Traffic

Rajesh Pillai's 2011 Malayalam film is regarded as the production that started the new generation wave in Malayalam cinema. A heart for a girl urgently awaiting a transplant has to be carried through traffic from Kochi to Palakkad, and the film tells of several lives tied together around that journey. The screenplay by the brothers Bobby and Sanjay was among the first attempts at multi-strand narration in Indian regional cinema. The story draws on a heart transplant in Chennai in 2009 and the arrangements made to clear the traffic. The film's strength is creating no hero: everyone on the journey carries their own guilt and their own account, and nobody is entirely good. Its structure without a star at the centre and its realistic scale changed the direction of Malayalam cinema over the following decade. Who it's for: viewers interested in the new generation of Malayalam cinema and multi-strand thrillers. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a single hero and a clear plot, or avoiding hospital and death content.