GFF 2011: Road, Movie

As its title suggests, Road, Movie is a self-conscious referent of a spate of earlier films, and the concept of cinema in general. Vishnu (Abhay Deol) is fed up of the family business – the hair oil racket – and volunteers to drive an old truck, formerly a travelling cinema, across India to escape it. His route is full of self- and cinematic-reflection. There are unsubtle allusions to Wim Wenders’ Kings of the Road, in which a cinema repair man picks up a hitchhiker and the pair contemplate their existence amidst deserted landscapes and rural projection rooms. Vishnu crosses a similarly stunning vista and also picks up various stragglers. The party bond over screenings of old movies they put on during pit stops and, in one climactic scene, Vishnu breaks out the Bollywood and assaults some threatening gang members with high camp hair oil salesmanship. Unfortunately, this richness of influences and images can do nothing about the blandness of the story. Road, Movie is a love letter to cinema minus any passion.