, for the purpose. We also notice one NRI waiting at the airport for his private air conditioned vehicle to be taken to Pune to see his father for the last time. On the way, he is requested, much against his wish, to offer lift to an injured man and his wife.
Then, we also notice a Lavani performer travelling along with her aunt in a regular sharing taxi, with two co passengers. There is also a nagging wife who is a domestic servant, travelling along with her husband, who is jobless. Then, there is a woman belonging to so called high society, picking up a young masseur, to take along with her to Lonavala to massage her body. Likewise, there is a family travelling in a tempo along with their household goods, three suspicious looking people boarding a truck on their way to some unknown destination and a father travelling along with his little son in a State transport A/c bus.
All these people don’t know each other , but some of them meet each other, when the flow of traffic on the highway comes to standstill at Khandala Ghats, due to major mishap ahead. Usually, in a Road Movie, we notice happenings before the journey, during actual journey and at the end of the journey. `But, in this film, we see the film concluding during the journey break itself, as the writer and director wanted to pay attention on different characters. And, they have succeeded to a great extent. The idea of the film maker was clear. He perhaps wanted to brand this film as commercial film and hence two popular actresses from Bollywood were chosen. They played the roles of TV actress( Huma Qureshi) and a rich woman (Tisca Chopra),respectively, to display their actual lifestyle. The youngster played by Shubham accompanying Tisca Chopra was to represent today’s youngsters, willing to do any job, for good money.
Among the other characters, the character of Lavani performer played by Mukta Barve, was very natural. So, was the couple played by Sunil Barve and Vrishali Kulkarni. Both were perfect representation of a busy company manager and his demanding pregnant housewife. In the role of an event manager accompanying the TV actress, Shrikant Yadav generated the required humour, through his Hindi mixed with Marathi, while conversing with his guest. Kishore kadam was wasted in this film, as he didn’t have to do much, except for listening to his nagging wife, played by Chaya Kadam, who had more than required scope, in this film.
Girish Kulkarni was very impressive in the role of NRI and he did well to speak Marathi with that typical foreign accent. The director however spent more than required time on Girish conversing with Renuka Shahane, while her injured husband asleep, after taking a sedative. There is no doubt that the film maker wanted to show their emotions during conversation; but, it lasted a little longer. Instead, he could have had some more scenes, like the family in tempo serving milk less tea to stranded passengers. The film however, concludes well, unveiling the mystery of the bag carried by three suspicious passengers in a truck . Good support also comes from Vidyadhar Joshi, Kishor Chougule, Mayur Khandge & others. There is not much scope for music in this film, except for background music. But, the sound design is good. Photography by Sudhakar Reddy, needs appreciation.
All in all, ‘Highway Ek Selfie Aarpaar’ is a good movie for a change, as besides a different theme in Marathi, tried for the first time, you get to see wonderful performances of all talented artistes.