Venue: Teynampet Traffic Signal, Chennai
Listening to: Some vague programme on Radio City, 91.1 FM
Who is the only Indian to have participated in Formula One Car Racing? a. Karun, b. Narian Karthikeyan. Please sms “Rang your answer (a or b) followed by your name, location to 7007″ to win exciting prizes!
I looked up at the signal timer and saw that I had another 60 seconds to pass. I took the mobile out of my pocket and sms’ed “Rang b Aditya, Ashoknagar” to 7007. The signal turned green and I proceeded.
My strategy was this: Radiocity is the only channel that anchors all its programmes in half-tamil and half-all other languages and hence the tamil audience would not be interested in the channel. Rather the more important fact would be that Radiocity plays songs of all languages – Tamil, Hindi and English and hence its listener base would be that much lesser than the tamil channels. And added to this is the fact that Radiocity is the newest on the block and hence is trying to catch up on listener base. So, I thought I had a chance of winning that exciting prize! And so did I!
Exciting prize = two tickets to ‘Traffic Signal’ at Seasons (new theatre in Sathyam multiplex) 10.15PM show. Like my wife said, this was ‘a tale of two traffic signals”
And here’s the review.
Madhur Bhandarkar has a good track record. “Chandni Bar”, “Satta”, ”Aan-men at work”, “Page 3″ and ”Corporate”. Ok – 3 out of 5 is not a bad hit rate. With ‘Traffic Signal’ he makes the score 4 out of 6 and that is very good by Bollywood’s quality standards.
‘Traffic Signal’ is not something you would watch for timepass. And that holds for any Madhur Bhandarkar movie except Aan for obvious reasons!
TS is serious stuff. It shows the link between beggars and sellers at the traffic signal to the local don to the politician to the big underworld dons to the business world (through builders). Now what you and I don’t know is whether this is a figment of Madhur’s fantastic imagination or is it the truth? Unless we make an effort we won’t know.
TS looks like ‘Corporate’ superimposed on the life of beggars. TS looks like a brilliant brainwave that struck Madhur while he was at a traffic signal on his way to shooting for ’Corporate’. Sounds simple to say that but to execute it the way that Madhur has done is commendable. Of course there are a few characters that are out of place and have no relevance in the movie, but then that’s the way he has made it. And I didn’t find the necessity to have Konkona Sen Sharma’s character in the movie. Ditto with Benjamin Gilani’s character.
Over a movie that was okay. One song particularly impressed me and that was ‘Yeh zindagi hai to kya zindagi hai” sung by Hariharan. Amazing song! And that lead actor Kunal Khemu, though he could have done with less kajal to his eyes, was good.
Rating: **
Legend:
*Stay at home
**If you have the time to kill, go ahead, but not recommended
***Watch if you are a film buff!
****Go watch it on the big screen!
*****Don’t miss watching this one on the big screen! Avoid piracy!
not sure if that is true.. aajkal the juntaa is more cosmopolitan than ever before.. people, why even me, cant speak one language thoroughly w/o using words borrowed from English or hindi or (other).. ads in tv channels focussed on a particular regional lang. use English words, latest hindi tunes/songs, relay movie info gossip from Bollywood.. so things are broadening and the horizons are expanding.. so it is a bold move which hopefully should pay the Times group for having caught the vibe of the youth!
I am a music lover, and listened to tamil songs even before I knew the language or what the song meant.. I presume there are many like that (just like you)
Well seriously. It was news to me that people even take these polls. What do you spend ? 6 Rs on each SMS ?
Pavan:
What you are saying is perfect for people of our kind (who can speak more than one language). The same cannot be extended to Chennai as yet. But yes, I am sure it will catch up with the youth because they are also tilting towards the ‘cosmopolitan’ nature. Just because the channel is new, the listener base is small. I am quite confident it will pick up and people like me will have a zero chance of winning such sms contests! ;)
Ramanan:
This was the first time I sent an sms to such a contest. Check out my so-called strategy for it. I spent Rs. 6/- or Rs. 3/- I don’t know, but got a prize worth Rs. 250/-! :) Good deal na?!
change ur latest seen movie to “DEEPAVALI”!!
Adithya,
I’ve posted a comment relating to your post ‘WI in India’.Why don’t you read it?
Hey, my first visit to your new domain! :)..and you have those professional movie ratings and all?? Thanks to that..I will refrain from watching the movie! :)
Kirthana:
Next time you book tickets for such a movie, let me know. I will send someone from my office to accompany you! ;)
Ganesh Kumar:
Will read. Sorry.
Anu:
Thanks for coming! :) An honour! Yeah, not worth watching in fact!
You seem to watch lot of movies.. We are yet to watch GURU & I guess you have watched 3 after that one :-)
Kirthana must also be a movie buff, I really liked those rating chart that you have put LOL!
Deepavali is which language ?
SMS & film tickets.. fun.. I generally don’t stand chance for all these, I try that many times but… on those heavy traffic signals., sometime people honk from backside if I take more time to send messages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Veena:
Yes, I love watching movies. Esp hindi, tamil and telugu. Kirthana likes watching tamil and telugu movies mainly. But now, she accompanies me to hindi ones also. She is not a movie buff, I am. So she has been forced to become one!
Deepavali is ‘Tamil’. And please don’t watch it. It’s not even worth wasting space on my blog reviewing it.
I used to pride myself on the pace of sms’ing during my college days. And at that traffic signal I was reminded of those days. Somewhat similar to ‘Gone in 60 seconds!’ ;)
Yes ti was a good deal. I ended up payin much more for the movie… and was poorer by a few hours of my time.
Idiotic. and artificial.
Tamil movies…? I have watched one tamil movie & one telugu movie in theatre.. namely bombay & kshana kshanam..!
sadhya kannada movies, hindi movies na track naavu follow maadok aagalla.. innu idu bere elli nododu ? SMS bagge ondu post bariri neevu, olle subject maatra…
illi radio nalli amrithadhaare haadu barthaa ide, ee movie nodideera ? illa andre great miss.. nodi.. adu keerthana jothe…MUST WATCH Movie….
Ramanan:
Hmmm…. you have a good taste in movies. I say that from your opinion about Traffic Signal! :)
Veena:
You have watched two classics from the two languages.
‘Deepavali’ anno picture ge yaaradru banni duDDu koDtini noDi anta heLidrunu hogbeDi! :P
SMS bagge post… hmm… nodana.. enadru tochidre baritini.
“Amrithadhaare” andre yaava movie heLi. Swalpa nanna memory ge F5 vatti! :P
Amrithadhaare is a movie made by our Nagathihalli chandrashekhar, Ramya & Dhyan were on lead roles.
Its about a saga of young couple, the way they fight, they love, they care & much more than this.
The music is equally good, to name a very unique feature of this movie. Our big B Amitabh has given a 5 minutes entry… athiti naTa antha heLo ashTu sanna paatra alla, olle kannada maathaadidaare.
Few songs are,
1)nee amrithadhaare
2) Huduga huduga….
DVD sigthaa ide, theatre nalli 2005 nalli banthu ansatte, so movie theatre nalli sigolla.. May be its a good idea to watch on DVD.
Veena:
Yeah, yeah I remember that movie. I saw the poster once when I was in Bangalore with Amitabh Bachchan hugging the heroine. There was a lot of coverage because of Big B in the movie. I shall watch it because you have recommended. And then I will let you know. Sari na?!
I have the time and the pass.
Waiting for the film to screen here !!!
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