REVIEWS

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“The Road”, a short film directed by Socrates Bakthavatchalam is a brainteasing thriller. The film begins with a pregnant woman Nivi, taking deep breaths near a lake. She is seen talking to her husband who seems to be living afar and not being able to meet her in his hectic work life.

 As she is walking down the streets to her home, she sees someone getting beaten up by a guy who is not shown directly to the camera. The next day approaches, as Nivi is getting ready to go for a long drive to meet her husband. She starts her car and drives away in a rush and her car starts to break down. The car breakdown causes her to go to a mechanic where she is greeted by a small kid.

 

She calls for the main mechanic who appears to be working on a car just near her. Coming out from underneath the car the mechanic shows himself. She tells him that she is in a hurry and needs the car fixed fast, so he gets to work on it. The mechanic is the same person who was beating a guy up moments ago, shown in the film.

 He fixes her car and tells the young kid to renew her fuel and charge around two thousand rupees. At this time, the woman gets a call from someone to pick up her cousin, as she is going to Mulugur station, if she can take her with her.

 She agrees, meanwhile the mechanic tells her to take another road instead of the main road as it would be under maintenance. She starts her ride, and these two women are off for a ride. The film begins to build a petrifying and creepy atmosphere as its dark and the road seems scary too. Meanwhile they are gossiping about a story heard through the years about this road, where three other women have been brutally murdered. The way the other woman appearing to be describing the whole story it feels like she has been a victim of this. Nivi, on the other hand starts freaking out and runs over a bird in this adrenaline-charged fear taking over her.

 She vomits not being able to bear the dead bird’s body, and in this while she notices that the woman in the car is actually not a woman, as she notices a lot of hair on his arms and she appears to be wearing men shoes. Things get extremely interesting at this moment, as Nivi realizes she might have a killer in her car and not actually the person she thought she picked up. In a minute, the woman dressed man takes out his knife and keeps it at the edge of Nivi’s belly, in an attempt to scare her. Suddenly, there is someone on the road appearing to be bleeding, and the car comes to a stop. Nivi, calls the person in so that she can run him to the hospital but he says he just needs help to pick the stuff up and he l manage the rest.

 Nivi goes to help him but in a minute, the woman dressed man picks up a log and attacks the person killing him, and in the car Nivi appears to have started feeling pain or maybe her water broke, as the man starts walking towards him with the log.

 In the climax, we see Nivi lying in a hospital bed with a newborn baby beside her and a letter which answers a lot of questions of us viewers. The film takes a turn in a second, just as she reads the letter that is written by the woman dressed man. He was the one who was being beaten up in the beginning of the movie and he knew about the murders as her aunt was killed in the past, he wanted to put an end to all the killings, so he came in her car, to save her and her unborn child before they could be attacked on. Nivi, would have been another victim, as the mechanic aimed to murder her too.

 The film is an enthusiastic thriller which keeps you at the edge of your seats through the twenty-five minutes run. A movie with amazing acting skills, and splendid visuals and a gripping storyline.

Gaurav Dutta is a B.com graduate from Kolkata, schooling from St. josephs college having a passion for writing since childhood and a love for coding and gaming at the same time!