NH10 (Hindi) (2015)

We have seen many a movie that hovers around the topic of “road-trip gone wrong” – both from Hollywood as well as Bollywood.  NH10 comes from this genre.  But as I have always maintained in most of my writing, old wine in new bottle if perfectly acceptable, so long as the new bottle is really different.  NH10 is a perfect example of this point of view.

Meera Puri (Anushka Sharma) is a successful product executive with an FMCG company based in Gurgaon.  She is married to Arjun Singh (Neil Bhoopalam) and is very much in love with him.  From all aspects, Meera is a “modern” woman.  She works for a living.  She is successful.

She has open conversations of sex with her husband – especially over Tamil porn.  She smokes.  She drinks.  She drives to work alone in the middle of the night. She parties with her husband but would prefer indulging in, “Kanna pinnane kaadal” (loosely translated from Tamil into mad love making).

On the way to office thanks to an emergency, Meera gets accosted in her car by a few goons but manages to get away.  Their contacts in the police force help them get a licensed fire arm for protection purposes.  Meera is shaken but is strong enough to get back on her feet.  Arjun tries to help by taking her on a road trip for her birthday.  That’s where the story starts.

While NH10 takes a little while to build up, it doesn’t leave you bored at any time.  Only the extremely antsy would not have the patience to sit through a few minutes of setting the background and the periods in between where the pace slows down but only to accommodate the element of suspense.  It is kept as close to reality as possible and the violence will will make you cringe in some scenes.

Navdeep Singh hits the silver screen after nearly a decade (Manorama Six Feet Under) and is still as good as his debut movie that left most of us mighty impressed.  He has kept the script tight and has also kept it as short as possible.  At under 2 hours, with its pace, NH10 is probably the movie of the year as of now. Along with Dum Laga Ke Haisha (I am told) and Baby it would be in the top 3 for 2015 to date.

Anushka Sharma (despite her cosmetic surgery gone woefully wrong) continues to be one of the best actresses in India as of now.  She is confident and carries off her role with utmost ease.  Neil Bhoopalam continues to impress as the ever efficient support actor (not sure if he will make it to a lead role ever).

But what impresses you most about NH10 would be Darshan Kumaar as the bad man (Satbir) and Deepti Naval in a cold, negative role.  Both are seriously good.  The support cast (who have been left out of the imdb cast & crew section) are what add dramatically to the success of the movie.  Definitley worth a watch.  7 on 10.  Good going Navdeep Singh!!!

Watch the trailer on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9icNqWlylw