Real-life thriller - Accident on Hill Road

Imagine this  You're driving, after a late night party, under the influence of mild liquor. As you negotiate a bend, you find a person right in the middle of the road. You hit him, and he pitchforks right through the windshield. What do you do now  report the matter or leave him to take care of himself? That forms the crux of Hindi film “Accident on Hill Road”, directed by Mahesh Nair.

The film is based on a real-life incident, where a woman hit a man, drove home, and parked the car in the garage with the man. Celina Jaitley plays Sonam Chopra, a nursing assistant, in this thriller. Prakash Shrivastava, the victim, is played by Farooque Shaikh, while Abhimanyu Singh plays Sonam's boyfriend Sid. The couple leave Prakash clinging to life in her garage. But soon, there's a fight for life.

“It's adapted from ‘Stuck', a 2007 Hollywood film. We've adapted some portions of the film to suit Indian audiences,” says producer Nari Hira of Magna Films.  Says Mahesh Nair: “The toughest task was to convince Farooque Shaikh. But, once he heard the script, Farooque agreed. He even went to trauma care centres to talk to doctors and patients.

Not a glamorous role  “We short-listed Celina for the female lead, knowing very well it was not a glamorous role. She understood the character's strength and that the role would help her prove her acting abilities,” says Hira. Incidentally, “Accident on Hill Road” is said to be the first mainstream Hindi film to be shot entirely on High Definition Viper camera.  The music is composed by Raju Singh (who has done most of the background scores for Mahesh Bhatt's productions as well as Anurag Basu's films).

“There is only one song in the film  ‘Nasha Nasha', sung by Sonu Nigam, with lyrics by Sandeep Nath. The song is integral to the storyline  it is played in a lounge club where Celina and Abhimanyu are drinking and dancing. It is the drinking that causes the accident,” says Mahesh. The screenplay is adapted by Mahesh Nair and Siddarth Parmar; the dialogues are by young duo Varun Grover and Rahul Patel.

“The film raises moral questions such as ‘How will we react if we commit a crime, and no one is watching us?' ‘Why are we so reluctant to help an accident victim?' ‘Where does morality feature in the priority list of the I-Me-Myself generation?'” says Mahesh.