The Good Honest Road

A new film is to be out on 19th july in the major cities of Gujarat. What's about it? It's a gujarati film which recently won the National Award for the Best Regional Film. The Good Road. 

Written and Directed by Gyan Correa, the film revolves around two children, with different social and cultural background and apparently different destinies. The film is shot in the intoxicating desert land of Kutch, the largest district of India

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Recently, I read a few reviews of the film on the internet. Not a single of them good. It's bad to that extent that the artist community of Kutch is severely hurt by the film. They feel that Kutch and Gujarat are being portrayed in a wrong way. That the film hurts the beautiful culture of Kutch, spreads a wrong notion of Kutch to the rest of the country. One of them even commented that whichever film portrays Gujarat in a bad light always wins a National Award. People are disappointed. They cannot digest the expletives that fill most of the film. They dislike the performances and they dont like that there are only two professional actors in the film, the rest are not professionals. They consider the film emotion-less, with non-actors' expressionless faces right down to the blank feeling-less screenplay. 'Nuff said!

I saw the film around 3 to 4 months back in a private screening for the first time. Obviously, as a 'responsible and sensitive' Gujarati, I too thought that how would the regular gujarati audience, who loved the previous two Gujarati blockbusters 'Kevi Rite Jaish' and 'Saptapadi',  accept such a bold, honest-to-earth, full-of-expletives Gujarati film. But I figured that if the audience accepted (and loved) Yo Yo Honey Singh's vulgar songs, make the producers earn crores in a week with films like Kya Supercool Hai Hum, it can probably think a little wider and accept this film too.

I dont say that the film is perfect. It has its flaws and loopholes. Performances,yes, they are less effective because of the non-professional cast. Some of the strong moments just pass away without notice because of the mild performances. Some dialogues do not sound good, like when the pimp explains the little girl what is expected out of girls in that brightly-coloured whorehouse. It comes out as too strong for the sensibilities of the general audience. 

After watching the film, I asked its cinematographer Amitabha Singh - "sir, I have lived in Kutch for 17 years. Does this kind of prostitution really exist there?" He said - "Yes. In fact, what we have shown is much milder than the reality. Truck drivers are the main clients of the highway pimps there. The condition is much worse, but we couldnt show the exact reality. It is very hurtful." 

It may be possible that we, the audience, sitting on the cushioned seats of the expensive cinema hall judge the film based on the reality of what happens to people who cannot afford to go to an expensive cinema hall with a biased unexperienced eye. Most of us, I mean kids of this generation, have never seen what poverty and helplessness really is. We would not understand why a truck driver has to remain away from his home for months together to earn little money so that he can support his family. Poverty is as old as Time itself. Eventhough I am completely against prostitution, I sometimes cant help thinking- 'why is it the oldest business in the world?'

I have worked with Amitabha sir, Priyank Upadhyay (the cleaner guy)has been my classmate in college, Pankaj Jhala (the evil Jadeja) is my uncle and I know, for sure, that the above mentioned people will never opt for a film which doesnt have a strong message or for a film which would propagate wrong message to the audience or to say 'fool the audience.' The film does have good moments and good cinematic moments I mean. As an audience, I was proud to see my homeland Kutch aesthetically shown. 

I wouldnt write anymore about it. The story - you have to watch the film for that and decide for yourself. Not everything that the newspapers and the critics write might be true. All the best! Sayonara! )