Traffic: Good intention, slim execution

Cast : Manoj Bajpayee, Jimmy Shergill, Divya Dutta, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Kitu Gidwani, Vishal Singh, Sachin Khedekar

Rated: 5/10

Well, it is a noble subject on which the film is based. A true incident put on to the screen with the very obvious stumbling blocks of the monotony of the ride once the mission sets the tone for a fast-paced action.

A child is brain dead after an accident and another child is dying and in need of a heart transplant. How the traffic police and doctors create a corridor for the journey of this heart 160 miles away from the recipient is the premise of this film. The actual incident took place in Chennai which made news and history after the traffic cops created a safe passage for the heart without hitting any traffic jams and losing its heartbeat before reaching the recipient.

The problems with the film are two one, how the director keeps the pace of the film to give the viewers that experience of ultimate urgency, and two, having to take cinematic liberty by introducing issues that did not happen at all in the actual case. Now, in the actual case, much of the sequences that the film weaves in actually did not happen (like the accompanying doctor hijacking the van, like the van going missing for half-hour, like other such digressions).

It was a commendable job that the Chennai traffic cops did to get the heart and the transplant going in a city where traffic always crawls and pile-ups are a regular phenomenon. But for the director to show just the journey would have not made a film so he introduces parallel chains which take away from the “true life” USP of the film.

Besides, Manoj Bajpai as the traffic cop who transports the heart to the hospital, is under-fleshed and virtually wasted. Also, the van is shown to be on such a bumpy ride all through, navigating potholes and speed breakers at 120 km an hour, that one wonders if this heart would have a cardiac arrest in the van itself.

A well-meaning film with a digressional problem. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 8 May, 2016