Presented by Gipsy Films, Road to Sangam is a simple story of a God fearing, devout Muslim mechanic named Hashmat Ullah (Paresh Rawal). A renowned mechanic by profession, he is entrusted the job of repairing an old V8 Ford Engine, unaware that it was once used to carry ashes of Mahatma Gandhi to immerse in the ‘Sangam’ of holy rivers Ganga,Yamuna and invisible Saraswati.Its historic significance becomes Hashmat Ullah’s bane and salvage.
A powerful bomb explosion rocks his town leading to the arrest of Muslim youths of his locality and Hashmat is caught in the vortex of this complex situation. A strike to close shops and work is called by the prominent community Leaders Mohammed Ali Kasuri (Om Puri) and Maulana Qureshi (Pavan Malhotra) to protest against the unjust treatment meted out to those arrested youths by the police.
Based on this fulcrum, Road to Sangam, a confluence story of heart, mind and soul, woven around the crucial fact of the last journey of Gandhiji on the planet earth. The movie impresses to delve into the psyche of a very important community of the Indian society as it also tries to understand and explore their insecurities, apprehensions, sufferings and still holding an understanding to the call of their nation.
Will Hashmat support the protest and abandon the repair of the engine?
Will he go against the wishes of his community?
Will he be able to find a middle path thru Gandhivaad or Gandhigiri?
Will he walk with Gandhi once again for confluence of India towards Road to Sangam?
Thus begins his journey. A journey of Gandhian values and principals….. A journey of nationalism….. A journey called Road to Sangam (Confluence).
CHARACTER BRIEF:
Paresh Rawal, Hashmat Ullah
Put it the way you want, he is either a ‘matric fail mechanic’ or just a ‘mistri’ who knows that every entity whether it is a car engine or a human being, it is the constellation of small nuts and bolts that make them run their normal chores. A mechanic of immense knowledge and excellence, one day his life and his own belief is thrown in a whirlpool where he has to find ‘ki har ensaan ke dil ka motor kahan hota hai.’ A process where he not only has to overcome all oppositions possible, but rediscover himself once again. Though in the process, he is always under indirect tutelage of a simple man of flesh and blood who walked on this earth years and years ago and had successfully found the motor of one fifth of humanity, and much more.
Om Puri, Mohammed Ali Kasuri;
An authoritative figure for Muslim population of his area, he is both feared and obeyed. A man having a bitter experience in the past and going through the same in present, he is a disillusioned man having lost faith in goodness until one of his own member opposes him and tries to illuminate the fact that ‘An eye for an eye makes the world blind.’ He opens his eyes in the end and realizes that the world is not that dark and has still some colours left.
Pavan Malhotra, Maulana Qureshi;
An extremist, who sees an opportunity for himself with developing scenario and fans hatred and bigotry to serve his purpose; he knows the power center and cleverly allies himself along with it. He is a representation of ecclesiastical class who from centuries has cleverly allied with power centers to strengthen their religious control and manipulate it to their advantage.
Javed Shaikh, Dr. Banerjee;
A dear friend of Hashmat Ullah and his soul brother. Though they both belong to different religion and culture, both have a strong friendship which stands unperturbed in testing times. When Husmatullah is left all alone, it is his friend Dr. Banerjee who stands besides him and encourages him to follow the vocation of his heart. He epitomizes the saying “A friend in need is friend indeed”.
U.S.P. of the Movie
Shot entirely in actual locations of Allahabad in U.P, Road to Sangam deals with a very innocent story of the common man that is dealt with simplicity, which is one of the hallmarks of the film. Also the premise of the film to a very large extent is affected by a historical event of great proportion, an event of National and International importance. The film also deals with a very powerful message. A message, which keeps becoming more and more pertinent, with each passing day.
CREDITS- ‘ROAD TO SANGAM’
Cast
Paresh Rawal…… Hashmat Ullah
Om Puri…. Mohammed Ali Kasuri
Javed Shaikh… Dr. Banerjee
Pavan Malhotra…. Maulana Qureshi
Swati Chitnis
Masood Akhtar
Yusuf Hussain
G.P.Singh
Rajan Bhise
Rakesh Srivastava
Sudhir Nema
Vijay Mishra
Guest appearance- Tushar Gandhi
Crew
Presenter- Gipsy Films
Producer-Amit Chheda
Executive producers-Sameer Shah and Sunil Sharma
Written and Directed- Amit Rai
Editor-Suvir Nath
Cinematography- Dharam Gulati (Graftii)
Action- Harish Shetty
Choreography- Pradeep Kalekar
Costumes- Mohd. Hufeez
Art director- Narendra Bhagat
Lyrics-Sudhir Nema, late Narsinh Mehta, late Allama Iqbal, Late John Henry Newman and Guru Granth Sahib Ji
Music- Sandesh Shandilya, Nitin Kumar Gupta, Prem Haria, Vijay Mishra
Singers- Kavita Krishnamoorthi, Kailash Kher, Hari Haran, Murtaza Khan, Qadir Khan, Kirti Sagathia and Vijay Mishra
Background score- Sandesh Shandilya
Media Consultants-Neelam Gupta- NR2- The Image Engineers
