Shaheed Kader’s Traffic (2014) Movie Review
Starring: Sarath Kumar, Cheran, Prasanna, Prakash Raj and Parvathy Menon
Director: Shaheed Kader
Producer: Listin Stephen,Raadhika Sarathkumar
Music: Mejo Joseph
Censor Certificate: U/A
Run-time: 114 Minutes
The movie opens briskly with the introduction of all the lead characters whose lives would eventually interconnect. Karthik (Sachin) and Aditi (Parvathy Menon) are lovers. Karthik gets his dream job and to interview Gautham Krishna for a television channel. But on the way, he meets with an accident and there is the twist in the tale. His body is gone, his brain is gone, he is on a machine and so the doctors suggest they pull the plug on him so they can use his heart on the little girl who needs it all the way across in Kodad. The Hyderabad city police commissioner Sundara Pandiyan (Sarath Kumar), gets this operation. It is his duty to ensure the heart makes the journey from Hospital to certain place. The police constable Sathya Murthy (Cheran) volunteers to drive the car carrying the heart to redeem his lost reputation, and takes on the challenge to cover the distance of 170 kilometers in ninety minutes to save the life of a young girl who is the daughter of a superstar Gautham Krishna (Prakash Raj) and Radhika. To add to the drama, there is the story of Dr. Robin (Prasanna), his wife and friend that kind of distracts us from the main story. What happens next is the rest of the story.
Traffic strength lies in its cast and how they managed to elevate scenes in the Pre & Post interval with their emotions. Sharath Kumar is good in his powerful character of the Police Commissioner. Radhika Sharathkumar delivers in her short role. Surya plays a cameo and is rightly chosen as the star who plays his real self in the movie. Parvathy Menon is successful in lifting emotional values in the movie. Especially the scene where she introduced in the hospital Sachin’s parents. Prasanna is promising in his role as Doctor. Rest of the characters are fine and supported the lead cast in a decent way.
Story is a good one but screenplay could have been better. This movie does not look like a thriller. The movie lost its grip at very beginning itself. The scenes are repeated more than once which starts to bother soon. Director Kader tried to make this movie a bit different from its original Malayalam version. It’s clearly visible that he was unable to manage and cover such a big cast. Direction is mediocre. The scenes like Sundara Pandiyan missing the Track of the Vehicle not once for twice. Even after having satellite gizmo’s Comissioner unable to find the track of pathetic and they realize car is 8 km ahead of its journey after hearing from Satya Murthi. Surya’s confidence boosting speech starting is fine, but what followed thereafter is not so confidence boosting speech. Even the major point of the film Heart transplantation scene is logically poor aas bigger heart never suits a small child. Mejo joseph’s songs are average but Background score elevates the scenes. Especially his BGM in the climax & interval sequences are highlight of the film. Editing is middling. Cinematography is neat. Production values are promising. Dubbing work is okay could have been lot better.
Traffic Malayalam version has realistic approach to its narrative while Traffic Tamil version has improvised with few commercial elements. Rather dubbing the film into Telugu it would have been better if Makers would have remake this product in Telugu with Telugu stars in the lead roles and a Top star cameo in the end. Concept of the film and Second half of the film mainly attracts the cinegoers but very average dubbing fails to bring the feel in the scenes. The positives of Traffic are Performances, Second half, BGM and Climax with Message. Overall, Traffic is quite an interesting, offbeat film with decent thrills in the second half. Do watch if you want to see why so many actors come together for a purpose.
Survi Review: 3/5
Theatrical Trailer:
movie is good….