Movie Preview: Buddha in a Traffic Jam

Director Vivek Agnihotri’s upcoming film ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam’ has made headlines even before hitting the big screens. Starring Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Mahie Gill and Arunoday Singh in pivotal roles, the film delves into the themes of corruption, crony socialism and campus politics. With such strong political orientation in its plot, it comes as no surprise that it has already evoked a controversial uproar not just within the political parties but also amidst its targeted youth audience.

However it is surprising that a film revolving around such a mind-boggling serious plot is titled as ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam’. While the title arouses your interest, it also leaves you confused about what is it that it wants to convey.

Why this title then? The filmmaker chuckles and remembers the time everyone around him laughed and called him ‘crazy’ for choosing this. “When I kept this name, everybody laughed and called me crazy, some even asked me ‘what bullshit film is this’. And today the title has become our USP.”

Believing that one has to become a Buddha in order to cope up with the shackles of life and even beat at times, he says, “When we did our research, we realised that the biggest problem in India is that we’re suffering from so many diversions from the main narrative and that’s when I realized that when the society was suffering Buddha showed us the path. So if we need to become a strong country, if we wish to shine, we need thousands and millions of Buddhas who can fight the traffic jam.”

The film that deals with the unique subject of ‘intellectual terrorism’ makes use of explicit sex scenes and harsh language to make it look real. “It is so real that I’ve used exactly the same language which is used in reality and very strong sex, disgusting kind of scenes.”

Having made films like ‘Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal’ and ‘Hate Story’, he strongly feels that as long as Bollywood keeps making ‘idiotic’ films, the audience will keep watching them. “When you make idiotic films, audience doesn’t have a choice, they’ll watch it. The problem with Bollywood is that all the films are marketed the same way. We’ve found the right audience for our film”.

From Mumbai International Film Festival to Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival, the film has been showcased in more than a dozen festivals. This multi-faceted political drama is slated to release on May 13.