Alia Bhatt in "Highway"

ALIA BHAT

Randeep Hooda as a Trucker

Randeep Hooda(Mahavir Bhatti)  is good in his rustic trucker’s mannerism and an almost perfect dialect. Hailing from Haryana undoubtedly helped Randeep Hooda achieve authenticity. But, why I say “almost” is because, “I have spent substantial amount of time with people hailing from that belt and can easily distinguish the variations”.

  Mahavir’s want to amend his sinful past and start a new life is quite palpable in his dialogue when Veera(Alia Bhat) asks him“ek goli mein aadmi khatam ho jaata hai na?”  and he replies, “Do aadmi! Jai pe chale, aur jo chalaawe”!

(Veera: Does a man die with one bullet? 
Mahaveer:Two persons, one who is shot, and the one who shoots!)

"She almost made my eyes wet with her performance in the scene"

Aliua Bhat's groovy moves

In the end scene, when Mahavir Bhatti realizes he has gone too far with his crimes and there is no turning back, he is quite intense.

Though, there is a hint of Marco Brambilla’s Hollywood movie “Excess Baggage” (1997) starring Alicia Silverstone and Benicio Del Toro in the plot, but, the end is remarkably different. The child abuse angle does feel like a foreign object in the film but, Imtiaz Ali manages to pull it off convincingly.

The star of the movie is indeed Alia Bhat. Imtiaz Ali gave layers to her character and also managed to time its reveal perfectly, but, how plausibly Alia Bhat unwraps it is sheer beauty. She first comes across as an impulsive and fun loving girl in the film. Post her kidnap; she is just a fragile, withdrawn and helpless creature.

The transition where Alia triumphs over her fear of her captor (Randeep Hooda) is lyrical. In the end, she is bold, fearless and rebellious and manages to liberate herself from all her inhibitions and culminates it by confronting her abuser. She almost made my eyes wet with her performance in the scene where she confronts him (uncle).

She provides authenticity to the entire plot and its sub plots. Her child like candour provides that much needed credibility to the story as a whole. Alia Bhat is indeed a fine actress! 

Her groovy dance moves on techno track “Wanna mash up” is breathe taking, in a non-sexual way of course! Alia Bhat is raw and can be moulded according to her character and is unquestionably a director’s delight.
I bet, Alia Bhat is going to be one of the finest actors in coming years.

"Shandaar" official movie trailer.

"Shandaar" starring Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhat releases on 22 October 2015