the audience applauded

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

To be honest, this movie is one of my favorite Indian movies in a long time. I have stopped watching contemporary bollywood garbage which it dishes out every other week. I consider BLACK as India's best movie in last 30 years. 3 Idiots & Rang De Basanti are good, but this movie is in class of its own. It almost feels MAGICAL that you are transported into Dev Benegal's world. Its mesmerizing movie. An astonishing work of cinematography. Do anything but don't miss out on this HIDDEN GEM.Also, this movie never had huge marketing behind it, i can understand why that was the case. Simply people in India don't like such artistic movies and most are illiterate but still it doesn't bring this movie down. I am glad such a movie was made and it is an awesome experience. You will feel entrenched in the Director's vision of India & Rajasthan.

The movie has got rave reviews and after seeing it on DVD last night, I felt compelled to add my few bits to the mix. No doubt I may have missed the cinematography of the desert landscape on my TV screen. But I would like to comment on the content, not on the visuals.I feel that the director has tried to give a message to the audience through this production. That one should not take things at face value. In fact I was reminded of Ancken's Seraphim Falls, in which characters appear and sequences occur, which are totally surreal and unreal. But entertaining nonetheless. And a big question mark remains at the end, when the viewer is left wondering as to what the hell happened? For a change, this movie deals with the stark desolation and horrors of Rajasthan, rather than focusing on its forts and princes, with their decadent lifestyles. But there are also many unanswered questions, possibly deliberate. Or possibly just foolish errors. For example, the truck (guzzling petrol, guessing from its model) traverses the huge state, without requiring a single filling of fuel. The protagonist is not well off, but he has no problems with money, according to his declarations. He embarks on a road journey, but does not stock up on food or water, or even a road map; neither he or his family think of this. Was the hero a retard? The truck is his fathers' friend's. So was it gifted, together with its content of film reels and projection equipment? Was it sold off in the end? For running the films, he takes electricity from the police station. But subsequently, he shows films in the middle of the desert. Where did the power supply come from? Was the fair an illusion? If it was, how did the hero earn Rs 45,000 from the poor desert inhabitants? These and many many other questions make the viewer wait for the end, waiting for some answers. But the film ends with a jerk, and the viewer is left hanging mid-air in this 'arty' movie.

Dev Benegal's 'Road, Movie' is quite an interesting film. It has potential, it has a story to tell... but falters in one section, which is: It lacks the power, that one expects from Benegal. Sure it's good, but one expected much more from this celebrated filmmaker.A restless young man played by Abhay Deol, itches to escape his father's faltering hair oil business. An old truck beckons, He offers to drive the antique Chevy across the desert to the sea, where it has been sold to a local museum. His journey then-after, is filled with ups and downs, love and hatred. 'Road, Movie' starts off very well, but becomes a waste post 45-minutes. The Yashpal Sharma track looks forced by the screenplay, and even the climax leaves a lot to be desired.Coming directly to the acting department, Abhay Deol is superb. The talented actor carries the film on his shoulders and is in character in every shot. Satish Kaushik is terrific, once again. Tannishtha Chatterjee does justice to her part. Mohammed Faizal Usmani, the kid, is annoying. Yashpal Sharma is wasted in an apology of a role. Veerendra Saxena is passable.On the whole, 'Road, Movie' might entertain you if you're looking out for some different type of cinema. From my side: A Good Effort!

There are just four characters in the movie. Vishnu, played by Abhay Deol, wants to do more than just waste his time selling herbal oil as his father does before him. So, he volunteers for a friend to deliver across the desert an old truck which is a mobile cinema. The film is then about his journey, the movies that he plays & more importantly, the people that he meets on the way.We have seen bits of brilliance from Satish Kaushik in the past, from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro to Calendar in Mr. India, but I think this is the one that he will be most remembered for as an actor. Cast as a veteran mechanic, Kaushik plays a central role in taking the movie in a different direction than the protagonist has planned to. He has been cast very well along with the little boy that Vishnu picks up early in his journey. Both these characters provide for the lighter moments in the film while also inducing some thought provoking dialogue. There is also scope for a female lead. A tribal whose husband was slain over a water dispute some years ago. As she mentions that she too wants to get lost in the magic of cinema, one can't help but wonder if there is a deeper meaning to this sentence. And this deep meaning dialogue is a standard feature of the film.Wide angle views of the vastness of the desert that lead to nothingness in the desert and a set of women treading along for days in search of water are brilliantly executed. And, other than the road & the movies, they are a common string throughout the film.The film exists at many levels. At the most superficial level, it appears to be a subtle comedy with situational jokes and a bit of slapstick too. You dig a little, and you find that it is a person's journey to finding himself by having to deal with an old truck, rough, dry weather and some people who have been through their share of pain & suffering and how they still manage to be at peace and look forward to some elusive tranquility.Dig a little deeper and you find the film is about some inherent social problems that still affect most of rural & tribal India. That something as basic as water can be a reason for murder & arson is hard to imagine but it is brought to us with a lot of sensitivity. How the lead characters almost die of thirst, how they almost get killed for trying to steal water all help appreciate a problem that is alien to most of us.Dig a bit more and we find that Indian cinema is trying to usher in the seemingly selfish directors who make films from the heart with a message that they want to send across to anyone who tries to understand their cinema. There is no plot in the movie that would build up into something big. For a film like this, there has to be no plot. Very few directors can do it and get away with it. It is a movie that should go down as one that shifted or at least tried to shift the paradigm of Indian cinema.That said there is much that the director could do better explaining & elaborating a little. Like what is the protagonist actually wanting to do with the truck, how does a particular mela (caravan fair) disappear overnight and mostly, why such a brilliant film seem a bit too long even for its 95 minute run time.It is most definitely a lesson in cinematographic excellence. One would just hope that it would be a complete movie in itself too.