Romantic Road
A road trip across India and Bangladesh in a 1936 Rolls-Royce proves unexpectedly appealing in Oliver McGarvey's highly adept documentary.
A London lawyer and his wife, Rupert and Jan Grey, are the central figures in this documentary made in 2017. Its arrival on our screens now is not the most appropriate timing. In saying that I am thinking not so much of the delay involved (although the film is quite good enough to have warranted an earlier release) as of the potential clash between Romantic Road’s subject matter and the ever-increasing concerns over Britain’s colonial history that have built up since the film was made. That issue arises because the film is centred on a visit to India undertaken at the end of 2011 which found the very British, very upper class Rupert Grey (a descendant of the 19th century Prime Minister Earl Grey) taking on a journey there lasting six months during which time his form of transport was a 1936 Rolls-Royce that had belonged to his father.
Such a set-up is likely to arouse immediate hostility and disapproval among those for whom our colonial history has become a major disquiet, and understandably so. Yet, once one views the film, it reveals Rupert Grey despite his background as a man who quite clearly deplores barriers, be they related to ethnicity or to class, and it is apparent too that his own sympathies would more likely be with those rebelling than with colonialists. Having been a hippie who had visited India in the 1960s, he has maintained a love for the country and for all of its peoples whatever their status. As the film proceeds, it shows us the many regions through which he and his wife pass: they arrive in Mumbai and visit Calcutta but they also cross the Thar desert, journey up the Brahmaputra river and are certainly not blind to the lives of the poor. Additionally, they take a hazardous side-trip into Bangladesh to attend that country’s biennial Chobi Mela International Photographic Festival at Dhaka (Rupert Grey is himself keen on photography and has for many years been a friend of the noted photographer and human rights activist Dr. Shahidul Alam). These travels shared by Rupert and Jan would in total cover some 5140 miles.
Romantic Road is the kind of film which conceals the art behind it. Oliver McGarvey, who is director, producer and photographer and was here making his feature debut, does nothing showy. Nevertheless, he shows real judgment as he works with his editor and cuts down some 200 hours of potential footage to create a film that lasts 80 minutes and always keeps on the move. There’s just the right amount of everything from the varied locations to the often brief but telling comments from friends and family which are inserted (the most significant and longest of these comes from daughter Carmody Grey). If McGarvey’s approach does much for the film, the other special asset is to be found in Rupert and Jan Grey themselves. Both are engaging people and Romantic Road celebrates their togetherness without any mawkishness even as it brings out their differences (Rupert is a risk-taker in life, she is the opposite). Considering their generation, it is no surprise that Rupert Grey appears to take the decisions thereby doubtless alienating feminists, but it is Jan who is described as the stronger and it is she who curbs Rupert’s wilder excesses. Consequently, the film emphasises their bond and older viewers in particular will be warmed by it.
Jan makes her own individual contributions to the film but leaves the main narration to Rupert whose comments are admirably individual and at intervals bring out his sense of humour. He can surprise us too, as he does when revealing that to aid the journey he at one stage accepted an invitation to play a role in a film being made at that time by the director Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta. Most films of special appeal to older viewers are escapist pieces featuring actors, but here for once is a documentary that should have no less appeal for them as they enjoy taking this journey vicariously and discover just how much they appreciate doing so in the company of Rupert and Jan Grey.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Jan Grey, Rupert Grey, Shahidul Alam, Ankur Vikal, Carmody Grey, Katherine Earle, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, Johnny Grey, Nigel Winser, Anita Clinton, Mark Sealy, Jim Stokes, John Selborne.
Dir Oliver McGarvey, Pro Oliver McGarvey, Ph Oliver McGarvey, Ed Gintare Sokelyte, Music Kyle McCrea.
Unknown Pictures/Rover Films-Screenbound Pictures/Blue Dolphin Films.
80 mins. Canada/Bangladesh/India/Nepal/UK. 2017. Rel: 8 October 2021. Cert. 12A.