Review-Traffic Signal

Mass meter - **
Class meter - **



At the outset let me share that Madhur Bhandarkar does not figure in the list of my favourite directors barring his hard hitting Chandni Bar, good in parts Page 3 , Corporate based on cola war minus the fizz and now this.....

Traffic Signal - So called part of the trilogy, after Page 3, Corporate...Madhur Bhandarkar the director with a penchant for exposing the underbelly is back . The thriving human lives living out of a Traffic Signal. Now my non intelligent guess on how the director / writer team comes up with the story is as follows - They fish for all articles / headlines related with their theme / subject and then as fillers weave a story around it !! Mention of the July deluge, Bomb Blasts, Unbreakable spirit of Mumbai City...get the idea !!??

Traffic Signal is a filmy microscopic view on the lives living in and around a signal in search of a livelihood . In case you happen to watch this movie , you will surely ponder for a moment next time you stop at a signal (some sensitive souls already would be doing this daily!!), before the light turns green.

The story is their fight for survival, their hopes, their pain and momentary joy and happiness . The director does not waste time in setting the story and the pace for the same . This signal has everyone , A Manager (kunal khemu in a deglam and a powerful performance), beggars, gajrewali, embroidery seller (neetu chandra in an impressive debut), pavement rangoli artist, a kid called dambar due to his dark skin (who dreams about having a fair skin and is disillusioned on using the product Fair Fast :-) , another called tsunami , paya (sidekick of kunal), a gandhi wadi social worker (dombivli fast actor), Prostitutes / Gay, soliciting customers by the night (Konkona Sen, yet again shining in a brief cameo ) , A beggar begging only in underwear which he calls his costume (non working hours seen at the multiplex) , A habitual druggie (Ranvir, surprising in a serious and pathos laden role contrary to the light roles he generally plays !), roadside romeo's, eunuchs who rue the fact why there are no competitions similar to Miss India / Mr India for their tribes :-) A beedi shop (doubling up as the money deposit centre for the traffic cop) , A cafe at the corner , Old lady with a cow , a telling comment on tele-marketeers (yes from ICBI Bank:-)) discussing on their calling data and harassing prospective customers with interruptive sales call (the treatment meted out to these guys cannot be printed ), local goons, local MLA's, honest engineer.....
Phew !! have i missed anyone ? Yes, the number of daily commuters and a slice of their lives too on passing by the signal :-)
Many Lives, Many Stories....some touching the viewers, some jumping the signal !

Somewhere along, i got a deja vu feeling...This movie does miss the brutal starkness of Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay, but the camraderie shared by the characters is similar to the one seen in the TV Serial Nukkad....

The real winner in this tale is the set design by Nitin Desai , Costumes , few good dialogues and the creative camerawork by Mahesh Limaye (capturing montages of the city-scapes and juxtaposing it on the set where the story is based). Very few but brilliant directorial touch in this filmy take !

Few touching moments in the movie - the untold love story between ranvir / konkana and its untimely end, the tsunami orphaned kid calling chennai from PCO using his hard earned money to seek update on his family , never loosing hope , the signal being uprooted towards the end and carried by labourers as if they are pallbearers on the final journey witnessed by the affected lives at the Signal etc etc.

You may be shocked at some scenes, smile at some and touched by others but you cannot ignore this movie .

Stop by this signal if you have time....