Produced by Vikramaditya Motwane, Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl, Sunil Lulla, and Anushka Sharma herself and directed by Navdeep Singh, new released film ‘NH 10’ is no doubt an action packed thriller. It has a big group of music directors like its big team of producers. Set on the backdrop of honour killing and Khap Panchayat, the film revolves around a young couple whose road trip gets skewed, after they encounter a group of violent criminals.
The film’s script focuses on the gruesome evil of honour killing, which is known to be prevalent in certain parts of Haryana. And, this was noticed through the infamous Manoj-Babli honour killing case, which exposed its existence at this place, under the orders of Khap Panchayat in this area. In a landmark judgment of the court, the five perpetrators were awarded death sentence for such an inhumane act.
Actually, the film’s title refers to 400 km long National Highway 10, which begins from Delhi and passes through Haryana via different remote places. And the story of the film, deals with this subject, with lead artistes of this film Anushka Sharma & Neil Bhoopalam being witness to such crime, similar to the true happening. With Deepti Naval playing the negative role of Village Sarpanch , the film has lot to say about the cruel practice which still exists in some villages.
The film does pass a social message, on the plight of women in a male dominated society. However, in an effort to make it realistic, it has turned violent in the post interval session. Though, the intention of the film maker is good, the viewers are subjected to watch many violence filled scenes in the film. Many of them could have been avoided; but then, it would have reduced the length of the film, which is about 2 hours.
Both Anushka Sharma and Neil Bhoopalam have done well through their realistic performances, there is too much of smoking done by Anushka in this film, which may influence female smokers. Film’s photography is good and so is the background music. There is lot of wastage of time, on some of the scenes. Otherwise, it is a technically good film.
Rating (***)