'Pg 3' director explains 'Traffic Signal' to IFFI delegates

Panaji, Nov 25 (UNI) Madhur Bhandarkar, director of celebrated films like 'Page 3', 'Chandni bar' and 'Corporate', is ready with another slice of reality deftly garnished with a message and entertaiment.

Bhandarkar's next film 'Traffic Signal', to be released in January, portrays the life on the streets of Mumbai at traffic signals. It is a hard-hitting film that exposes the underbelly of the city of dreams for millions of Indians.

''I have walked from bandra to Siddhivinayak Temple, Prabhadevi for nine years. The idea for making this film came to me during this walk as I watched people of different ages and classes intercating with each other,'' Bhandarkar told mediapersons and delegates at the International Film Festival of India(IFFI) here.

The viewers would find 'Traffic Signal' a very different kind of film. It is about the two different kind of worlds that intersect at the traffic signal. One is a world of the beggars, street children and vendors and the other that of those travelling comfortably in their cars, he said.

He said Konkana Sen Sharma had first refused to do the film as she found that she could not relate to the demand of the character in the film, but she was finally persuaded into the film, and he was very happy that she played her part very well.

Explaining the large number of character in the film, he said since the work portrayed real life, the life as went on the streets if Mumbai, it has to give representation to a cross section of the people who cross eachother at the traffic signal.

The protagonist of the story is a young man, Silsila, with a heart of gold but on the wrong side of the law. He works for a local mafioso and manages a business around the traffic signal that includes street kids who are beggars.

He is in love with a young girl who has just come to the city to pursue her small business.

Things go on smoothly till an honest engineer arrives to prevent the building of a flyover in the vicinity and he is asked by his boss to bump the enginer off.

Silsila does as he is told only to realise that the builder-politician nexus will actually uproot the lives of street kids and all those who survive by the signal. Finally he takes on the system with the help of the street kids.

Bhandarkar said 'Traffic Signal' completes the triology of 'Page 3' and 'Corporate'.

'Page 3' explores the cocktail culture and the life of socialites in Mumbai through the eyes of a journalist(played by Konkana Sen Sharma) and the high and mighty, and the 'Corporate' is about a business rivalry between two industrial groups.

Bhandarkar started his film career as an assistant to Ram Gopal Varma but made his directorial debut with Trishakti in 1999.

However, it was not a success at the box office.

But, two years later, he was able to carve a niche for himself in the film industry, world of cut throat competition, with his next work Chandni Bar (2001) starring Tabu and Atul Kulkarni. It was a widely and critically acclaimed film.

After Chandni bar, Bhandarkar directed Satta (2003) and Aan: Men at Work (2004).

His next film Page 3(2005), starring Konkona Sen Sharma, did well at the box office and was praised by critics. And Bhandarkar's success has continued with 'Corporate'.

UNI NAZ SI BS1105