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| music = [[Mejo Joseph]]<br />Samson Kottoor
| music = [[Mejo Joseph]]<br />Samson Kottoor
| cinematography = Shyju Khalid
| cinematography = Shyju Khalid
| editing = Mahesh Narayanan
| editing = [[Mahesh Narayanan]]
| distributor = Magic Frames
| distributor = Magic Frames
| runtime = 122 minutes
| runtime = 122 minutes

Revision as of 17:38, 6 August 2011

Traffic
Poster
Directed byRajesh Pillai
Written byBobby Sanjay
Produced byListin Stephen
StarringSreenivasan
Rahman
Kunchako Boban
Asif Ali
Anoop Menon
Vineeth Sreenivasan
Sandhya
Roma
Remya Nambeesan
Lena
Narrated bySreenivasan
CinematographyShyju Khalid
Edited byMahesh Narayanan
Music byMejo Joseph
Samson Kottoor
Distributed byMagic Frames
Release date
  • January 7, 2011 (2011-01-07)
Running time
122 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film India
LanguageMalayalam
Budget₹2.5 crore (US$300,000) [1]
Box office₹6.5 crore (US$780,000)[2][3]

Traffic (Malayalam: ട്രാഫിക്‌) is a 2011 Malayalam thriller film written by brothers Bobby and Sanjay and directed by Rajesh Pillai. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Sreenivasan, Rahman, Kunchako Boban, Asif Ali, Anoop Menon, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Sandhya, Roma and Remya Nambeesan.[4] The film has its narrative in a hyperlink format. The film opened on January 7, 2011 to universal acclaim. A multi-narrative thriller that intertwines multiple stories around one particular incident, Traffic is inspired from an actual event that happened in Chennai. Owing to its critical and commercial success, Traffic is to be remade into Tamil and Hindi cinema under the same title.

Plot

On September 16, superstar Sidharth Shankar (Rahman) is getting ready for the release of his new film. On the same day, Traffic Constable Sudevan (Sreenivasan) joins back on duty, after being suspended from service for taking bribes. The day is special for Dr. Abel (Kunchako Boban) who is celebrating his first wedding anniversary. Raihan (Vineeth Sreenivasan), an aspiring television journalist, is starting his first job with an interview with Sidharth Shankar the very same day.

On September 16, at a crowded traffic junction in Kochi, Raihan and Rajeev (Asif Ali), traveling in a bike is fatally hit by a speeding car at the signal. Raihan was all set to interview the superstar, Siddharth Shankar. Also at the junction, in another car, was the surgeon Dr. Abel.

Raihan goes into comma and is declared brain dead although he is kept alive using ventilator. Meanwhile, Siddharth’s ailing daughter's condition becomes worse and she urgently needs a heart transplant. At first Raihan's parents does not agree to take their son of the ventilator and donate their son's heart but Rajeev and Raihan's girlfriend persuades them into it. Now that the heart is available, the problem was with transporting it from Kochi to Palakkad. No chartered flights or helicopters were available and so the heart has to be taken by road. Someone has to drive the 150 kilometers in under two hours during the rush traffic.

City Police Commisoner Ajmal Nazar (Anoop Menon) is asked to carry out the mission. He initially refuses considering the complexity and risk involved in the mission. But finally he heeds to the persuasion of Dr.Simon D'souza (Jose Prakash). Sudevan, being an experience driver who has driven as an escort for ministers, volunteers to be the driver of the Jeep because he wanted to regain the name he lost due to the bribe incident. Accompanying them on this mission is Dr Abel and Rajeev.

Everything goes smoothly for sometime. But at a point the police team loses contact with the vehicle and it mysteriously disappears. Later it was understood that before the mission commenced, Dr Abel had hit and run his wife when he discovered her affair with his best friend. Abel tries to sabotage the mission in an attempt to escape, but Sudevan and Rajeev manages to convince him to save the girl's life. All goes well and they reach the hospital in time to save the girl's life.

Cast

  • Sreenivasan as Sudevan Nair, a traffic police constable
  • Rahman as Sidharth Shankar, a movie star
  • Kunchacko Boban as Dr. Abel Thariyan, a cardiac surgeon
  • Anoop Menon as Ajmal Nazar, the City Police Commissioner of Kochi
  • Vineeth Sreenivasan as Raihan, A journalist trainee working in Indiavision
  • Asif Ali as Rajiv, Raihan's friend
  • Sandhya as Aditi, Raihan's fiancee
  • Roma as Mariam, Abel's sister working in Club FM
  • Remya Nambeesan as Shwetha, Abel's wife.
  • Saikumar as Raihan's father
  • Lena as Sidharth Shankar's wife
  • Vijayakumar as Mathew, private assistant of Sidharth Shankar.
  • Namitha Pramod as Sidharth Shankar's daughter.
  • Krishna as Jicku, a common friend of Abel and Shwetha.
  • Sudip Joshy as Mariam's husband
  • Dhanusree Ghosh as Vygya
  • Renjith Reghu as Deepu
  • Prem Prakash as a doctor
  • Jose Prakash as Dr.Simon D'souza (Special appearance)
  • Nivin Pauly (Special Appearance)
  • Dr. Roni as a journalist
  • Premjith Lal
  • Anjana Menon
  • Gowri Krishna
  • Jayakrishnan

Production

The film is directed by Rajesh R Pillai, who previously directed a box office disaster, Hrudayathil Sookshikkan, starring Kunchacko Boban.[5] Writers of the film Bobby and Sanjay, who scripted Ente Veedu Appoontem and Notebook explain: "The director wanted the film to be of a different mould altogether. Here every character is of equal importance as the story moves ahead. It was quite a challenging task but an enjoyable experience as well."[6] They add that the film is inspired by a true incident. A similar mission was successfully carried out by the Tamil Nadu police in a more complex Chennai city.[6] Also, in a scene, the character played by Anoop Menon talks about the incident.

