Review of NH10 (2015) by Akshay H — 02 Apr 2015

Brutal thriller powered by the amazing Anushka Sharma!

NH10 is a film staying true to its genre and certainly not for the typical Bollywood audience. Its raw, violent, gripping and showcases the powerhouse Anushka Sharma who probably gives her best performance till date. The story follows a couple Arjun (Neil Bhoopalam) and Meera (Anushka Sharma) who go out on a road trip to celebrate Meera's birthday. Things go horribly wrong when they cross roads with a gang of aggressive men who were torturing another couple for some personal reasons. Arjun is hell bent to interfere with their matter and our reaction is just like Meera's shouting "why Arjun why??" Anyway if he had left them alone we would not have edge-of-seat experience that follows. Things turnout to be even more scary with we get deep insight into the height of corruption and household violence in rural India. And in the end, the film speaks highly of Woman Empowerment with a rather shaky approach.

The film starts a bit slow, but I feel it was necessary for character build-up. The patient wait is rewarded with an amazing finale featuring the bad-ass Anushka Sharma unleashed. I would gladly watch the last 10 minutes of the film on repeat and cheer up like a kid. Her every expression be it fear, pain, agony or desperation were spot on. The screenplay is not quite unpredictable but it somehow manages to keep you on your toes with the atmosphere and background score. Many of the character behaviors feel illogical like Arjun showing off his macho- ism trying to face the goons single handed. Also in finale it anyone of those goons could have easily slipped away from the street, a single SUV could not have entirely blocked the road. Anyways ignoring a few loopholes here and there NH10 is still a fine film. It could have a lot more with better screenplay and direction. Overall its a breath of fresh in Bollywood and a satisfying thriller.

RATING: [3/5].