20260525-20150313-0-46549775
Critic's Rating: 4.0
NH10 IS A TENSE, TAUT, COMPELLING THRILLER

Story: Meera and Arjun drive down NH10 - can they survive a highway from hell?

Review: So, NH10 is a film you both hate and love. Meera (Anushka) and Arjun (Neil) are a happy yuppie couple living in a Gurgaon of multinationals, malls and molesters. The duo gets a gun after Meera narrowly escapes an attack one night. Deciding to take a road-trip, they head down NH10 - and see an eloping couple caught and savagely beaten at a roadside dhaba by a gang.

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When Arjun intervenes, rustic Satbir (Darshan) slaps him, snarling the girl's his sister. Despite Meera's pleading, Arjun grabs their gun and follows the gang, only to witness the couple's brutal 'honour' killing. What happens when Meera and he are discovered by the gang? And when, by mistake, the yuppies kill a village lad?

It's easy to hate NH10 while watching it because it's one of the most terrifying Hindi films ever - while simultaneously, you love its brilliance. The film's story, apparently inspired by Eden Lake, is truly taut, no moment letting you relax, no layer - like Meera's vulnerability against both Arjun's ego and the vicious gang - comforting. Every performance delivers a punch, Anushka excelling as Meera on whose glossy life dark horror descends, her acting as remarkable as her commitment to produce this film which has no band, baaja, baraat - only brutality.

There are constant twists (cops backing caste laws over India's law) and spots which you imagine offer some rest, like Meera meeting a lady sarpanch Ammaji (Deepti Naval), packing away a girl's clothes, only bring new shocks. Sound itself - heart throbbing, water dripping, the wail of a song dying on an eerie wind somewhere - becomes a fearsome character here. The stark cinematography delves parched ravines and pale mustard fields, one shot - a highway sheeted in blue moonlight, covered with stars, dotted by thorns - magical beauty.

Its cutting-edge finesse ensures NH10 puts your nerves through a shredder. Small plot quibbles aside - would a young yuppie really endanger himself and his wife to chase a gang of murderous hoods he met five minutes ago? - NH10 is not a movie for the faint-hearted or those wanting a fun filmi frolic. This is a dark tale from beyond 'the aakhri mall, where democracy ends', where jeeps become beasts and where there are no dividers between hunters, hunted and haunted.

NH10 is a relentless thriller you wish you could see with your eyes closed - because truly, as its song goes, chill gaye naina.

In-depth Analysis

Our overall critic’s rating is not an average of the sub scores below.

Direction:
4.0/5
Dialogues:
3.0/5
Screenplay:
3.5/5
Music:
3.5/5
Visual appeal:
4.0/5
Summary / Analysis

Spoiler alert! Please do not read the following plot summary if you have not seen the film.
PLOT SUMMARY

Meera (Anushka) and Arjun (Neil) are a happy yuppie couple living in Gurgaon. They're going to a friend's party and making loving banter in their car. At the party, Meera gets an urgent work call and has to rush to office - seeing her alone in her car, men on a motorcycle ring up some more in a van and make her stop and smash her window. Meera manages to escape by driving through but can't recognise the men in the police files the next day. The local cop suggests to the couple they get a gun which they do, using their police contacts.

Meera's birthday is coming up and Arjun suggests a road trip. Meera completes a business presentation, handles a bitchy male worker well and the couple head out, Arjun presenting Meera with cigarettes as a pre-birthday gift. He teases her about forgetting water and doesn't tell her that a toll attendant has just been murdered by four men in a Pajero on the road they're taking.

They stop at a roadside dhaba for lunch where Meera has a smoke in the ladies' washroom, which sports crude abuses scrawled on the doors. As she stops to clean those, a petrified young girl, who had banged into their car earlier, arrives and pleads for help, saying her clan outside is about to kill her. Meera shakes her off and goes outside where Arjun is ordering food. As they wait, they see a gang of rustic men round up the girl and a boy, beat them savagely and drag them to a jeep. Arjun intervenes but Satbir (Darshan), one of the gang, hits him and snarls to back off, the girl being his own sister. As the horrified couple watch, the gang drives off.

Despite Meera's pleading, Arjun reaches for their gun, which Meera has put in the luggage, and drives after the gang. Meera begs Arjun to leave the matter alone but he won't listen. He stops the car near the gang's vehicle on the highway and tells her to lock the doors and wait while he goes to frighten the villagers. Meera waits until a mentally challenged rustic, Chotte, shows up and wants to drive the car. She asks if he knows where Arjun is and panics when he makes the sign for a gun.

