it seems that Madhur bhandarkar has taken his image of a reality film maker a trifle too seriously. He claims he often used to wonder about the lives of the beggars, hawkers, hookers and miscellaneous at the traffic signals whenever his car would stop there and hence decied to make a film on them.
With due respect to your thoughtfulness, Mr. Bhandarkar, film making is not about writing a few rough an skechy characters, adding in all their solo stories and presenting the salad in the name of reality!
Madhur skips the basic principle of film making - a beginning, a twist, and an end. the narrative moves on a parallel plot until SILSILA [ Kunal Khemu ], the hitherto mentor-cum-hooligan becomes a responsible citizen all-of-a-sudden and fights against the injustice. oh really!
Some parts are so irrelevant - whether its the old businessman and his unsatisfied damsel, the con man [ Ranveer Shourey was excellent ] who spends all his theft income on consuming grass, or the bunch of hookers [ with Konkana Sen Sharma marching them convincingly ] that you wonder if they really had anything to do with the concept of life at "TRAFIIC SIGNAL". Also, the film ends abruptly with no definite climax.
Still, TRAFFIC SIGNAL manages to hold on its own for its picture-postcard view of a commonplace signal. It appeals even more to a non-mumbaikar [ me being one of them ]. Besides, it was quite interesting to know that the trunover at the signals of mumbai alone is 1800 millions. [ wow! ]
kunal khemu is very natural as the protagonist, who is kinda manager of the business at one of the signals. He dispalys intensity a la Aamir Khan, and brings life in an otherwise dull climax. in a sentence, he is here to stay. the rest are just passable.
Its high time Mr. Bhandarkar realises that he needs to get a break from his’reality’ stuff, otherwise the day is not so far that different would be common, and loses its charm soon. Atleast, try coming up with better plots, considering the story ideas you pluck are so original.
BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.
final rating - **1/2
cheers
harsh