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Director Madhur Bhandarkar both shocked and impressed Indian audiences when he peeped into the dark world of Mumbai's bar dancers, glitterati and board rooms in Chandni Bar, Page 3 and Corporate respectively. But that trilogy stands head and shoulders above his latest offering, which holds a magnifying glass to the mean streets of his home city. Seen through the eyes of a young street hawker, Traffic Signal is a superficial attempt at examining the flourishing industry that exists at the roadsides of India's commercial capital.
Once an orphan abandoned at a traffic light on a busy crossroad, Silsila (Kunal Khemu) is now its boss, managing all the opportunists who work his territory. Collecting protection money for local Mafioso, Haji (Sudhir Mishra), he connects the poor folk who survive by selling their bodies and souls to the powerful politicians, upon whose custom they all rely. From the kid who has lost his parents in the tsunami, to the hooker (Konkona Sen) carrying a torch for a drug addict (Ranveer Shorey), there's a menagerie of crooks and victims on show. Sadly, instead of being explored, their stories are bundled together in a shallow attempt to provoke a reaction.
"A MAJOR LET-DOWN"
Failing to provide any sort of plot until the final 20 minutes, Bhandarkar's script is a major let-down. Talented actors such as Sen and Shorey are wasted in their roles, underused in comparison to the Khemu's lead protagonist, who is too young and innocent to have convincing influence over the eunuchs, rent boys and con artists who work his patch. If you want a more realistic slice of Indian street life, you'd be better off renting a DVD of Mira Nair's far superior Salaam Bombay.
Traffic Signal is released in UK cinemas on Friday 2nd February 2007.
