The Good Road
| The Good Road | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Gyan Correa |
| Written by | Gyan Correa |
| Starring | Ajay Gehi Sonali Kulkarni |
| Cinematography | Amitabha Singh |
| Edited by | Paresh Kamdar |
| Music by | Rajat Dholakia |
Release date |
|
Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Gujarati |
The Good Road is a 2013 Indian drama film written and directed by Gyan Correa. It was selected as the Indian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards,[1][2] but it was not nominated. The film won the award for Best Gujarati film at the 60th National Film Awards. It is told in a hyperlink format, where several stories are intertwined, with the center of the action being a highway in the rural lands of Gujarat near a town in Kutch.[3] The film is the first Gujarati film ever selected to represent India at the Oscars.[4]
Plot
The film deals with three story lines that cross each other on the film's titular highway.
Pappu is a truck driver. Supporting his parents and extended family is beyond his means. He has been presented a plan. An accident will be staged. Pappu will "die". Insurance payments will be substantial. David and Kiran, a middle class urban couple, are on a holiday with their son Aditya. Aditya is accidentally separated from them during a brief halt at a Dhaba, and his loss is only discovered several hours and several hundred kilometers later. David and Kiran must turn back to find him. Poonam is an 11-year old child from the city. She is looking for her grandmother, who lives in a town at the end of this highway. Tired and hungry, Poonam stops at the Topaz, which seems to be a small garment dying unit. Meanwhile, Aditya is found by a local dhaba owner and put onto Pappu's truck. Has Aditya found a new and unlikely home on this truck? Later, when it is too late, Poonam discovers that the Topaz is not quite the place for her. She is forced to confront the very same choices she is running away from. Where does this young girl turn? And Pappu, looking for answers to balance his need with those of this little boy, finds a new strength and conviction within.
Cast
- Shamji Dhana Kerasia as Pappu
- Sonali Kulkarni as Kiran
- Ajay Gehi as David
- Keval Katrodia as Aditya
- Poonam Kesar Singh as Poonam
- Priyank Upadhyay as Shaukat
Awards
The film won the Best Gujarati film award at the 60th National Film Awards for "capturing the flavor of the never-ending and undulating highways of the other India and its hidden facets."[5] The film won the Best Feature Film Jury Award at the Indian Film Festival, Houston in October 2013.[6]
Oscar selection
The film was selected out of 20 films initially submitted to the Film Federation of India for consideration for the Oscars. Ritesh Batra's film The Lunchbox was considered to be the frontrunner and certain lock for India's Oscar selection, with many critics unanimously praising it and voting for it to be the representative film. Celebrity director Karan Johar also put his support behind the film saying "All kinds of audience can connect with it and yet within the parameters of love story it is completely unusual. You feel all the love in the world for the protagonists and the unusual aspect of it is they haven't met."[7]
However, the selection committee, which deliberated on 17 September 2013, unanimously decided that The Good Road was the perfect film to represent India. Head of the committee was award winning filmmaker Gautam Ghose, who said, "This is a new film but The Good Road surprises as it shows the unknown India through the story of a boy who is lost and then found while his family is on a holiday trip to Kutch".[8]
Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi tweeted that he was proud that a Gujarati film was selected for the Oscars for the first time.[9]
See also
- List of submissions to the 86th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of Indian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
References
- ^ "'The Good Road' Selected As The Official Indian Entry For Oscars". Inida Glitz. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
- ^ "India nominates The Good Road for Oscars in Best Foreign Film Category". Retrieved 21 September 2013.
- ^ http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gujarati-film-the-good-road-to-represent-india-at-the-oscars/423659-8-66.html
- ^ IndiaTimes. "Gujarati Film 'The Good Road' is India's Entry for Oscar | Entertainment". www.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
- ^ "60th National Film Awards Announced" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau (PIB), India. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
- ^ "'The Good Road' wins Houston (IFFH) Award!". October 11, 2013. Times of India. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
- ^ "Hope The Lunchbox wins an Oscar: Karan Johar". Hindustan Times. 17 September 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
- ^ PTI (4 September 2013). "'The Good Road' nominated as India's entry for Oscars". The Hindu. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
- ^ "Twitter / narendramodi: Delighted to know that Gujarati". Twitter.com. Retrieved 21 September 2013.