Highway -- Movie Review                                           

The truth is inspite of having a very admirable idea at its centre.Ali's film never becomes sum of its parts and feels unneccesarily stretched.

The movie is pretty much on course till the interval block but soon looses steam and becomes entirely predictable and extremely slow.The story unfurls when Veera Tripathi played superbly by Alia Bhatt is abducted on the highway by a gang headed by Mahabir Bhati(Randeep Hooda).After coming to know about Tripathi's alleged link with the government Mahabir is made to carry the whole risk singlehandedly and thus beginning the road trip.

The good thing here is that the story telling doesnt appear to be unneccesarily hurried and attempt to play to galleries is also kept in-check.There are a handful of well written and performed scenes in the film's first half and its also interesting to see Ali turn the whole unfortunate incident on its head and make  into sort of a self-liberation path for its protagonist.AR Rahman woos you with his soundtrack that seamlessly blends with the story.

But film's novelty wears thin post intermission as quite expectedly the romance between protagonists start to sprout up.Though we get used to the pace of the film and it continues to mesmerise visually, the story telling seems to have vanished and believability takes a beating.

We fail to emotionally invest in both these protagonists,especially Hooda whose characters comes off as so underwritten.But despite all these odds Highway does manage to give a calming influence .That coupled by string of competent performances and great music makes Highway worth embracing,atleast in parts.

Rating -- 2.5/5