Giving the cop a new life

Students of MAAC hope that their film The Resilient Bangalore Traffic Cop will open our eyes to the positive side of these sentinels of the road

July 23, 2014 08:13 pm | Updated 08:13 pm IST - Bangalore

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE Even traffic cops have a tough life, believe the students Photo: Murali Kumar K.

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE Even traffic cops have a tough life, believe the students Photo: Murali Kumar K.

They are corrupt, lazy, physically unfit, solicit bribes and harass the public. That’s the image we often have of the Bangalore traffic cop. But a team of young film students from Bangalore, who interacted with them closely, felt there was a need to show people the other side to these sentinels of the road — their hazardous everyday life in the middle of the roads, standing continuously for 14 to 16 hours at a stretch, battling lung and heart disease from pollution and stress, hearing impairment from continuous noise and more.

Their film The Resilient Bangalore Traffic Cop is all set to travel to four short film festivals in the country, and has already won the special jury award at the 2nd Rolling Frames Short Film Festival in Bangalore.

The Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) had conducted a stress management workshop for 300 traffic inspectors as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative. “Some of them said after they joined the police force this was the first time they had received any training at all; some said this was the high point in their career,” says MAAC senior vice president Shajan Samuel. Moved by all that they heard, the students decided to make a film on their life.

Though most of the students of MAAC are studying animation, VFX and other such technical courses, they pitched in with scripting, direction, photography, cinematography. Nearly 250 students were auditioned to finalise the crew of 14. Renard Vivek, one of the students, says, “We wanted to show the positive side to these traffic cops. Most of us only see the negative in them. Moreover, we also wanted to learn about various aspects of filmmaking.” Anto Ramesh Paul R.B. guided the crew throughout the film, while Shajan mentored them. The Police Commissioner gave them all necessary permissions and offered support. Till date, the film has been shown a various police stations and broadcast from the centralised Traffic Management Centre for all policemen to see.

Siddarth Jayakumar, another student, points out how the policemen got emotional talking about their lifestyle and how hard they work, battling pollution and ill health every day, how they are never home for a festival, never spend time with family, and never get to eat home food. “We learnt that most of them get only two days off in a month. We also learnt that nearly 70 per cent of them are graduates, though they may not have very good communication skills. That unlike public perception, they earn a decent starting salary of about Rs. 23,000 a month!” notes Shajan. “What struck me was that we finish our work within a time and then get to go home. But when we head home is when they have more work, handling peak-hour traffic,” observes student Vivek Kumar. They also end up working late at night when the drunken driving checks are held.

Student Sanjay Kumar Singh talks of their filmmaking experience and how they initially trained for a month in camerawork before setting out to hire hi-end cameras to shoot their film. They would be up and about at 4 a.m. some days to get to shoot by 6 a.m. They sometimes shot during class hours, and even after, rescheduling the day’s classes. They have shot these policemen in action, accompanied them on the drunken driving checks, interviewed two of them on camera, even shot fitness instructor Wanitha Ashok teaching them stress-busting exercises.

The script has been written completely from the students’ point of view as they constantly compare their lives with that of a traffic cop’s — contrasting a leisurely morning walk we get vis a vis the cop who has to be there at the park in the morning to regulate walkers and traffic. How we get to sit in an air-conditioned office, with a scheduled lunch break in a pollution-free space, while the cops have none of those luxuries.

Sanjay also says how making the film has changed them personally. “Earlier I wouldn’t wear a helmet till I spotted a cop in the distance. But now I realise they only insist on it for our safety. I wear the helmet now soon as I step out of my house.” Arun P. also agrees that the film has shown him that most of the time, we as citizens are at fault, and offer a bribe to get away because we don’t want to go to court. “Earlier I wouldn’t bother about showing my documents when I would get caught, and I’ve been caught several times with incomplete documents and bribed my way out. Now I realise they are just doing their duty, and I keep my documents ready, and they just let me go because things are in order.”

The 17-minute film was made at a budget of Rs. 4 lakh. All film students today want to make documentaries, points out Shajan, and this film was also a valuable experience in budgeting a film.

“Our objective was not to evangelise them,” offers Shajan. “But many people who have seen the film now say they will look at the Bangalore’s traffic policemen with a new eye.”

Other members of the filmmaking team include Sunil Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Sruthy S. Moorthy (the only woman on team!) Gautam M., Gautham Raj H., Richardson, Sakshi Kiran D.N., Stanslous S.A., and Govind Saravananan.

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