Propaganda films have always been there in every era made for and against the government as well as the extremists with a motive to influence the young minds. At times such films get stuck, shelved, remain in cans or somehow manage to get released after a hard struggle and then get ridiculed as well as praised by different groups of viewers never willing to see the other side of the issue following a biased vision.
BUDDHA IN A TRAFFIC JAM is also one of those stuck films that couldn’t find a release in the last 4 years due to its strictly non-commercial and controversial subject that purposefully looked at the coin from only one side. However when the main protagonist of the film Anupam Kher, the students of JNU and banning of numerous NGOs became a matter of national debate in our country, the makers sighted a perfect opportunity to market the film that incidentally also revolved around a similar educational institute, its influential professor, a group of students and naxalite links between them all, involving an NGO.
No doubt, it was quite logical to release the film in the present scenario. But sadly the way it presents the burning social issue with a clear one-sided mindset and a highly venomous approach, BIATJ serves no purpose at all and falls flat turning into a provocative kind of film instead of a decently educating one.
Thinking about the manner it begins with a Kubrick-inspired sequence focusing on the constant exploitation of the tribal tribes since ages and then portraying the students as all drunkards, smokers, addicts involved in pseudo-intellectual talks, taking off their clothes in parties, singing songs such as “I am a Bixxh”, running social campaigns at Facebook like ‘Pink Bra Revolution’ and doing nothing else. At first I thought of writing an entertaining humorous review taking into account every such weird sequence in the film tackled like some superlative thoughtful classic with loads of hidden messages. But that would have allowed the project to spread its incomplete message among the youngsters, though in an unintended funny manner.
So instead of ‘A Spoof’ review, here is what I seriously felt about the film as ‘A New Hindi release’ and ‘A Propaganda project’ together in the description ahead.
As a latest Friday release, BUDDHA IN A TRAFFIC JAM has nothing to do with entertainment in the first place. But even as an off-beat thought provoking film, it goes nowhere with a confused lead character of Arunoday getting foolishly caught in an equally confusing web of people with typical naxalite bent of minds. A dinner table conversation, Arunoday’s confrontation with a nationalist activist in a pub and the annual NGO party remain the only good scenes managing to earn your attention. Otherwise the writing throughout remains judgmental, never interested in giving any kind of chance of presenting their case to the opponents.
As the leading character, Anupam Kher gives a restrained performance in the first half but suddenly stars overdoing everything probably to ridicule his own character negatively with a motive. Pallavi Joshi gets simply wasted in an underwritten role of not much importance and Arunoday keeps trying hard to rise above the average along with a supporting cast that repeatedly gives you a feeling of watching a jumbled product. As a result Mahie Gill turns out to be the only likeable person in the entire film, who keeps portraying her character with a visible honesty. The music and cinematography is unable to contribute anything helping the bland performances and then climax desperately tries to end it like a continuing thriller, without generating any kind of desired impact on the viewers, who probably were there looking for a fresh enlightening film inspired from its thoughtful title.
Analyzing it as a ‘propaganda project’, BIATF doesn’t work from the first scene itself as it never wishes to look at things from the other side even once. The moment it shifts from the tribal village to the educational institute, the film starts projecting everyone as anti-nationals helping Naxalites, conveying that these people have infiltrated almost everywhere in society (ironically talking about only one professor and his small group of students in the entire institution)
It’s often seen that propaganda films, if not handled intelligently, always become misleading raising a strong biased point instead of presenting the problem with a balanced approach. Unfortunately (or rather fortunately) BIATJ also remains unconvincing throughout due to its faulty vision of presenting the issue with all tainted glasses. Having a clearly visible one sided projection, it even goes on to the extreme of describing the opposition as all dumb and directionless people, that eventually works against its own mission of revealing them all, quite absurdly.
In other words, to put up a fine propaganda film, one also needs to show the opponent as a strong, threatening contender with some kind of metal or dangerous mission that needs to be urgently dealt with as an internal war. Because if the opposition is so clueless about their own goals, functioning with such farcical kind of thought process having no weightage at all, then what kind of kids the nation is supposed to fight with (who have secret official meetings involving the police and politicians too in the easily visible tents).
In fact this bizarre vision of portraying the Naxalites and their operations in an amusingly casual manner turns the film into a loud, laughable venture and not any serious one. As an “autobiographical” account of its director Vivek Agnihotri, he might have faced a similar situation during his educational years or else, but the way he chooses to depict the same on screen isn’t able to make any kind of connect or impression whatsoever.
Besides, the moment the end credits start rolling one begins thinking that who could have actually financed this film in reality, since any businessman producer is certainly not going to do it looking for some decent profits. So can there be any organization supporting such ventures to reach and influence the young minds or it’s just an autobiographical expression of a person who actually tends to think that way?
Anyway, watching BUDDHA IN A TRAFFIC JAM entirely focusing on exposing the Naxalites infiltration in the society as the enemy of the nation (with a poor execution), I recalled another film on the same subject with a contrasting angle presenting the extremists with a positive approach, written, produced and directed by the renowned Khwaja Ahmed Abbas titled THE NAXALITES (1980) featuring Mithun Chakraborty and Smita Patil in the lead roles. Ironically this film too was an equally poor venture projecting the other side of the coin with a clear motive.
To be brutally honest, neither I could appreciate the partial vision of BUDDHA IN A TRAFFIC JAM blaming the extremists nor the incomplete projection in THE NAXALITES blaming the government as two distinctive films looking at the issue from their own biased viewpoint and individual perspectives. A balanced approach focusing on both the sides of the issue leaving the decision on to the viewer remains missing in these particular projects quite clearly, may be because that isn’t the motive of any ‘propaganda film’ at all in the first place.
In short, a propaganda film is always interested in presenting the other as a proven culprit without any hearing as such and that’s exactly what is there in BUDDHA IN A TRAFFIC JAM too made with a purpose.
However, whether one takes the side of Agnihotri’s BUDDHA or Abbas’s NAXALITES, the bitter truth remains that those tribals in Bastar are still living the same kind of lives even today and these debates or propaganda films are not going to be of any help to them in reality. In filmy language, its all “Baatein Hain Baaton Ka Kya”, further widening the gap without aiming or resulting in any positive change.
Rating : 1.5 / 5 (Including the additional 0.5 for both Pallavi Joshi and Mahie Gill as the only saving grace in this tiresome venture)
