Traffic (2011 film)

On 16 September, superstar Sidharth Shankar (Rahman) gets ready for the release of his new film. On the same day, Traffic Constable Sudevan (Sreenivasan) joins back on duty, after having been suspended from service for taking bribe as he wanted to pay the fees for his niece's admission. The day is special for Dr. Abel (Kunchako Boban) who is celebrating his first wedding anniversary. Raihan (Vineeth Sreenivasan), an aspiring television journalist, starts his first job with an interview with Siddharth Shankar the very same day.

On the same day, at a crowded traffic junction in Kochi, Raihan and Rajeev (Asif Ali), travelling in a bike are fatally hit by a speeding car at the signal. Raihan is all set to interview the superstar, Siddharth Shankar. Also at the junction, in another car, is the surgeon Dr. Abel.

Raihan goes into coma and is declared brain dead although he is kept alive using ventilator in Lakeshore Hospital Kochi. Meanwhile, Siddharth's ailing daughter Riya's (Namitha Pramod) condition becomes worse. She is admitted to Ahalya Hospital Palakkad and she urgently needs a heart transplant. At first Raihan's parents do not agree to take their son off the ventilator and donate their son's heart but Rajeev and Raihan's girlfriend Aditi (Sandhya) persuade them into it. Now that the heart is available, the problem was with transporting it from Kochi to Palakkad. No helicopters or chartered flights are available due to bad weather and time concerns and so the heart will have to be taken by road. Someone will have to drive the 150 kilometres from Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi to Ahalya Hospital in Palakkad in under two hours during the rush traffic.

City Police Commissioner Ajmal Nazar (Anoop Menon) is asked to carry out the mission. He initially refuses considering the complexity and risk involved in the mission. But finally he heeds to the persuasion of Dr.Simon D'souza (Jose Prakash). Sudevan, being an experienced driver who has driven as an escort for ministers, volunteers to be the driver of the Mahindra Scorpio which will transport the heart because he wanted to regain the name he lost due to the bribe incident. Accompanying him on this mission is Dr Abel and Rajeev.

Everything goes smoothly for sometime. But at a point Dr. Abel threatens Sudevan that he would kill Rajeev if he didn't comply, forcing Sudevan to deviate from the highway into a forest road (Puttukad forest area) in order to save himself from the police. However Rajeev retaliates leading to a fight. He phones his sister Miriam (Roma) and speaks that he had hit his wife Shwetha (Remya Nambeesan) with a car as he was infuriated with the fact that she was cheating on him with his best friend Jikku (Krishna) and that she has possibly died, so he wishes to save himself from the clutches of the police. Here Siddharth Shankar phones him and convinces him that he can save Abel, however Abel is shown not to be so convinced. In the nick of time, Shruti(Lena), Siddharth Shankar's wife explains her mental traumatic condition due to the heart problem of her daughter for the last 13 years. And explains that no other problem can be bigger than this one. Abel now convinced, advises Sudevan and Rajeev to leave. However Sudevan decides to have Abel with them in the team and in spite of the repeated suggestions from the Commissioner Nazar to get him arrested.

They are then shown to enter a road 8 km ahead of the route time table, thus making up for the time they lost in the forest. However after some time Riya's conditions worsen, forcing the team to take an alternate route through a communally sensitive place called Bilal Colony. It is shown that police cannot enter the place due to its strong minority. Rajeev seems to know the place well and advises Siddharth Shankar to get the place cleared for the vehicle to move. Siddharth Shankar personally phones Thanzeer(Baiju Ezhuppuna) the Fans Club President who goes out of his ways and means to clear roads for the vehicle. Rajeev exits the vehicle as soon as they enter the colony to ensure the roads are clear. In midway, Abel also exits the vehicle to remove two vehicles which are blocking the route. After which Abel boards the car by Thanzeer's assistance, however Rajeev is unable to board the car. Sudevan drives at high speeds and ensures that they reach Ahalya Hospital at time. Covering the challenging 150 km feat in a daunting 1 hour and 58 minutes.

