Ashdoc's movie review---Karwaan

This film is like a breath of fresh air that I was waiting to inhale ; it is a journey that truly reaches it's destination in more ways than one . 

Dulquer Salman plays Avinash---a brooding young man who learns that his father has just died in an accident on a pilgrimage , and that he has received the wrong body . His father's body has gone to another city , and he has to go all the way there to exchange it with the body of the woman that he has mistakenly received . His friend Shaukat ( Irrfan Khan ) decides to help him by driving his van carrying the woman's body all the way from Bangalore to Kochi . On the way they also have to pick up the dead woman's granddaughter Tanya ( Mithila Palkar ) who studies at the hill station of Ooty . The karwaan ( caravan ) is getting some steam as the three join...

Two is company but three is crowd , especially if the third is a female who is free and westernised and liberated ; the conservative Shaukat disapproves of the exposing clothes of Tanya and the oh so stifled personality of Avinash is appalled that the unmarried Tanya has to carry out a pregnancy test on the way . Besides this fact , both men are carrying the baggage of problematic relationships with their respective fathers with them . But as the karwaan proceeds , it is the talkative and friendly personality of Tanya that helps Avinash come to terms with the his differences with his father . And Shaukat---he meets another female who helps him to come to terms with his past . 

As the karwaan moves from Bangalore to Ooty to Kochi , it is moving in scenic countryside . That is what I had come to see the movie for anyway . And the cinematographer doesn't disappoint , providing breathtaking photography of the green tree topped mountains of Ooty and tea estates and mist in those mountains . And continues to show us shots of deer grazing in forests and resorts set in the backwaters of Kerala . But I got more than the superb photography of nature that I had come to see the movie for . For as the movie progresses , it gives us insights into life and tells us how to handle wrong decisions taken in the past . 

And the past does come to catch up with the three , in more ways than one . While Shaukat has to confront criminals searching for him , Avinash gets to meet a woman he loved in years of yore . Mixed with all these situations is the effervescent personality of Tanya . By the time they have reached Kochi , the three have formed a bond . And the journey has changed the two men's life . 

The whole movie is non serious and Irrfan keeps the audiences' spirits alive by cracking some real jokes and creating some funny situations with a dead pan expression on his face . Dulquer plays a serious person with repressed feelings . Mithila Palkar is pure joie de verve in her acting . All three act well . The language used in the movie is partly hindi and partly English . Due to this anglicisation of language it will be more appreciated by the educated crowd than the masses . Dulquer speaks decent hindi for an actor of non hindi speaking state . The film marks the Bollywood debut of this keralite actor . 

Music and songs form an important part of the movie and they are really good . Suffice to say that I will be repeatedly hearing the songs of this movie long after I have finished watching it . Above all it is a film that moves along breezily with comedy situations but does not finish without filling you with emotion . That's what makes for a perfect film . 

Verdict---Nice , real nice . 

Four stars out of five .