From ‘Roja’ to ‘Highway’: Movies that had meaning in the mountains

Imtiaz Ali’s Highway tells its story to you from a vantage point in the middle of rural and other corners of northern India along a path that leads you to your destination. The landscapes here include the rough peaks of Himachal, the dramatic silence of Kashmir, each one providing something for Veera on her adventure of discovery and liberation.

The snow-capped peaks of Manali and Gulmarg played a central role in ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’. The trekking scenes and campfire moments not only captured youthful adventure but also sparked the tender romance between Bunny and Naina.

Set in Kashmir, Vishal Bhardwaj’s film ‘Haider’ effectively capitalizes on the valley’s unsettling beauty to amplify the film’s emotional — and political — tensions. The snow-covered mountains are both a testament to the tumult of the film’s narrative and a metaphor for the havoc wrought by the narrative.

Kashmir’s magnificent beauty offered ‘Fanaa’ with a lyric balance that beautifully contrasted Zooni and Rehan’s tormented love story, illustrating the serenity and unattainable tragedy, personal and romantic, in which the characters were living.

By contrast, “Roja” is a film directed by Mani Ratnam that combines love and pain, central to Rishi’s and Roja’s romantic love story, with the primal, savage Himalayan land of Kashmir. The mountains served as a backdrop to a timeless conversation on nationalism, separation and determination.