It is shown that Shwetha is out of danger and has no complaints regarding the accident against Abel, thus freeing him. Rajeev is offered lift to Kochi by an unnamed man (Nivin Pauly). Raihan's parents invite Aditi home as a symbol of acceptance and prepare for the last rites of Raihan. Riya opens her eyes, bringing joy to her family, Nazar feels a sense of satisfaction and phones Dr. Simon D'Souza to thank him. Sudevan en route to his home finds a few people fighting on the road regarding a minor accident, where he signals them to stop the fight. Thus the movie ends on a happy note.

• Kunchacko Boban as Dr. Abel Thariyan, a reputed cardiac surgeon at Lakeshore Hospital, Ernakulam.
• Sreenivasan as Sudevan Nair, a head constable in Kochi City Traffic Police
• Vineeth Sreenivasan as Raihan Saifudeen, A journalist trainee working in Indiavision
• Asif Ali as Rajeev Menon, Raihan's best friend
• Anoop Menon as Ajmal Nazar IPS, the City Police Commissioner of Kochi
• Rahman as Siddharth Shankar, a Malayalam Cine Megastar
• Sandhya as Aditi, Raihan's girlfriend and a divorcee
• Roma as Miriam, Abel's sister working in Club FM
• Remya Nambeesan as Shwetha, Abel's wife.
• Saikumar as Dr. Saifudeen, a surgeon and Raihan's Father.
• Fathima Babu as Raihan's Mother
• Lena as Shruthi, Sidharth Shankar's wife
• Vijayakumar as Mathew, Private Secretary to Sidharth Shankar.
• Namitha Pramod as Riya, Sidharth Shankar's daughter.
• Krishna as Jicku, a common friend of Abel and Shwetha who has an affair with Shwetha.
• Reena Basheer as Sudevan's wife
• Nisha Sarang as Sudevan's sister
• Prem Prakash as a doctor
• Dr. Rony David as a Journalist
• Renjith Reghu as Deepu
• Mahima as Aditi's friend
• Baiju Ezhupunna as Thanzeer,[8] the Siddharth Shankar Fans Club President of Bilal Colony
• Jose Prakash as Dr.Simon D'souza (Guest appearance)
• Nivin Pauly as a man in car (Special Appearance)
• Gowri Krishnan as Sudevan's Daughter (Special Appearance)

The film is directed by Rajesh Pillai.[9] Writers of the film Bobby and Sanjay, who scripted Ente Veedu Appoontem and Notebook explain: "The director wanted the film to be of a different mould altogether. Here every character is of equal importance as the story moves ahead. It was quite a challenging task but an enjoyable experience as well."[10] They add that the film is inspired by a true incident. A similar mission was successfully carried out by the Tamil Nadu police in a more complex Chennai city.[10] Also, in a scene, the character played by Anoop Menon talks about the incident.

Traffic is one of the first multi narratives made in this decade in Malayalam film. The film has Sreenivasan, Rahman, Kunchacko Boban and Asif Ali as the four lead protagonists whose stories are narrated through the sequences.[11] Vineeth Sreenivasan, who recently made his debut as a writer and director with Malarvadi Arts Club, says that it was the exciting script that attracted him to the project. "It is a particularly exciting day for my character as he is all set to join a news channel but as it turns out fate had other plans in store for him," adds the actor.[10] On the theme, Rajesh says,"I felt it was a theme that could connect with viewers regardless of their age. It's a contemporary theme that reassures us that if we approach something with honesty, even nature will come to our support."[12] The film will be the second on screen pairing of Vineeth and Sreenivasan, after their first film Makante Achan.[9] Sandhya plays Aditi, who is in love with Raihan. "Aditi is perhaps more worldly-wise than usual for someone her age. But she has her own reasons for being so", says the Malayali actor who created quite a stir with her performance in the Tamil film. This movie was said to be better than its other remakes.

The film became both critical and commercial success.[19][20]

All lyrics are written by S. Ramesan Nair except where noted; all music is composed by Samson Kottoor except where noted.

Owing to its critical and commercial success, Traffic was remade in Tamil as Chennaiyil Oru Naal (2013). Its Hindi remake, Traffic has been released in May,2016.[21][22]

• Traffic at IMDb
• Traffic at Nowrunning.com
• Traffic at Oneindia.in
• Traffic review at Rediff.com

• "A true heart touching story (The incident on which the film is based on)".