Traffic has 6 main characters -an aspiring journalist (Vineeth), his friend(Asif), a superstar(Rahman) and his family, a young cardiac surgeon(Kunchakko), his friend(Krishna), a police commissioner(Anup Menon) and a traffic police constable(Srinivasan). An accident changes their lives forever and how they tackle with it is what the story is about.(As I don’t believe in giving out the story line completely in the review, I am not going in further into it; find it for yourself at a theater near you!)

The good thing about the movie is it’s script which hooks you in completely. The better thing is that unlike it’s most recent counterpart (Cocktail) it’s genuine and not a frame to frame copy of some Canadian/Latin American flick which fakes as an original one. Almost all the characters have been etched out really well and the script writers have tried to give justification for almost all of their acts and deeds. The events unfold in a brisk manner, gives you a surprise every now and then, manages to tickle your funny bone (the interview sequence/the ‘politician’ scene) occasionally yet doesn’t end up as a big joke once it? is over (remember ‘Tournament’?).The interval punch is brilliant and keeps you guessing about the different probabilities that can happen.

Though the movie doesn’t have a hero or a heroine as such that hasn’t deterred the lead actors/actresses in delivering competent performances. All of them have performed brilliantly and the pick of the lot is Saikumar, playing the anguished father. Rahman, ?Anoop Menon, Asif Ali were also good. Kunchakko Boban was OK. Among the females it was Lena who had a meaty role though at times her dialogue was too silly and artificial.

Coming to the technical department you can’t find much flaw there with almost all the departments faring well. Special mention must be given to the brilliant bgm by Mejo Joseph and the cinematography by Shyju Khalid which matches the mood and tone of the film entirely. The editing is also tight with no unwanted scenes or unnecessary fights.

On the downside there are a few instances in the movie(especially towards the end) which defies logic(the colony scene for instance).Likewise it’s not clear why Dr Abel behaves in that manner once he realizes that the car has hit her(it’s pretty clear that she has no idea about the one who has hit her, from the previous scene).Similarly the whole idea of covering that much distance within a span of two hours also lacked believability.

All these flaws apart, ‘Traffic’ is the perfect entertainer for the season. It is the kind of cinema that thrills you, amuses you, frightens you and even makes you stand up and applaud once the show is over.

Q: Can you please describe your writing procedure of the script.

A: First of all the story discussion will take place after getting the main thread. This part is very important. My ideas and director’s ideas get exchanged and we develop the scene-order. In this discussion, the plot gets a full form and we fixes the scene order. That time I make some rough notes. But the rough notes are not necessary. Casanova is having 60 scenes. Without referring anything, I can memorize all these 60 scenes right now. So when the scene-order is complete and fixed, I starts writing scenes from the beginning. It include the dialogs also. I write a scene, by speaking the dialogs myself and self analyses the dialogs whether it suits the mood and situation. After writing the particular scene, I re-write it by omitting and adding some points. Then writes that scene once more. In total, I write a scene three times. The same procedure will be followed for all the scenes in the scene-order. If I feel a scene is boring while writing it, I stops/give up that scene right there and tries for another one, may be written only after discussing with the director. All writers are not having identical methods, there will be changes in the procedure.

Some time back we had talked to Sibi K Thomas and Uday Krishna script writing duo, Here’s what they had to say about their style:

varnachitram.com: Since there are two of you, how do you divide the work. Does one of you write the comedy scenes and the other writes the serious scenes?

SKT/UK: No, No. First when we get a thread we try to see how to expand it and in what all directions it can be taken, how humor can be added and form it into a story. Then we come up with the scene order and a one liner for each scene. We discuss with the director and incorporate his good suggestions. After that we write the dialogue. Sometimes one of does a set of scenes and the other person does the remaining scenes. We review each others dialogue and suggest improvements. Some scenes are written by both of us. The final result is our screenplay.[Interview: Sibi K Thomas , Uday Krishna]