NH10 - Suspend Some Disbelief and Enjoy the Thriller

Movie: NH10
Direction: Navdeep Singh
Cast: Anushka Sharma, Neil Bhoopalam, Darshan Kumaar, Deepti Naval
Cinematography: Arvind Kannabiran
Music: Karan Gour
Run Time: 115 minutes

Expectations:

NH10 has created some good expectations thanks to it's well edited trailer which promised a lot of thrills and chills. Coming from the director of the critically acclaimed thriller 'Manorama Six Feet Under', this movie also marked the first production venture of it's female lead, Anushka Sharma. Did the movie deliver its thrills? Lets find out.

Plot:

Meera (Anushka Sharma) and Arjun (Neil Bhoopalam) are married professionals from Gurgaon. One night, when Meera returns home alone, her car is attacked by unknown people. Traumatized after the incident, the couple get a licensed gun for their safety. Arjun takes Meera out to a desert holiday for some recreation. On the way, they invariably get to witness an attempted honor killing. What follows after that? Do Meera and Arjun get to escape the merciless regressive minded killers forms the rest of the story.

Movie Commentary:

NH10 is that movie that contrasts the two widely different worlds of India: the urban world, where cross-cultural marriage has gotten quite common and the rural world where honour killings are a silent reality. What if these two worlds intertwined? Sounds like a really good concept, but how these worlds get intertwined has been done in a most unconvincing way. There was no need for this incident to have happened had Arjun walked away from the goons when he was warned in no kind terms in their affairs. Rather, with the need to prove his manliness to Meera, he stupidly confronts them and then, well, all hell breaks lose.

That stupid decision by Arjun is the single weakest point of the movie and if one chooses to ignore that, the movie becomes an engaging watch in the first half. However, there are a lot of loop holes in the second half where logical fallacies kind of bug you from really investing for the couple. I cannot recall Meera or Arjun trying to call someone for help from their mobiles. Is it implied that there is no signal? Why did neither of them check for it? However, the powerhouse acting of Anushka Sharma keeps you engaged and looking forward to how things play out.

One of the interesting things in the movie is the sudden love affair that Bollywood seems to have for Tamil mouthing heroines. Starting from Deepika Padukone in 'Chennai Express' to Alia Bhatt in '2 States' to Yami Gautam in 'Badlapur' and now, Anushka Sharma in 'NH10', it has become a habit for the leading ladies to speak cringe-worthy Tamil. As a Tamil speaking guy, trust me when I tell you that while it might look cute on screen, the Tamil they mouth is artificial and pathetic.

Anyways, moving on to the bigger scheme of things, the single biggest takeaway for the audience from this movie is the rampant practice of honour-killing in rural India which goes often unnoticed and unreported because everybody belief is that's how it is. One police officer, who investigates the case where Meera's car is attacked politely says that, 'The city is a growing kid; it will jump at times!' and recommends them to get a gun for their own personal safety. Another police officer refuses to take her complaint when she claims that a gang of goons are following her. The third one asks for her caste when talking to her causally and frowns at her for marrying someone of another caste.

Who can be trusted at a place where everyone conspires to keep their family honour paramount? What kind of society is that we live in when women are seen as commodities capable of being beaten, abused and even killed, if it need be? There are the uncomfortable questions that NH10 poses to us. Only if the plot were more convincing!

Performances:

Anushka Sharma as Meera gets a memorable role and no wonder, she has produced the movie. Darshan Kumar as Satbir - the leader of the goons - looks menacing but doesn't get to establish his character very well, so the impact is not so profound when he looks indecisive at a few scenes. Neil Bhoopalam as Arjun does what his role demands, but I hope that his character was better written, since his decision to take on the big gang of villagers is perplexing. Men can be stupid, but no unreasonably so! Deepti Naval as the Sarpanch of the village gets a good cameo and plays her part well.

Technical Departments:

The direction is spot on for most part of the movie and while the script throws some rather gaping loopholes, the director has taken pains not to dwell too much on them, so the distraction is minimal. Since the story moves at a brisk pace - the run time is a taut 115 minutes - the movie doesn't give you too much time to think of much. Much credit should also be given to the editing of the movie. The cinematography, thankfully doesn't present too many dark backgrounds, though a major part of the story happens at night. The night light is well captured and presented without confusing the audience.

What Works:

The theme of the story, Anushka Sharma's brilliant acting and some edge of the seat moments.

What Doesn't:

The Predictable Story and Perplexing Plot Holes and a lot of gore.

Verdict:

If you can suspend some disbelief and can mouth some gore, you can enjoy this thriller.

Our Score: 3/5