''Road, Movie'' ( hi, रोड, मूवी) is a 2009 Indian road movie directed by

Dev Benegal Dev Benegal is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter, most known for his debut film ''English, August'' (1994), which won the Best Feature Film in English at the 42nd National Film Awards. Early life and education Dev was born in New Delhi to ...

, and starring

Abhay Deol Abhay Singh Deol (born 15 March 1976) is an Indian actor and producer who is known for his work in Hindi films alongside one Kannada and one Tamil film. Born in the Deol family, he made his on-screen debut in 2005 with Imtiaz Ali's romantic c ...

, Tannishtha Chatterjee, and

Satish Kaushik Satish Chandra Kaushik (born 13 April 1956) is an Indian actor, director, producer, comedian and screenwriter. Early life Satish was born on 13 April 1956 in Mahendragarh, Haryana. He graduated from Kirori Mal College, Delhi in 1972. He is an ...

. It premiered at the 2009

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

and opened the section Generation 14plus at the

60th Berlin International Film Festival The 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 21 February 2010, with Werner Herzog as President of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Chinese director Wang Quan'an's romantic drama ''Apart Together'', in comp ...

in February 2010. ''Road, Movie'' was released in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 5 March 2010.

Plot

Vishnu (

), a restless young man, itches to escape his father's faltering hair oil business. An old truck beckons, which, Vishnu sees as his ticket to freedom. He offers to drive the 1942

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

across the desert to the sea, where it has been sold to a local museum. As he sets off across the harsh terrain of desert India, Vishnu discovers he is not merely transporting a battered vehicle but an old touring cinema. Along the way, Vishnu reluctantly picks up a young runaway ( Mohammed Faizal Usmani), a wandering old entertainer (

) and a striking

gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

woman ( Tannishtha Chatterjee). Together they roam in the barren land, searching for water and an elusive fair. The journey turns dire when they are waylaid by corrupt cops and a notorious water lord. The key to their freedom is the eccentric collection of films and the two forty-year-old film projectors in the back of the truck. As in ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'', if the films are good, they live and move on. If the films are boring, they face death in the outback. The journey proves transformative for each of the travelers, but especially for Vishnu who discovers life, love and laughter on the Indian highway.

Cast

as Vishnu * Tannishtha Chatterjee as the Woman *

Mohammed Faisal Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monothe ...

as the Boy *

as Om * Yashpal Sharma as the Waterlord *

Veerendra Saxena Virendra Saxena (born 23 November 1951) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi theatre, film, and television. He is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Saxena is known for his character roles as well as his unique voice. He has acted in ...

as Police Chief * Amitabh Srivastava as Father *

Suhita Thatte Suhita or Soheeta (died 1447), was a Javanese queen regnant and the sixth monarch of the Majapahit empire, ruling from 1429 to 1447. She was the daughter of Wikramawardhana, her predecessor, by a concubine who was the daughter of Wirabhumi, who ...

as Mother *

Hardik Mehta Hardik Mehta is a writer-director who works in both fiction as well as non fiction formats. He won the National Award, in addition to several other awards and honors across international film festivals, for his documentary short Amdavad Ma Fa ...

as Masseur * Shradha Shrivastav as Sister *

Roshan Taneja Roshan may refer to: People * Roshan (music director) (1917–1967), Indian musician and music director, born Roshan Lal Nagrath * Hrithik Roshan (born 1974), Hindi film actor, son of Rakesh Roshan * Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan (1980–2012), Iranian n ...

as OPJ

Production

''Road, Movie'' began in 2004 as an original idea by

. To do research for the film, he travelled for a year with a transient cinema troupe that showcased different films in rural

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

villages. Benegal completed the first draft of the film's script in only 10 days. The script was written at a difficult period in his career as his other projects had been unsuccessful in finding financial backers. He successfully submitted his screenplay to the L'Atelier screenwriting portion of the 2006

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

signed on to play the role of Vishnu after reading the script which he found "really nice, dreamy and humorous." Filming took place in desert areas of the Kutch District of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

and

Jaisalmer Jaisalmer , nicknamed "The Golden city", is a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, located west of the state capital Jaipur. The town stands on a ridge of yellowish sandstone and is crowned by the ancient Jaisalmer Fort. This fort contains a ...

Release

''Road, Movie'' premiered on 18 September 2009 at the 2009

. It was also screened at the 2009 Tokyo International Film Festival where it was nominated for the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix Award and at the 2009

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

Box office

''Road, Movie'' released in theatres on 5 March 2010 to a poor turnout at the cinemas. The film grossed a poor INR 11.1 million in its first week. In its second week, the film's collections saw a drop of a massive 90%, and netted INR 1.2 million. It was declared as a disaster at the box office.

Awards

; 2011 Star Screen Awards Won * Star Screen Award for Best Sound – Vikram Joglekar

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1190894 2009 films 2000s Hindi-language films 2000s road movies Films scored by Michael Brook Films about films Films set in India Films shot in India Films shot in Gujarat Films shot in Rajasthan Indian road movies Viacom18 Studios films