Madhur Bhandarkar is one director who touches subjects which directly or indirectly affect our lives. In Chandani Bar, he showed the ups and more downs of the Bar Girls. In Satta, he attempted to show the victory of honest efforts of a clean professional turned housewife turned politician over dirty politics. The Page 3 was above all the movies Madhur directed. Page 3 had a story or shall I say some 2-3 stories to tell, good script, very good music and superb performances along with good direction.
*What went wrong in Traffic Signal? only Madhur can answer.
*This is a story of, sorry, this is not a story of but introduction of a busy traffic signal in Mumbai and those who are earning their bread & butter because of that signal.
I will not go deep into the plot and the story(or absence of story) and characters. These things are mentioned in most of the earlier reviews. I will request you to read this review after you watch the movie.(This is against the basic characteristics of putting up a review)
The movie doesn’t start till way past interval. Till interval, its all introduction of more than a dozen of characters and their way of living life.
You get an insight of many things like the eunuchs also have territories and their business also gets hampered because of counterfeits(Men acting as eunuchs).
Same is the case with hookers who are also getting threats from professional gays. People who would normally hire a hooker for a night now considering hiring a gay for the same reason. Well, this industry is also facing a tough competition.
Well, what I want to say is there are some good pieces but the entire picture is not homogeneous. It tunrs into a documentary on Kelkar Marg traffic signal.
Performances -
Barring one or two loud and amature profromances, everyone has acted well and tried to justify the characters they are playing.
But I am surprised to see that the person who takes out best of the performance from an actor in his movies(Read Sudhir Mishra), can’t do a normal acting. He is playing the role of Bhaijaan in TS. He behaves like an amature in front of camera. And his Lieutenant, Afzal, also makes the same mistake.
Good Things About the Movie -
Acting by a child artiste who played "Tsunami". This kid could be next Kunal Khemu.
Ranveer - Another good but sidelined actor in the industry. Ranveer makes the character live in front of you. Be it Khosala Ka Ghosala or Traffic Jam. His eyes speak when Ranveer doesn’t.
Well, Madhur, I had gone to watch the movie straight from the Airport after a hectic flight, but somehow you disappointed me or may be I was expecting another Page 3 from you.