I saw this as part of the Tribeca Film Festivals pay per view component and I'm so glad I did, it wiped away the bad feeling I had from the films I had seen earlier in the evening.A beautifully filmed little movie, the story concerns Vishnu, a young man who agrees to drive a friends roaming cinema across country and what happens after that as he picks up passengers and has some adventures along the way.Its a rambling film that is perhaps not perfect story wise, but which over comes its weaknesses thanks to beautiful film-making and a cast of characters who worm their way into your heart. Its a film that is like all of the best films, about the people at its center.I really liked and can't recommend it enough,

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.

The first thing that you would probably feel at the end of the movie is - The movie was Strange. The movie basically doesn't have a "real" story as in nothing really happens. I would liken this movie to something very loosely on Easy Rider. The protagonists in that movie were on a trip to Mardi Gras, here the Mechanic is searching for a Mela. They encounter few people on the way, they reach the destination and the movie ends - to put it in a oversimplified terms.This movie does contains few moments of subtle laughter - but doesn't give you enough. The scene with the local water don is quirky and it seems that the movie is going to change some pace - but it is left at that.Abhay Deol seems to have carried his Dev D attitude in this movie which sometimes feels like a misfit. Satish Kaushik's character as the Mechanic is the best cast.May be few years down the line this will be termed as a defining piece of work in Indian Cinema - Bollywood does needs to change its face to catchup with the global scene and not be a laughing stock with its song and dance sequences in huge bungalows. This just might be a baby step towards that direction.

Finally, "Road, Movie"- critically acclaimed director Dev Benegal's much awaited 3rd directorial venture comes to Indian screens after 'wandering' over from a number of film festivals.First look at the movie and you will know that the director isn't catering to a large strata of audience. The movie has a chugging along sort of pace, quite like the Truck that is the carrier of our protagonists. A feel of wanderlust will strike you if you have that sort of streak.The movie is basically about a journey of self-discovery (Vishnu's). The wanderlust struck oil businessman's son discovers in this journey the meaning of relationships. His companions in this journey are a mechanic (kaushik), a tea-seller boy (Faizal) and a nomad (tannishtha). Along the way there are skirmishes with the police and water mafia.The performances are sterling. Abhay deol plays to the hilt the selfish, city-lad. Mohammed faizal impresses as the tea-stall boy an Tannishtha Chatterjee is natural in her role of a wandering nomad. But the man who steals the show as the mechanic is veteran actor Satish Kaushik. Absolutely wonderful performance by him.Besides the cinematography is absolutely scintillating. Never has the rajasthan landscape been so beautifully picturised on screen. Michael Brook's background score is beautiful to say the least.A movie with international sensibilities but an Indian heart. Calling this Bollywood will be a shame. This movie belongs to world cinema. Quite easily this one belongs to the collector's shelf. Mr. Dev Benegal-- Take a bow, Sire! Go on this journey or rather 'Wander' into it.