Road to Ladakh - a road trip with a twist !

ASHOK’s FIVE reasons to watch an unusual and unexpected film featuring the late Irrfan Khan “Road to Ladakh” originally released on 24^th October 2003. Directed by Ashvin Kumar and featuring Koel Purie, this is a short with a run time of about 50 minutes. It’s a rare treat for the road trip movie fans but a trifle unusual for the conventional movie goer. Shot beautifully in and around the Leh mountains, it showcases what happens when two strangers come together in unusual circumstances amidst a road chase.

1.       Watch “Road to Ladakh” for Irrfan. As you watch him, you realise that he was very much the same actor seventeen years ago – the same abrupt manner, staccato dialogue delivery style, reliance on his eyes to do the communication and the trademark silent gaze that was more powerful than his speech. He completed the film with a broken arm and when he was down with illness but took no payment for his efforts.

2.       The film is a short, a tease, surreal and abstract all combined into one – the road chase is a visual delight and surely the highlight. Koel plays Sharon, a coke-snorting free-spirited woman who bumps into a nameless stranger Irrfan and the narrative shows how they come together and eventually separate as the story unfolds.

3.       The production team struggled with inclement weather, short schedule and lack of adequate equipment. The chase was shot at a slower shutter-speed to give a sense of acceleration, to compensate for the lack of real stunt-drivers.

4.       Despite the rain, punishing schedule, disappearing line-producer, no money, cut-off fuel supplies, inebriated drivers and dwindling film-stock the film was completed by sheer doggedness, by a group of people from all over the world, who had been thrown together for the first time, a fortnight ago. In that sense, this is a tribute to the spirit that passionate film-makers are driven by.

5.       The film made waves across the international circuit and was often dogged by the one scene of the naked male behind; the camera freezes over for a good four seconds.

“Road to Ladakh” is streaming on Amazon Prime and is a beautiful film. Watching it was my tribute to the late Irrfan. On a separate note, you are prompted by the film to drift off into a world where you are on your own and enjoying it. I think all of us could do with some precious me-time and “run away from it all” and what better than to gaze at the lofty mountains and feel the pristine rays of the morning sun fall upon your face even as the air stands still. To look at the vast and lonely expanse in front with no agenda for the day and no one to ask where I am coming from is what I want to experience. I am going with a 3/5 for “Road to Ladakh”