The film maintains its intense pace with excellent narration, full marks to the director for his gripping story.
Trisha in 'The Road'. (X)
The Road (Tamil)
Director Arun Vaseegaran comes up with an investigative thriller — The Road — that keeps you entertained for the most part.
The film is intense and engaging, thanks to a refreshingly fresh plot that has two parallel sets of developments happening in two different parts of the state.
An immensely content woman, Meera (Trisha) is thrilled to know that she is pregnant with her second child. However, she is also slightly disappointed that the pregnancy will not allow her to undertake a road trip that she promised her young school-going son Kavin, for his birthday.
A poster of the film ‘The Road’. (X)
Unwilling to disappoint her son, she lets her husband Anand (Santhosh Prathap) take her son on the trip.
Both father and son set off on the trip, intending to return in a couple of days.
However, fate delivers a cruel blow. A car heading on the opposite side of the highway loses control and swerves around to cut the median and crash into Anand’s car, killing them both.
Meera is shattered by the news of their deaths. She rushes to the spot and suffers a shock, resulting in an abortion.
Eventually, when Meera goes to the spot of the accident to pay homage to her son and husband, she becomes aware that the crash which killed her husband and son could not be merely dismissed as an accident and that it may well have been orchestrated.
In another part of the state, Maya (Shabeer Kallarakkal), a professor at an arts and science college, is immensely respected for his professionalism and hugely admired by his women students for his physical attributes. One girl in particular looks to propose to him.
A dedicated teacher with strong moral and ethical values, Maya turns down the proposal. Enraged at having been rejected, she levels a MeToo allegation against him, saying that the professor sought sexual favours from her.
The false allegation ruins Maya’s life. He is humiliated and thrown out of the college.
Even after that, the humiliation continues with villagers targetting not just him but also his father who has been slogging all his life to get his son educated.
At one point, both Maya and Meera’s lives converge. What happens then is what the film is all about.
#TheRoad
An exclusive #bts teaser.
Thank you🫶🏻 pic.twitter.com/JeDnNSCnh5— Trish (@trishtrashers) May 5, 2023
The Road gets off to a blistering start with a couple that is stranded on the highway being murdered by dacoits. Right from that point on, the movie maintains its intense pace with some excellent narration by the director.
Trisha and ‘Dancing Rose’ Shabeer in ‘The Road’. (X)
Full marks to Arun Vaseegaran for his intense and gripping story that keeps you on the edge of your seats. The story’s intensity goes up one more notch once Meera begins investigating the accident.
Trisha, as Meera, does a decent job in the film.
Shabeer Kallarakkal, who received widespread praise for his portrayal of the character Dancing Rose in Sarpatta Parambarai (2021), steals the limelight in the film with yet another powerful performance.
Shabeer’s portrayal of Maya makes a profound impact on you. Maya’s struggle to come to terms with the cruel blow that eventually results in his father hanging himself makes you feel for his character. In fact, that is exactly what makes the film work.
Sam CS’s background score is perfect and KG Venkatesh’s visuals are striking.
Except for editor Shivaraj, who could have been a little more unforgiving while trimming the climax, The Road has a sound technical team that has delivered a neat product.
The Road has very few flaws, other than the fact that its climax is unnecessarily long. Apart from that, the film is an intense and gripping thriller that is definitely worth your time and money.
(Views expressed here are personal.)
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