The director, writer, cinematographer Sudhakar Reddy, editor Paresh Kamdar and sound designer Anthony BJ Ruban dexterously braid together a cross-weave of narratives that were partially inspired by Kulkarni’s own shuttles between the cities over the years. The passengers are being watched from the dashboard and through the windows, but they are also watching each other. Most of the characters are boxed into their vehicles, like in Abbas Kiarostami’s 2002 feature Ten, and we regard them from multiple observation points. Confidences and cooked meals are shared and biases and witticisms spill out during the trips. Among them is a foreign-returned Punekar who is outraged at local ways, a television actress on her way to an event sponsored by a politician, a student making his way to a mysterious assignment, a harried corporate executive and his superstitious wife, and a group of men with a suspicious package who hitch a ride on a truck. The 35 characters represent different income levels, professions, attitudes, languages and dialects.
#HIGHWAY MARATHI MOVIE MOVIE#
The portmanteau road movie has been written by its director and his regular writing collaborator, Girish Kulkarni, and follows a cross-section of people heading from Mumbai to Pune using various modes of transport. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway rarely pauses, except for rain-induced landsides, but what if you were to look down on its winding roads from above, freeze the moment, and climb into each of the many shared taxis, private vehicles, inter-city buses and trucks? What kind of people would you find, and what would their stories be? Some answers can be found in Highway, which will be released on August 28. Umesh Kulkarni’s new Marathi movie is set on the 94.5-kilometre stretch that has made Mumbai and Pune seem more like greater suburban cousins than two metropolises separated by distance and time.