Imtiaz Ali is the master to show unconventional romance which is not love at first sight but a gradually bonded relationship between two people. Highway too is the story about two persons as different as chalk and cheese and how they discover each other and gets attached with each other.
It is a story of a young girl Veera Tripathy who is the daughter of a socially and politically powerful rich and famous person. Just a day before her marriage, Veera got kidnapped by a gang of robbers lead by Mahabir Bhati(Randeep Hooda) at a petrol pump while she was there out on a long drive with her fiance. Mahabir kidnapped Veera just to take her as a hostage to escape from the crime scene but soon he realized the real identity of Veera and also understood what risk he had taken kidnapping a girl from such a powerful family. But still he did not surrender to the situation and decided to take ransom from Veera's father and sell her to any flesh market. To hide her from police he started a journey with Veera and his aide Aadoo (Durgesh Kumar) on a truck from Delhi to Rajasthan to Punjab to Himachal to Kashmir. during this journey Veera discovers that Mahabir is not the kind of harmful person what he looks from outside rather he is soft from inside and later she develops a soft corner for Mahabir. Not only that she finds an ultimate freedom in this journey for which she was longing for throughout her whole life. She becomes so close to Mahabir that she even shares the dark secret of her childhood with him. Mahabir who is also a victim of disturbed childhood becomes sympathetic to Veera. But can this sympathy and attachment can turned into a full fledged love ? Is it possible for a girl like Veera to settle down with a guy like Mahabir who has a background of three murder charges? This questions have been answered in the climax.
The story is clearly about Stockholm syndrome where the kidnapped person develops sympathy for kidnapper but this plot has been given a fresh twist with the issue of security of woman in our society. But this story could have been told even without the incident of kidnapping. Veera and Mahabir could have meet in any other situation too then it would have looked more convincing. As the way Veera gets friendly with her kidnapper's in just few days time that really looks unconvincing. If we left this flaw then the screenplay is very nice and engaging. It could have been turned into a monotonous journey of two people but there are some lighter moments in between which keeps the audiences interest level intact. For example the sequence where all of a sudden Veera start dancing to the tunes of an English song in the middle of a highway or her baby-talking to Mahabir when he reveals his softer side. But towards the climax the story seems too stretched as after a point when the lead protagonists reach to the beautiful valleys of Kashmir the story becomes a bit stagnant. From that point nothing much happened to the story for a considerable amount of time which could have been shortened. Although it is pretty much expected that what could have been the destiny of such a relationship but still some optimistic audiences can feel unhappy with the ending.
As a director Imtiaz Ali is brilliant. Like his earlier movies here too he has created such a realistic characters with them anyone can identify. He has an eye for every detailing about each characters body language to their costumes , even the characters who have one or two scene appearances will leave an impact on the audience. The different state's names have never been told in the movie but still you will be able to identify the location as the places has been shown with such perfect detailing. From the opening sequence where just some footage of a big fat Indian wedding preparations have been shown , it has been proved that how perfectionist Imtiaz Ali is as a director.
Just watch Alia Bhatt in the scene where she is telling Mahabir about dark secret of her childhood , you can feel the pain in her eyes.
While Veera is bubbly talkative full of life on the other hand Mahabir is serious , less talking.
Among the rest of the cast no one is a popular actor but every one looks perfect as per their role and gives a good support and the one who stands out is Durgesh Kumar as Aadoo , Mahabir's aide on the truck journey. Here it should be mentioned that the credit goes to the casting director Mukesh Chhabra for selecting actors who look and act perfectly in the supporting roles.
Technically the movie is brilliant. Anil Mehta's camera work is just mind blowing . The scenic beauty of northern India has never been showcased with such a magical way. Apart from that the way he has shoot the wedding preparation sequence in the beginning and the incidents showing the police investigation after the interval with shaking images which gives it a kind of handy-cam shooting feel looks very realistic. Resul Pukoutty's sound design is brilliant. Aarati Bajaj's editing is fair enough. The production design by Acropolis and the costumes by Akki Narual are perfect and shows the effect of the research which has been done about the different culture of the different states of northern India.
The eye catching locations have been truly complemented by the haunting melodies of A.R. Rehman. All of the songs have been used in background and in spite of the fact that not all of the songs are chartbusters , every song sounds perfect in the movie. There is no doubt that the winner among all the tracks is "Ali Ali " and "Mahi Ve" but rest of the songs are also perfect for the situations in the movie.
At one point of the movie Veera tells Mahabir that she dose not want go back to the point from where she had started the journey and she neither want to reach to the destination but she just want to enjoy every moment of the journey. Just like Veera the audience will feel the same. So don't think about the climax just enjoy the movie, a journey of girl from bondage to freedom and you will surely love it.
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