Movie Review: NH 10

NH 10 is a movie that contrasts the life of a liberated woman who inhabits the sprawling, developed, majestic city of Gurgaon - that houses malls & multinationals - with a woman in chains residing in the visceral, regressive, conservative, patriarchal society - just a stone throw away from the city.

Anushka Sharma (Meera) is happily married to Neil Bhoopalam (Arjun) & both seem to be enjoying their personal & their professional lives.  One day, while the couple are partying at a friends’ place, Meera receives an urgent call seeking intervention, since a batch of the feminine product - to be launched the next day - had failed. She starts off alone, at the dead of the night, only to be attacked by hoodlums, on a bike. While they break the glass of her car, she has the presence of mind to speed off, escaping the wrath of the attackers. Welcome to Gurgaon.

The couple lodge a complaint at a police station only to be sardonically told “Yeh shaher badhta bacha hai ji. Kud toh lagayaga hi,” The badlands of Haryana are described succinctly in one line by the cop: “jahaan aapke Gurgaon ka border khatam hota hai, wahan law khatam, madam”. He advises the couple to use their proximity to the DIG to procure a gun licence for personal safety. The irony is not lost on the viewers that the police - who are supposed to protect the common citizens - seem ill equipped to the task & are advising people to make their own arrangements. The satire is not lost either that while the connected can at least procure arms for personal safety, the plebeians are left to the mercy of the marauders. This is the first glimpse of an inept, corrupt police force; more shocking aspects are revealed later.

Arjun decides to make up for the skipped honeymoon with a getaway, to celebrate the birthday of his wife. Off they start for a private resort on NH10. As they drive past a toll way, they find one of the booths unmanned; a toll agent on being asked the reason, answers, nonchalantly, that 4 people - when stopped at the booth  - decided to kill the agent rather than pay the toll charges. The un-agitated way the toll agent replies gives an impression that this is not a rare occurrence after all; human lives come dirt cheap here. Welcome to the Bad- Lands of North India.

Driving through the picturesque NH 10, Meera & Arjun decide to take a break at a roadside dhaba where the former encounters a girl who begs for protection since she fears death from some miscreants; Meera just like any Indian brushes her off. Later, on hearing commotion outside the dhaba, Arjun comes out, despite Meera’s protestations, only to witness the horror of the girl & her paramour being kicked & dragged. A good samaritan, he tries to intervene but is brusquely told to mind his business. The leader of the gang Darshan Kumar (Satbir) tells Arjun that the girl is his sister; does a brother have the right to perpetuate humiliation on his co-born? Welcome, to the patriarchal world.

While all the onlookers remain mute spectators to the ignominy, Arjun persists at intervention only to be soundly slapped. While the gang drives off - with the shrieking couple - Meera & Arjun proceed onwards. However, Arjun’s honour has been wounded & he is seething within. Therefore, on sighting the gang’s vehicle he follows them to a secluded spot, revolver in hand, with an aim to seek revenge where he chillingly encounters the scene of the boy’s bones being broken & the girl being made to swallow poison. Clearly, it appears a case of honour killing at work & preparations are afoot to bury the couple.

Arjun bravado is quickly tempered & he is at his wits end; he tries to flee the scene but it is too late. A blow on his head brings him to the ground & his revolver snatched. Satbir uses the revolver to finish the girl while the boy is plonked with an iron rod to death. Satbir’s uncle Ravi Jhankal (Tauji) advises that Arjun be eliminated & dumped along with the dead couple in the same pit. While the gang is in a heated discussion, Arjun succeeds in snatching the revolver & in the enduring melee, shoots to death one of the gang members. Arjun unwittingly, thus, gets embroiled in a murder. The remaining part of the movie is about Arjun & Meera fleeing to save their skin.

Arjun & Meera, without their vehicle keys & only a revolver for security need someone to drive them to safety; however their cries for help go unheard & none stop their vehicle on the busy highway. Meera had brushed past the girl's cries for help earlier & now she faces a similar situation of horror. Survival is now the name of the game. The battle of wits continues & the thriller has viewers on the edge of their seats, rooting for the besieged couple.  Later, when Arjun gets knifed on his shin, Meera shoots dead another of the gang members, in a bid to protect her husband. Meera too, is a murderer now.

Meera carries a limping Arjun to the safety of a secluded spot under an overhead railway bridge & moves out to get help. There is a poignant shot where Meera cries out loudly, only to have her voice lost in the din of a speeding train on the overbridge above; typically reminiscent of our times. Thereafter, promising to bring help, she runs exhausted to a police station only to be thrown out. Meera snatches a cycle & encounters policeman’s boss on the way & seeks his help to retrieve her husband. The cop advises her against filing a report against his junior explaining that the latter had denied help since the policeman “has to remain in the same village as the killers & has the challenge of 3 sons to be married off especially when there are no women left”. He is, perhaps, alluding to the abysmally low gender ratio, in Haryana, of 879 per 1000, as per the 2011 census. He also talks patronisingly about Manu & Ambedkar & explains how the rules that they had ordained have helped maintain equilibrium in society. The cop reasons that when rules order us to keep to our left, any attempt at violation by riding in the opposite flank shall be punished. The lovers have been killed, he unwittingly reveals, for falling in love despite belonging to the same gotra. Our suspicion of an honour killing is thus proved right. That the law protectors are in cahoots with the law breakers is, chillingly, revealed.

Knowing that the cop is hand in glove with her tormenters, Meera escapes, after injuring him to find sanctuary in a quarry, guarded by a Bihari family. When Meera requests the guard’s help to help meet the sarpanch, she is told by the Bihari, that they are ordained to stay outside the village – a euphemism for caste segregation that is till rampant. Meera, therefore trudges alone to reach the village, bribes a kid to reach the sarpanch’s place only to realize that Deepti Naval (Ammaji) - the sarpanch – is the mother of the girl killed; shockingly, the honor killing has been executed as per her orders. Is a woman another woman’s worst enemy?

Meera is imprisoned by Ammaji but she manages to release herself only to find Arjun killed. Then comes the twist in the tale. While revenge is generally shown as a male preserve, a female protagonist, donning the honours elicited many whistles from the enthusiastic audience. She returns to the village to kill all the murderers. The modern woman - with an ability to fight injustice - has arrived.

This taut & riveting movie is Anushka’s first production venture & she has essayed a fine performance.  Navdeep Singh - who earlier directed “Manorama 6 feet under”- could not recreate the same magic although both the films belong to the same genre:thriller.  The director disagrees that the film is an Indian adaptation of “Eden Lake”; he calls it "girl hounded in the wilderness genre of cinema" which is a theme across at least 20 movies. The cinematography is outstanding & the shoot, largely in a night setting, succeeds in conveying an eerie feeling. Ravi Jhankaal steels the show in his Haryanvi accent & Deepti Naval is outstanding in her brief appearance as the brutal sarpanch. Darshan Kumar is menacing. This unconventional film is appropriate for these times when the debate on the violence against woman has taken centre-stage. The woman seeking revenge a la “Kill Bill” - proves that women are not the “weaker sex” after all. That, is a comforting feeling..