After quite a long interval, Abhay Deol will be back on the big screen this week with ‘Road, Movie’, reason enough for all Abhay Deol fans to rejoice. What’s more, two other films of his should get realeased this year too – ‘Basra’ and ‘Aisha’. Happy Days Are Here Again !
This week’s release, ‘Road, Movie’, is directed by Dev Benegal, his earlier films were ‘English August’ and ‘Split Wide Open’; combined with Abhay Deol’s penchant for off-beat movies, Dev Benegal’s direction promises us a really wacky movie. The promos that are airing on TV currently support that premise too - tell me you were not wondering why a weirdly dressed woman was dancing in front of a white screen in the middle of nowhere, with a bright blue truck parked nearby ! Seems like a typical Abhay Deol movie, a story that’s zany, edgy sometimes, and, to be honest, a bit freaked-out too, bolstered by good acting and tight screenplay; hope the film actually lives up to these expectations.
“Road, Movie” revolves around Vishnu (Abhay Deol), a young man desperate to escape a future working as a salesman for his father’s hair oil business – finally an explanation for the random version of the famous ‘Sar jo tera chakraaye’ song and the bottles of oil that we’ve been seeing in TV promos ! An old truck beckons, which Vishnu sees as his ticket to freedom. He offers to drive the antique truck across the desert to the sea, where it has been sold to a local museum. As he sets off across the harsh terrain of desert India, he discovers he’s not merely transporting a battered vehicle but an old touring cinema.
(Alert : If you don’t want to read a star-struck gushing groupie type of post, stop NOW)
If one tried to draw a trend line of the kind of movies Abhay Deol acts in, it would zigzag crazily all over the place – the only pattern is that there isn’t one. From his debut in 2005 with ‘Socha Na Tha’ to ‘Dev D’, he’s played a different character each time and the tone of the movie has been varied too. Unlike a host of other actors, most of his work has been with debutant directors, which might explain the various genres explored, the unusual themes, and a marked absence of performances that seem like the star is sleepwalking through a repeat of the last successful movie.
‘Socha Na Tha’ was a Hrishikesh Mukherjee kind of feel-good movie about a pair of young ones who reject a match arranged by their parents only to become good friends and eventually fall in love. Nothing new about the story but the lead pair made it credible. This was followed by the dark noir tone of ‘Manorama Six Feet Under’, the charming chutzpah of ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’ and the bitter cynicism of ‘Dev D’. ‘Ahista Ahista’, ‘Ek Chaali Ki Last Local’ and a role in multistarrer ‘Honeymoon Travels’ made an appearance in between these.
Apart from the selection of films, Abhay seems quite a maverick in other aspects too. After the shooting of ‘Dev D’, rather than stick around, enjoy the adulation and sign more films, he went off to New York to study welding and metal work. He has also now turned producer with his own company called ‘Forbidden Films’ in order to be able to make the films he likes. Read about this here.
Often described as the Thinking Woman’s Sex Symbol, he is credited with the concept of Dev D. Also, this site claims that including the ‘Sar Jo Tera Chakraaye’ song in ‘Road,Movie’ was Abhay’s idea.
To read more about Abhay Deol, check IMDB and Wikipedia, also this article titled ‘The Deol with a difference’ and this one titled ‘One Life, Different Takes’.
For more information on ‘Road, Movie’, read here and here and here.
Information collated by,
Zen
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