NH 10 is a road runner of on- your- face brutality and non stop seeking of justice as a survivor portrayed by the lead Anushka Sharma a.k.a Meera in the 2 hour short movie.
The 30 minute beginning seems like a warm up of a story of a couple, Meera and Arjun (Played by Neil Bhoopalam) who live it out as corporate team not having enough personal time for themselves in a usual male dominated Gurgaon city life. The reality of this patriarchal psyche leaves its dark shadows on Meera who becomes increasingly aware of this growing ugly presence inside of her office as also outside, as she comes face to face feeling sexually cornered and as an outsider for marking her successful career territory.
They decide to venture out on a weekend trip outside of Gurgaon, on the Haryana road map that begins its NH 10 road to a romantic private villa setting arranged by Arjun for cheering up Meera for her birthday. The diversion begins when the duo stopover for a bite at the local dhaba enroute and land up being witness to honour killing in process. It does not stop at that as Arjun, the "brave" knight goes all macho in questioning this brutality meted out on a screaming woman and her boyfriend, who are considered criminals for marrying outside caste and their cries for help is heard by one and all there but no one steps forward. As Arjun is slapped right before the village audience and is provoked to fight back and teach the gang a lesson or two in manners and civility, he is restrained by Meera who urges him to drive on to their villa destination without taking this insult too personally.
As Arjun is all driven to do what he thinks right and swerves to follow this gang who have bundled the lovers in a jeep ahead, Meera fears the worst and anxiously waits for Arjun to return from this no man's land. Her wait is over as she tries to follow her husband's footsteps and is met by a mentally deranged yet harmless member from the goondas, who Arjun perceives as a threat and shoots him point blank, much to the anger of the other gang members. Far from teaching the hooligans and intervening in their brutality of killing their village woman and her lover to a chilling end, Arjun realizes the danger he has gotten himself and his wife into, as this hit and run chase leads to a dead end for even them.
What follows post interval is Meera's singular angst at being help deprived for her violently injured husband Arjun and her run for finding help, but in vain, at the local police station, who are no better than the blindly illegal hooligans. She fends for herself catching a timely glimpse into the senior inspector's intentions to turn her into the hands of the mob, and escapes from this death sentence.
She realizes to her horror that the village Sarpanch is the main rule maker of such "honourable" punishments on the young girl and her lover and no mercy for life is spared even if the girl (Pinky) is the village head's daughter.
Meera's presence of mind and on -her- feet thinking helps her run her way out of this trap and finds shockingly her husband to be dead and killed by the raging rowdies, while she had gone to find help leaving him alone under the village railway bridge.
Meera's emotions as a survivor and now all alone with her dead husband is well played by Anushka, who goes back to finish her unfinished business and rams her vehicle right back at the thick skinned and hard skulled hooligans who meet their violent end in the hands of Meera. This self proclaimed justice in a caste and strife ridden Haryanvi village, outside of the civilized borders of Gurgaon brings the survivor in Meera alive.
What begins on this route is not merely a road to a badly ended vacation, but a crossover from civility to become a law unto oneself as a woman and as the stronger survivor amongst the sexes.
The 30 minute beginning seems like a warm up of a story of a couple, Meera and Arjun (Played by Neil Bhoopalam) who live it out as corporate team not having enough personal time for themselves in a usual male dominated Gurgaon city life. The reality of this patriarchal psyche leaves its dark shadows on Meera who becomes increasingly aware of this growing ugly presence inside of her office as also outside, as she comes face to face feeling sexually cornered and as an outsider for marking her successful career territory.
They decide to venture out on a weekend trip outside of Gurgaon, on the Haryana road map that begins its NH 10 road to a romantic private villa setting arranged by Arjun for cheering up Meera for her birthday. The diversion begins when the duo stopover for a bite at the local dhaba enroute and land up being witness to honour killing in process. It does not stop at that as Arjun, the "brave" knight goes all macho in questioning this brutality meted out on a screaming woman and her boyfriend, who are considered criminals for marrying outside caste and their cries for help is heard by one and all there but no one steps forward. As Arjun is slapped right before the village audience and is provoked to fight back and teach the gang a lesson or two in manners and civility, he is restrained by Meera who urges him to drive on to their villa destination without taking this insult too personally.
As Arjun is all driven to do what he thinks right and swerves to follow this gang who have bundled the lovers in a jeep ahead, Meera fears the worst and anxiously waits for Arjun to return from this no man's land. Her wait is over as she tries to follow her husband's footsteps and is met by a mentally deranged yet harmless member from the goondas, who Arjun perceives as a threat and shoots him point blank, much to the anger of the other gang members. Far from teaching the hooligans and intervening in their brutality of killing their village woman and her lover to a chilling end, Arjun realizes the danger he has gotten himself and his wife into, as this hit and run chase leads to a dead end for even them.
What follows post interval is Meera's singular angst at being help deprived for her violently injured husband Arjun and her run for finding help, but in vain, at the local police station, who are no better than the blindly illegal hooligans. She fends for herself catching a timely glimpse into the senior inspector's intentions to turn her into the hands of the mob, and escapes from this death sentence.
She realizes to her horror that the village Sarpanch is the main rule maker of such "honourable" punishments on the young girl and her lover and no mercy for life is spared even if the girl (Pinky) is the village head's daughter.
Meera's presence of mind and on -her- feet thinking helps her run her way out of this trap and finds shockingly her husband to be dead and killed by the raging rowdies, while she had gone to find help leaving him alone under the village railway bridge.
Meera's emotions as a survivor and now all alone with her dead husband is well played by Anushka, who goes back to finish her unfinished business and rams her vehicle right back at the thick skinned and hard skulled hooligans who meet their violent end in the hands of Meera. This self proclaimed justice in a caste and strife ridden Haryanvi village, outside of the civilized borders of Gurgaon brings the survivor in Meera alive.
What begins on this route is not merely a road to a badly ended vacation, but a crossover from civility to become a law unto oneself as a woman and as the stronger survivor amongst the sexes.
