These lines summed up the movie for me. Imtiaz Ali had to and did bring the movie to a logical end but this movie wasn’t about the story or the destination, it was just about the journey. There were so many times, sitting by the window seat, I prayed that the bus/car/train during my own journeys never stopped. I didn’t want to reach anywhere, I just wanted to keep looking outside and enjoy the ride. I have never posted a movie review here but Highway spoke to me and am so glad Bollywood is heading in this direction. So here I am, writing a review. 

I kept smiling as Alia’s Veera delivered scene after scene that was so familiar - lying down on the desert as storm clouds passed by, running in the vast salt pans only to realise the futility of the exercise trying to overpower nature, hearing the call of the mountains, gazing at the stars or simply cry watching a pristine glacial stream. Looking at a small gaddi house in Kashmir when she screams this is her dream house and runs to cooks maggi - that could very well be me! These are very simple experiences in the lap of nature but strong enough to change you as a person. Imtiaz Ali must be a true traveller at heart to recognise these small details that make travel so enriching and an adept director to even attempt to bring that emotion to the screen.

Which traveler wouldn’t want a house out of which you could just walk into meadows surrounded by high mountains and gushing streams? Who doesn’t want a house in the hills and who doesn’t want to run away from the hypocrisies of our society? Who doesn’t want the luxury of having nothing on your mind and just introspect, like when Veera talks to herself and wonders why she is doing all this? Ali explores the charm of unplanned journeys to unknown destinations and the awareness such journeys can bring. I loved it when Veera talks out aloud questioning why do they go to hotels and stay inside when they go on a vacation and when she wonders out loud “Kaise kaise jagah hain is country mein”?

Meetings on the road are so fleeting, just like Randeep’s brooding Mahabir and Veera’s. When you are on the road, you become friends with anyone who let’s you be. With people you’d never talk to, or even give a second look normally, you’d become best friends during the journey, which is why I didn’t question their relationship much. I really wished they had met in different circumstances though. But I can ignore the sketchy outline of that relationship for everything else that Ali has brought to the film. I can even forgive him for taking the protagonists from Spiti to Kashmir in just a day’s walk. I accept Highway because, as a traveler, I know all journeys might not take you to the elusive happy place but it may be a step in the right direction. Ali has consistently delivered on the road-movie theme and each new movie of his is getting better, darker and more real. Can’t wait for the next time he takes us on a ride.

The movie was far beyond the social message, the locations and Stockholm Syndrome. To me, it was not a love story between Mahabir and Veera. It was about freedom that travel can introduce you to. It was about two vagabonds who have got the time and freedom for the first time to slow down and take stock of things. While Veera relishes her newfound deliverance, Mahabir is trying to beat the demons of his past.

The movie falters because the theme of emancipation & self discovery through travel isn’t fully realised but you will relate to it if that’s how you feel already. Most of the reviews talk about the locations or the loopholes in the plot or the inappropriateness of Stockholm Syndrome in the context of this movie, but to me it was all about the freedom! The travellers out there, you’ll recognise this spirit immediately.

The movie left me wanting for more but I’m glad for this movie much more than the false romanticisation of other travel-themed movies like ZNMD or YJHD. Highway has successfully captured the essence of liberating journeys - journeys into self and to destinations we don’t know of yet. There are few dialogues, long silences and quiet introspections throughout the movie, because that’s how journeys are usually. The long silences are full of ambient sounds, giving a true sense of being in the scene without the distractions of a melodious score, just like in real life. Both, Veera and Mahabir fighting their past and future, find solace in the present, on the road. I imagine, so many of us initially travelled to escape the din of daily life but strangely found ourselves on the road too.

When Alia’s Veera ultimately finds comfort in the lap of mountains, my beloved Himalayas, how can I not love it? The movie left me with a sense of poignancy and a lump in my throat. I could relate to that familiar yearning for freedom, to live a simple life somewhere far in the mountains. Forget the story, just go on the ride! After all, for a traveler, journey is THE destination!

So have you watched the movie yet? What did you think about it?