Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

bijolianabhi Today is 30 Jan, 2011 the death anniversary of Gandhi's death and I come to watch this movie. After watching the movie, I was curious to know what people thought about the movie. Why this movie didn't got any prize. I am really shocked.This movie made my day and now I am thinking about doing something for the nation. Now I want to do something so that I can make people to think about nation. People who are critics may criticize the movie, they can not ignore the inner feeling of their heart. I voted the movie 10 out of 10 and I really appreciate the movie.thanks

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.

Shashi Krishna It somehow seems like every other unconventional Hindi movie these days is aligned to either showcase Mumbai's undeniable spirit as a city that has seen the heights of mass peril or to herald a pro-Muslim message to those who might not already have heard it. Of the two, if we take a look at that rather colorful array of movies that have attempted to paint Islamic fundamentalism in a shade more palatable to the untrained layman palette, some great examples ('Aamir','Sarfarosh'), some decent instances ('Anwar','Yeh Hai Mera India','Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan') and some Herculean debacles('My name is Khan', 'Kurbaan') come to the foreground. Whilst all the aforementioned movies had varying degrees of success with portraying the life and times of an ordinary Muslim in today's India, there has never really been an attempt to juxtapose the Muslim community against Gandhi's backdrop. For that, 'Road to Sangam'(RTS) has my respect.Now, I am not a hardcore Gandhian. I have read abundant material on the man, exhaustive literature on his legend and certainly seen a dozen variations of his mantra in recent celluloid years. Notwithstanding my personal views of the Mahatma, I was getting a tad frustrated at how almost every movie that used him as the nucleus, would invariably get so sugary at one point that one could die instantly from that lethal injection of diabetic shock. His message of global peace, non-violence and inter-communal brotherhood would be echoed way beyond the subtle reality it so desperately needed. Thus, making an erstwhile honest attempt, seem preachy and philosophical.What makes RTS more authentic in such a stereotypical scenario is how it attempts to demystify the reasons why Maulwi saahibs and other patriarchal Muslims are screaming from atop mosque enclosures and what the everyday worker is hearing sitting in front of them, convinced that they know more about what being a true Muslim is. RTS dissects that so neatly that it takes your breathe away.The premise revolves around Hashmatullah (Paresh Rawal), a renowned mechanic and a devout Muslim, who works out of his grease stained garage in Allahabad. He is the general secretary of his community's organization which is headed by one time friend Mohammad Ali Kasuri (Om Puri) and the local Maulwi Maulana Qureshi (Pavan Malhotra). Hashmat is a non-threatening fellow who sits in on rhetorical meetings spilling with the irate and cranky Maulwi's never ending rants about how Muslims are being targeted each day in today's India. Despite his ideology that are slightly different from that of his peers, he does not see the need to voice his philosophy in their presence. He nods his head, joins in their hymns and plays his role to the T.And then one day a bomb goes off. A few prominent Muslims are arrested by the police and this sends shocks of rage across the community. They unanimously agree to shut down their businesses in protest of what they are convinced is a racist act. Hashmat, without a choice, reluctantly joins in not realizing that a recent project that has come his way, of fixing an age old Ford's rusty and dead engine, is in fact of the same vehicle that had once carried the Mahatma's ashes after his death in 1948. This, for a reason he cannot completely fathom, changes Hashmat's priorities.On the one hand he does consider himself a true follower of the Koran and a blue blooded supporter of his organization. On the other, there is his conscience that continues to prick him into the confession that his little deed of helping the Mahatma's final bounty of ashes to be submerged into the Triveni Sangam (a spot where the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meet), somehow seems like a more justified statement of Muslim being a faith of peace, rather than shutting off work and listening to a radically inclined Mullah each day. Thus, aware of the respect he knows he needs to pay to the man who was assassinated for being an open supporter of the Muslims, Hashmat prepares to face the wrath of his own kin by reopening his shop to fix the engine. Hashmat's personal journey of awareness lit brightly by the knowledge of the true meaning of Islam culminates with the Mahatma's final journey into the rivers of the country he fought so hard to liberate.RTS is no average emotion-heavy movie that is high on religious jingoism without a clear degree of practicality. In fact, it is the most mature movie I have seen on the subject after 'Aamir'. If 'Aamir' was the attempt to present the true anti-thesis of a Jihadi, 'Road to Sangam' paves the way for more clarity on the difference between blind fanatic adherence to one's faith and the need to see the bigger picture. That bigger, brighter, and more appropriate picture.I would definitely recommend a relevant film like 'Road to Sangam' purely because of the honesty with which it unfolds its theme.