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 Director : Madhur
Bhandarkar
Cast : Kunal Khemu, Neetu
Chandra, Konkona Sen Sharma, Ranveer
Shorey, Raja Pandit, Upyendra Limaye
Story Writer : Sachin Yardi
Art Director : Nitin Desai
Review : Take a
walk down its mean streets and one gets
the essence of Mumbai; pause a while at
one of its Traffic Signal and one gets
the essence of life. In a day scores of
people go past multitudes of Traffic
Signal's scattered all over the city.
People sitting in their vehicles
impatiently wait to get going. Though
this waiting lasts but a few minutes it
feels like a lifetime to them.
However unknown to them there thrives an
industry that derives its livelihood
from these people waiting at the Traffic
Signals. The work force of this industry
is not less than that of an average
sized multinational. It comprises of a
gamut of people thrown in together by
fate or hunger. There are oddities to
the likes of eunuchs, handicapped and
impaired beggars, lepers, street kids,
drug addicts, and prostitutes, vendors
selling flowers, fruits, sunscreens to
sunglasses.
 Yet
it doesn't end there. There is an
intriguing world lurking behind all the
poverty seen at these traffic signals.
Each signal is said to have a manager
who collects a certain percentage of the
day's revenue from each of those working
at the signal. The pecking order
broadens further and each manager is
supposed to hand over his weekly
collection to the person who is in
charge of the region that covers a dozen
or more signals. The ladder is raised in
its hierarchy and the collector of each
region deposits the money with the local
Mafioso, (a local king pin) who then
ensures that it reaches offshore to his
master.
Traffic Signal is a story of one such
signal, which is representative of all
other signals around the city. Silsila a
young orphan, who was born and who took
his first tiny step at the signal is now
its manager. For him the Signal is his
workplace and a home where he lived.
He's a sensitive soul with a heart of
gold who considers the people like his
family. He loves all those working at
the signal, which in a way is his family
but would spare nobody when it comes to
business. He has a mentor, named Jaffar,
who also is the collector of his region.
Both he and Jaffar work for the local
Mafioso, Haji and would even lay down
their lives for him. Inherent in the
social structure, lies a nexus between
the local Mafia and Politicians, though
at that level Silsila is almost
nonexistent. Yet by a force of
circumstance Silsila gets drawn into the
bigger game and finds himself to be
responsible for the annihilation of his
own world, something to which he's
dedicated his life. His deeds are
irreversible and he would most certainly
not be able to get things back to
normal.
 What
would Silsila do in such a situation?
Someone who had never hurt anybody in
his lifetime. A person with a heart of
gold who was left to fend for himself
and the future of those who'd been
devastated because of him. Silsila being
a practical person knows that he can
never take on Haji who is too powerful
and way beyond him. Yet no matter what
and how he has to get his life and the
lives of his family at the Traffic
Signal back on track how he gets around
to do it is the summing up of the film
Traffic Signal.
MEDIA PARTNER
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