The name 'Silk Board' is enough to get any Bengalurean ranting about the city's never-ending traffic woes. And now, someone has actually made a film on it. It's not a tragedy, like you'd be tempted to imagine. It's a romance story, right in the middle of honking cars and serpentine lines.
The Kannada short film, directed by Santhosh Gopal, revolves around two characters - Prakash and Mithila, who meet each other when stuck in the Silk Board traffic. Incidentally, Prakash has just received a call from his father, telling him that the bride's family, who'd come to meet him, had given up all hope when they'd heard that he was in the Silk Board junction.
The expressions of horror on the faces of the families might look exaggerated to someone outside Bengaluru, but any resident of the city will attest that the slow-moving traffic does warrant such extreme reactions.
Prakash and Mithila get talking even as they stay in their respective cars. Love blooms as they confess that they both work for IT giants and are on a similar career trajectory. As the traffic moves bit by bit, their relationship also progresses - with enough time to accommodate a fight, wedding, procreation and eventually childbirth!
When Prakash and Mithila finally reach his home, Prakash's father is not very impressed by his son's adventurous day. He merely tells him that he's sleepy and that he will talk to the couple the next day.
A little under 12 minutes, the hilarious film is a hit on YouTube and has been viewed over 80,000 times since it was uploaded on March 29.
Rakesh Maiya as Prakash and Suvin Annie Valson as Mithila have played the lead roles.
Speaking to The Hindu, the director said that the story was shot in a week. Prakash added that the people on the road actually thought it was a real wedding and even shot videos of it.
“This is one of the most difficult shoots I have done in my life. We shot for seven days from morning to evening in traffic. This is one junction where traffic stops for long durations, so we took advantage of it,” said Mr. Gopal.
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