Arjun meanwhile witnesses a brutal 'honour' killing with the young boy beaten to death and the girl Pinky forced to drink poison by her own brother, Satbir. Just then, Meera is coming up the path, looking for him. He meets her and tells her they have to get out of there immediately but the gang finds them and knocks Arjun out with a rod.

When he comes round, Satbir is staring at their pictures on Meera's phone. As the gang digs graves, Satbir shoots a barely-alive Pinky dead. Meanwhile, the couple notice Chotte has their gun on him. They call him to their side quietly and offer him their car keys in exchange for the gun. But a fight ensues and by mistake, Arjun shoots Chotte. The gang is enraged and the couple literally run for their lives.

At night, the couple suddenly face one of the gang and shoot him as he stabs Arjun. The couple limp off but the remaining gang members spread out looking for them. Meera and Arjun make it to a railway under-bridge where Meera tells injured Arjun to wait till she gets help. Running for miles, she finally finds a police station where a cop is fast asleep. She makes him get up and tells her to help as they have witnessed an honour killing - at the mention of that, the cop refuses to help her and cuts the phone line on which she's talking to his senior officer. The cop throws Meera out of the thana and she steals his cycle to get back to Arjun.

On the way, the senior police officer meets her in his van and starts driving back to where Arjun is. He asks Meera her caste and figures out that hers is an inter-caste marriage. He tells her democracy ends at the last mall and breaking caste rules is totally forbidden in the village, just as with the case she's witnessed. Meera realises the cop is in league with her attackers - and they are in the jeep just behind her.

Struggling with the cop, she manages to stab him and pushes him out of the van. She drives off with the gang chasing her. Just as their jeep gets stuck in mud, Meera's van gets hit by a truck. She crawls out and reaches a stone quarry. The gang arrives and can't see her until one of them, Mamaji, sees her climbing the rock face. They throw stones to make her fall but she climbs up and throws stones and hurls abuses back at them. As they get back into their jeep, Meera stumbles off and finds a migrant labourer's hut on the site. The labourer and his wife protect her when one of the gang arrives, asking if a woman came by. Later, the man says they are outsiders but suggests she go to the village sarpanch for help.

Meera reaches the village which is deserted as everyone is at a nautanki. Outside the nautanki, she meets two children and one agrees to take her to the sarpanch - his own grandmother - if she gives him her watch. Ammaji (Deepti Naval) and her bahu are packing a girl's clothes in a suitcase and cleaning out her cupboard when Meera arrives. She is exhausted and starts telling her story. Ammaji changes the moment she hears of the honour killing and a puzzled Meera looks around to see pillow covers saying 'Pinky'. Amma locks her in the room and the petrified bahu says this is Pinky's house and she's been punished for trying to escape.

Amma calls her gang back and tells them to silence Meera. They drag her out and beat her in the courtyard but Meera grabs the little boy and says she'll throw him down the well unless they give her their jeep keys. She escapes the village and rushes to the under-bridge where Arjun is - to find he's been murdered and the gang scribbled abuses against her on the walls. Meera shrieks in grief and rage and returns to the village where she drives the jeep ruthlessly into two gang members, killing them.

She then waits with a rod in her hand till Satbir and Mamaji come driving on a bike, hits them, killing Mamaji on the spot and breaking Satbir's leg. He manages to drag himself up while she has a cigarette and watches him. But as he gets up, Meera hits him, killing him - and then stabs him over and over again with the rod.

Ammaji arrives and gasps, seeing the men dead. She says Pinky was her own daughter but broke rules and what had to be done was done. Meera repeats tonelessly, what had to be done has been done.

She stumbles out of the village as dawn breaks.

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Trivia & Goofs

TRIVIA

Twitter Reaction
NH10 starring Anushka Sharma released on March 14, 2015.

Here are the reactions that the film received on Twitter...

FAQs
  1. What is the release date of 'NH 10'?
    Release date of Anushka Sharma and Neil Bhoopalam starrer 'NH 10' is 2015-03-13.
  2. Who are the actors in 'NH 10'?
    'NH 10' star cast includes Anushka Sharma, Neil Bhoopalam, Darshan Kumaar and Deepti Naval.
  3. Who is the director of 'NH 10'?
    'NH 10' is directed by Navdeep Singh.
  4. What is Genre of 'NH 10'?
    'NH 10' belongs to 'Thriller' genre.
  5. In Which Languages is 'NH 10' releasing?
    'NH 10' is releasing in Hindi.