One of the most awaited movies of the year was the 3rd and last part of Madhur Bhandarkar’s trilogy on life…..”After Page 3 and Corporate”(Thats what the promos said).. TRAFFIC SIGNAL!!
A very different movie! It has no very specific story, it basically just tries to give you the glimpses of the industry that makes its living on the traffic signal! Right from the Gajra sellers, to beggars, to eunuchs, to petty thieves, to prostitutes, and the Bhais who collect ‘Hafta’ from these businessmen of the signal, Traffic Signal shows you what u’ve never imagined, let alone, what u’ve never seen!
Take for instance the make up that mongrels put up for looking like “real” bhikharis, the systematic way in which “Hafta” is collected and delivered from a Bhai assigned to each street, to one taking care of the area, to city, to the even more “bade log”! Or the mentalities of the beggars(The hero Kunal Khemu says in a scene,”Don’t think the people on the streets who give u money are doing some favour!! Ask confidently, it’s ur right, coz they wash their sins by doing so”).
The movie is about such people, and how the decision to build a flyover on the road affects their, and how they decide to fight against this. Hardly any solid material for a full-length movie, but nevertheless, it shows us different aspects of the life at traffic signal.
On the acting front, Kunal Khemu as the protagonist is no doubt top-class! Neetu Chandra is OK as a simple clothes-seller. Upendra Limaye, Sandeep Kulkarni, and Konkona Sen Sharma are flawless as usual. Its nice to see Ranveer Shorey in a non-goofy role, and he portrays the helpless graduate-cum-street mongrel-cum-depressed drug addict-cum-silent lover role very well! Special mention to the kid who plays the character Tsunami, in a very short role, he conveys a lot!
The music of the movie is disappointing though! The dialogues are very relevant, witty and well-thought. Photography is good too!
All-in-all, I would call it a watchable movie, if you are someone who likes to know different human tendencies. Kudos to Madhur Bhandarkar for thinking of showing people something as different as this; but having said that, Neither Green nor Red, I would give a Yellow signal to people who want to watch the movie.
Note: Since I’ve begun my movie reviews with the movie Traffic Signal, I’ll follow the same rating system for my forthcoming reviews! Red: NO, Green: YES, and Yellow: MAY BE!
Writer's Block! 