NH 10 takes you on a journey to hell on earth!

Here is India’s first entry into the roadie-slasher film genre.

National Highway 10 is a 403km road that starts in New Delhi and ends at the little town of Fazilka in Punjab, near the Indo-Pakistan border. A major chunk of the road (313km to be exact) passes through Haryana, sadly known for its lawlessness and increasing honour killings.

Meera (acted by Anushka Sharma, who is also the film’s producer) and her husband Arjun (Neel Bhoopalam) engages in a brief fight and then decides to make it up by going on a weekend getaway.

While snacking at a roadside hotel, they see a group of men savagely attack a pair of helpless, eloping lovers. Arjun intervenes and things soon take a violent turn.

Soon people are being killed left, right and centre and very few are spared. Meera pleads for help and finds that none is forthcoming. So she takes things into her own hands and that forms the rest of the story.

India always have had two faces — the posh urban side and the raw rural one. NH 10 brings out this stark contrast in its goriest details. The violence here is cold, calculated and intended to shock. The film touches upon several socially relevant themes, including honour killing of women and corruption that permeate to the lowest strata of society.

Director Navdeep Singh has done his research well and keeps viewers on the edges of their seats. At some points, one even forgets to breath, lest you attract the goons’ attention towards the hiding couple.

If the film’s first half is gritty and believable, the second is a little less so. Meera trying to become the Indian version of Kill Bill is a bit of a stretch.

But rest assured the movie will go a long way in dispelling the myth that Indian movies are just about songs, dances, wild colours, weeping and running around trees doing courtship.

I caught a late show and was a bit apprehensive walking to my car, parked some distance away. I kept looking behind my shoulders to see where the stalker was hiding.

I submit that as the perfect complement for a filmmaker who got his product right.

VERDICT: Though itis not an easy movie to watch, it’s also one that shouldn’t be missed. Leave the children at home. This is strictly for adults. Eight out of 10 stars.