Very well executed

Thanks for the memories!

Best movie of this year hands down!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I've never been to India, and when I picture it, I picture an overcast street with lots of people dressed in dull colors, and lots of poverty. Some of that exists, I know, but "Hit the Road" introduced me to so many different parts of India. It also introduced me to a 12-day rickshaw race, Mumbai Xpress, from Mumbai to Chennai.I have no idea how one finds out about Mumbai Xpress, nor do I have any idea why one would enter. My idea of a rickshaw was always someone pulling people in a contraption on two wheels. This rickshaw looks like a small bus, fitting two people, and motorized.Hit the Road: India follows two Americans, Richard Gazarian and Keith King, as they participate in the 2012 Mumbia Xpress. They meet up with some rotten weather -- we're talking pulling this rickshaw out of knee-deep water. The rickshaw breaks down, they have other problems, such as no visibility, spending time with the police who won't let them film in certain places, gasoline problems, all necessitating them to stop. They're not doing it to be #1, which is a good thing.The men on whom the film is focused have great personalities and are very natural. Someone said that the people themselves thought they were hysterical and they weren't. I didn't get that they tried to be anyone other than themselves.The photography is excellent and some of the scenery was absolutely breathtaking, as were some of the beautiful costumes the women in the towns wore. It was a funny juxtaposition as you watch an Indian woman in native costume checking her cell phone. I would have loved to see more about the culture. The people they meet along the way seemed friendly, the children lively and smiling, especially when they visit a school wearing costumes and the children sing to them. The music is great, and it helps give the documentary a nice feeling. I do have to say the food looked dreadful. At one point they hit a McDonalds -- obviously no hamburgers though.I was left with a feeling of real admiration for these guys, who want to see the world and despite the fact that they didn't care about winning, they persisted through difficulties to get through this race. And I commend the producers for getting this made, not always easy nowadays.All in all, fun if maybe a little long for what it was. One thing you learn for sure: Being in a rickshaw for 12 hours at a time for days at a time is a grind.

Hit the Road: India (2013) *** (out of 4) Good documentary about two friends who decide to tackle the 12-day Mumbai Xpress, which is a rally from Mumbai to Chennai and is according to many one of the greatest adventures in the world. HIT THE ROAD: India comes from co-directors Gor Baghdasaryan and Mushegh Baghdasaryan and I'll admit that the subject matter really didn't spike my interest very much. I really wasn't sure what to expect but by the time the 80-minute film was over I found myself entertained. I'm not going to call this a masterpiece or anything like that but if you're familiar with the old James A. FitzPatrick 'TravelTalks" shorts then I think you're going to enjoy this film. Those shorts just had FitzPatrick going to countless places and showing off the locations and the locals. The main attraction to this film is getting to see a city by city tour of India and this here is reason enough to watch the film. I thought the camera-work was quite good for a film like this and there's no question that the directors know where and how to shoot a scene. I'm not going to pretend to sit here and say what the directors were trying to do with this film. However, if it was to show off this event and the beauty of India then they're certainly succeeded. There are many memorable moments scattered throughout the film but I think one of the best things is that it actually makes you want to pack your bags and head to India to live some of this stuff for yourself. This was actually the first time I had ever heard of this race but it was interesting seeing the contestants make their way from various cities and the hardships that happened along the way. I think the one flaw with the picture is that I really didn't connect with the main people very much and I think a little more information about them would have made this journey better.

The basic idea for this documentary is simple. We follow a couple of participants in a race between Chennai and Mumbai in India. The vehicles used are what make it unique. As a nod to their preponderance in India because of their cheapness to run, the contestants all drive the auto-rickshaw, a light-weight mini motor mainly used for taxis. It's the choice of vehicle that ultimately provides most of the drama here, seeing as it is not designed in the slightest for crossing the Indian subcontinent. Unsurprisingly, it constantly breaks down, leading to lots of frustration for the racers. The very fact that this constitutes most of the drama sort of illustrates that not an awful lot actually seems to happen over the course of the race though. The main obstacles are a combination of poor quality roads and the monsoon conditions. The people they encounter along the way, on the other hand, seem pretty much universally nice. The lack of adversity does affect the impact of the film to be honest, as there aren't too many in the way of interesting events along the journey. In this way I guess it ensures that the feel is pretty authentic, however, and you do get a feel for the conditions.Maybe it could have been edited together better though, as sometimes things suddenly happen and people appear and we have no real idea of why. The narrative aspect could definitely have been stronger for sure. And while the photography captures the road well, I often thought it would have been nice if it caught the landscape the racers were passing by more – it has an authentic feel but visually it doesn't necessarily sell India as well as it could. I suppose though it is not so often that we see the unglamorous back roads of this country so in that respect it's fairly interesting. The two racers we follow seem like nice guys though and it's easy to feel their increasing discomfort in their difficult trek cross country. For a small-scale travel documentary this is fine, even if it lacks an overall dynamism to make it last in the memory.

My wife and I were very excited to see this film having seen the trailer, which was excellent. We have just returned from India in a trip from Chennai to Mumbai so we were really looking forward to seeing some familiar places.Unfortunately we were let down.The film has some interesting moments and characters, but the storytelling and editing is poor. The choice of American/Canadian main characters was a bit bizarre - we would have preferred Indian.The filmmakers got some good shots but unfortunately a lot of them were spoiled by the excessive use of shallow depth of field resulting in many shots out of focus. This is an unfortunate mistake in a documentary film, where they can easily avoid this by using apertures that allow a wider depth of field, which is useful when they need to get shots quickly without having time to prepare in advance for them. However when focus was good there was some nice stuff.The music choice was generally strange throughout the film, with a moody, electronic and indy flavour that was quite dark in general. Yes that sound interesting and hipster-ish, but then you need to go the whole hog and pull it off like David Lynch. It feels like it was simply the wrong choice in this case.I really can't understand why this film currently has a rating of 9.2 from 32 reviewers - this is FAR too high. We bought the film online on the strength of the trailer but feel that perhaps a lower price would be more appropriate.