In Traffic, practicality and sentiment not only co-exist but collaborate to fulfill a higher purpose of saving lives.
Through its multiple narrative threads that convene at a crucial juncture in the vein of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams and Amores Perros, director Rajesh Pillai, whopassed away due to a liver ailment in February, aspires to tell a human story with elements of a thriller.
Pillai's inspiration stems from reality.
In September 2008, nine-year-old Abhirami got a new lease of life following a timely heart transplant consented by the parents, both doctors, of teenager Hithendran left fatally-injured in a road accident in Chennai. Their decision of multiple organ donations saved more than one life but Pillai’s story focuses on the aforementioned transplant expedited by Chennai’s traffic efficiency.
It’s a subject he’s familiar with.
Traffic is a remake of his critically-acclaimed Malayalam film of the same name noted for its hyperlink storytelling. I haven’t seen the original and after this, I am not sure I want to.
Set in 2008, one uniformly rainy-day of Mumbai and Pune - the lapses in detailing are glaring what with theatres playing 2013’sGravity, cell phone models belonging to a later time - Traffic moves to and fro between multiple storylines.