Review of NH10 (2015) by Aditya M — 03 Sep 2015

Technically these are mild spoilers, but I don't think I am revealing anything critical when I summarize the plot thus: Married couple living in Gurgaon leave for a birthday getaway outside the city. On the road, they get mixed up in something they aren't supposed to and end up on the run from some very dangerous people. Husband and wife get separated from each other (and from their car) and have to fend for themselves in the dark, off-highway wilderness. This maybe a standard thriller template, but it is somewhat new ground for Hindi cinema. It isn't what makes 'NH10' stand out though.

I remember reading somewhere that of the so-called five elements of storytelling (plot, character, theme, conflict and setting), the last is most often the neglected cousin. I've found this to be true, and the corollary is that books or films that use setting successfully tend to endure well in memory. 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' springs to mind as an example.

Navdeep Singh's film may not go down in history on par with Arthur Conan Doyle's best Sherlock Holmes novel, but I can't think of a Hindi film that has used its setting better, transforming the sinister rural badlands of Gurgaon into a character in themselves. In a narrow sense, this is a traditional slasher film where the heroine has to outrun, outwit and outlive her pursuers, but what separates 'NH10' from much of the pack is its added depth: the film is also in some way about an urban and modern India that is zooming along the highway, but can't avoid colliding in uncomfortable ways with the traditions of a past it is still living in.