Traffic is one of the first multi narratives made in this decade in Malayalam film. The film has Sreenivasan, Rahman, Kunchakko Bobban and Asif Ali as the four lead protagonists whose stories are narrated through the sequences.[7] Vineeth Sreenivasan, who recently made his debut as a writer and director with Malarvadi Arts Club, says that it was the exciting script that attracted him to the project. "It is a particularly exciting day for my character as he is all set to join a news channel but as it turns out fate had other plans in store for him," adds the actor.[6] On the theme, Rajesh says,"I felt it was a theme that could connect with viewers regardless of their age. It's a contemporary theme that reassures us that if we approach something with honesty, even nature will come to our support."[8] The film will be the second on screen pairing of Vineeth and Sreenivasan, after their first film Makante Achan.[5] Sandhya plays Aditi, who is in love with Raihan. "Aditi is perhaps more worldly-wise than usual for someone her age. But she has her own reasons for being so", says the Malayali actor who created quite a stir with her performance in the Tamil film Kaadhal.[6]

Reception

Critical response

The film opened on 7 January 2011 to positive reviews. Veeyen of Nowrunning.com gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing, "Rajesh Pillai's Traffic is a brutally brilliant film in which he lends color to coincidence and unveils before us a cogitation on the dynamics of chance. A strikingly crafted film that is raw and genuine, it crawls right under your skin and stays there."[9] IndiaGlitz enthusiastically praised the film's "riveting plot, great performances, soulful music... and skilful direction".[10] A review at Cinefundas also praised the acting, adding that "the real hero of the film is the script".[11] Sify.com called it "an overwhelming experience" and rated it as "very good."[12] The Malayalam website Movieraga called it an "excellent movie" and went on to state that the new blood of Malayalam cinema cannot be seen as second-grade any more.[13]

Box office

The film had only an average opening in Kerala box office.[14] However, it managed to maintain the number one position[15] and grossed ₹90 lakhs in the opening weekend.[14] The film netted ₹4.6 crores in five weeks, thus recovering the budget of ₹2.5 crores and getting a distributor's share of more than ₹2 crores.[1] It completed 50 days in most of the releasing centres and had a net gross of around ₹ 5.35 crore within this time.[16] The total collection of the film from the Kerala box office is ₹ 6.5 crores.[2]

Music

The songs featured in the soundtrack album are composed by Samson Kottoor and Mejo Joseph, with lyrics penned by Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma and S. Ramesan Nair.

Track listing
# Song Artist(s) Composer Lyricist
1 "Kanneerinjal" Vipin Warrier, Hisham Mejo Joseph S. Ramesan Nair
2 "Pakalin" Sithara Mejo Joseph Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma
3 "Theme Music" Instrumental Samson Kottoor —
4 "Unaroo Mizhiyazhake" Chinmayi Samson Kottoor S. Ramesan Nair
5 "Unaroo Mizhiyazhake" Samson Kottoor Samson Kottoor S. Ramesan Nair
6 "Unaroo Mizhiyazhake (Instrumental)" Kalyan Samson Kottoor S. Ramesan Nair

Remakes

Owing to its critical and commercial success, Traffic is to be remade into Tamil and Hindi cinema under the same title.[17][18] It has been officially announced that Kamal Haasan will play a pivotal role, probabily as himself in the role of the movie star, in the Tamil version.[19][20] The rights for the Hindi version has been bought by Endemol.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b "Traffic Collects 4.6 Crores in 5 Weeks". SansCinema. 16 February 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Box office report"
  3. ^ "Top 5 – Week Ending March 10, 2011". SansCinema. 11 March 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  4. ^ Coming up: A complex Traffic - Rediff.com Movies
  5. ^ a b "Vineeth and Sreenivasan in 'Traffic'". Indiaglitz. Retrieved Feb 10, 2010.
  6. ^ a b c d Vijay George. "It happened one day..." The Hindu. Retrieved September 30, 2010.
  7. ^ "'Traffic' to start this July". Indiaglitz. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  8. ^ Vijay George (January 13, 2011). "Traffic gets green signal". The Hindu. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ "Rajesh Pillai's Traffic is a brutally brilliant film!". Nowrunning. Retrieved Jan 8, 2011.
  10. ^ "Traffic - This is a 'Traffic' of change". IndiaGlitz. January 8, 2011.
  11. ^ "Traffic – Malayalam Movie Review". CineFundas.com. January 7, 2011.
  12. ^ Movie Review:Traffic review
  13. ^ Review: Traffic | MOVIERAGA
  14. ^ a b "Traffic Grosses 90 Lakhs in its Opening Weekend". SansCinema. 10 January 2011.
  15. ^ "Kerala Box Office Report – January 1–13, 2011". Keralaboxoffice. 13 January 2011.
  16. ^ "Traffic completing 50 days today". SansCinema. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  17. ^ "Malayalam 'Traffic' to Be Remade in Tamil?". Top 10 Cinema. February 1, 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  18. ^ "ട്രാഫിക് ഹിന്ദിയിലും". (in Malayalam) Kerala Kaumudi. 11 April 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  19. ^ "Kamal Haasan in Traffic remake?". Deccan Chronicle. 20 April 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
  20. ^ "Kamal confirms acting in Traffic remake". Deccan Chronicle. 1 May 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
  21. ^ "Endemol acquires Hindi remake rights to Malayalam film Traffic". Business of Cinema. 16 May 2011 Retrieved 17 May 2011.

Further reading

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