Road to Sangam
Road to Sangam
| 29 January 2010 (USA)
Road to Sangam Trailers

Hasmat, a devout Muslim, is asked to repair a vehicle that transported the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi. However, the situation soon complicates when his community is shaken by violence.

Reviews
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Amit Hattimare The story gives a very strong message. It starts simply as the story of a mechanic who just wants to complete his work and is ready to go against even his own people because he knows he's right. But soon it becomes a movie that tells us the importance of unity, and freedom that we get in this country. Somehow the movie, towards the end, makes one nostalgic and it is very emotional to see Gandhi's ashes being taken through a city's streets and everyone joins the convoy. It makes us think what we are doing wrong that is spreading hate or promoting bad deeds. It successfully makes us realise the efforts of a man to bring the people of this country together and form a free nation. Hats off to the director and all actors for pulling up a brilliant performance.
jmathur_swayamprabha Today I watched Road To Sangam online on funbolo.com and now I have only one regret that I could not watch it earlier. It's a movie to be watched by every true Indian, every true Muslim and every true human-being. It was released sometime back and to the misfortune of the Indian audience, it was not even took notice of. I really pity that meaningless and mindless movies score on the box office due to the pre-release hype generated for them and outstanding movies like Road To Sangam are not even given a look.A motor workshop owner, Hashmatullah (Paresh Rawal) gets a job of repairing the engine of a very old truck without being aware of the fact that this is the truck which has carried the remains of Gandhiji's body for dispersal in different rivers of the nation and now only one such urn is remaining which is to be carried to Sangam (the amalgamation point of Ganga and Yamuna at Allahabad) for the dispersal of its contents there. Before he could accomplish the job, his community leaders call a strike of the Muslims in protest to the arrest and torture of local Muslims as the aftermath of some explosions in the city. He himself is the general secretary of the concerned committee but once coming to know that the job undertaken by him is related to the remains of Gandhiji, he refuses to become a part of the strike and thus invites the wrath of his community-man. Being a liberal and right-thinking person and taking the inspiration from the life of Gandhiji himself, he finally succeeds in carrying out the job as well as make his community-men understand his point-of-view.This novel idea pertaining to the dispersal of the ashes of Gandhiji has been developed quite proficiently, linking it to the Muslim-psyche and the activities of the fundamentalist elements as well as the negatively thinking elements in the community. How less educated and ill-informed youths are misguided, is shown quite realistically but it raises hope that right-thinking persons can change the scenario if they come to the front and speak to their community brethren fearlessly on related issues. True, the police atrocities and tilted mentality towards the Muslims is also responsible for the already deteriorated and further deteriorating situation in our country, still the Muslims can themselves introspect and look at several things objectively to find out what is right and what is wrong. That insight itself will guide them to move in the right direction. It's always easy to misunderstand others as well as misread the things prevailing. However the movie emphatically underscores the positive and hope-providing fact that proper observation and correct understanding of the things is also very easy. Only the windows of the mind are to be kept open. Right-minded people (which are always there) can come forward and bring about a positive change in the scenario, provided they throw off the burden of fear of the fundamentalists and the vested interests which appear to be mighty but actually may not be.Gandhiji's philosophy of humanity is still relevant which discards all the differences of the mankind whether on the ground of sex or religion or cast or creed or race or province or language or likewise. Through the character of Hashmatullah, it has been propagated once again and this propagation is, in fact, very effective. Though the long dialogues send an air of preaching, the actions of the hero support the talks and do not allow them to appear hollow. The message is pretty clear to the Indian Muslims - 'You have to be the change you want to see in the world.' The narrative takes some time in taking off but once taken off, there is no laxity. Despite the exemplary message, it is not weak on the entertainment front and is very very interesting. The editor could have shortened the length by 15-20 minutes. However the length is not felt very much because there is no boredom.The art director and the cinematographer have done a splendid job by creating the middle class areas of the city on the screen with a high degree of reality. Everything appears in such way that the viewer gets a feeling of witnessing in person whatever is visible on the screen.The performances of all (including the great-grandson of Gandhiji - Tushar Gandhi) are highly admirable. However it's Paresh Rawal's movie who carries it alone on his strong shoulders. He has made himself deserving to be considered among the greatest Indian actors through his talent and toil. In this movie, his hard work speaks for itself.The music of the movie (by Sandesh Shandilya and others) is also good. The very old prayer - Lub Pe Aati Hai Dua Bann Ke Tamanna Teri and the Qawwaali - Hum Subah Ke Bhoolon Ko (sung by Vijay Mishra, Ghulam Qadir Khan & Ghulam Murtuza Khan) are specially mentionable. The devotional songs dear to Gandhiji have also been incorporated suitably and emphatically.Summing up, producer - Amit Chheda and writer-director Amit Rai have done an outstanding job. It's a movie pronouncing the message of the Mahatma, the message of humanity without any overtones or rhetorics. It has won several international awards but not the viewership of the Indian audience. I recommend this movie as a must-watch for every right-thinking Indian. Nobody willing to watch meaningful and purposeful cinema should miss this masterpiece.
PShuks I've finished watching this film few minutes ago. The first thing I did was to come to this site (IMDb)and read the reviews. Seeing that only 7 reviews have been put up so far, I decided to register to this site not really to review but to pay tribute. I am not a critic and cannot comment on the technicalities of the film. I like what 'hits' me and this film has gone for the bullseye. This film sends out an extremely strong, thought-provoking message. I am in my twenties, I wear torn jeans and listen to western music but after watching this movie, somewhere inside I felt guilty. In one of the reviews here I read that only 5 people turned up to watch the film in a theatre which is just sad (and guys like us are to be blamed for it, no excuse). All I want to appeal to the director is (if he is reading the reviews here) to please not get bogged down and please keep gifting us with such thought provoking cinema as long as you can ( our country needs it !).
Avinash Patalay "Road to Sangam" affirms the proclamation that small budgeted movies are definitely better than gloss-glittered Chopra'raj & Johar-ism. The movie is straight out of heart, the execution is impeccable. Right from the first-frame it manages to grab the attention of the audience. Thanks to the Munnabhai MBBS, it has rekindled the Gandhi'sim into the audience. Road to Sangam makes a linear progression in the same direction. Casting wise Paresh Rawal, Om Puri & Pavan Malhotra have been thrown in. Had Naseer been roped into the project, it would have been nothing short of casting-coup. √ Paresh Rawal: Paresh Rawal should be applauded for the choice of roles he is taking on board, heterogeneous. The character of Anwar Bhai takes a while to build up momentum. Not exactly juxtaposition but more of corroboration that the hardship of Anwar Bhai were akin to struggle of Mohandas Karamchand. √ Om Puri: There is no denying that he was in top form. √ Pavan Malhotra:: The casting department should be applauded for selecting this unsung hero for the role of mullah. His body language and delivery is nothing short of perfection. One of late-comers from parallel cinema to embrace the mainstream commercial Cinema. But hey-ho, welcome!√ Javed Sheikh was adequate.The spirit of the city has been captured effectively. The story progresses quite naturally. For the first timer, the director surely knows his job well.It would be fair to make a statement that "Road to Sangam" was not promoted enough. The word of mouth didn't quite help which is another setback. Its a shame to see duds like "Kurbaan" garnering moolah when a well-deserved movie like "Road To Sangam" perhaps deserves a little bit more attention.
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