Traffic Ramasamy Tamil Full Movie Download
Esam Rosado
Traffic Ramasamy is a 2018 Indian Tamil language biographical drama film co-written and directed by Vicky (Vigneswaran Vijayan), an assistant of SA Chandrasekhar on his directorial debut.[1] The film stars veteran film director S. A. Chandrasekhar alongside Rohini, Prakash Raj, Upasana RC, Livingston and Ambika in pivotal roles and features Vijay Sethupathi, Vijay Antony, Khushbu, Seeman, and Kasthuri in special appearances.The satellite rights of the film is sold to Colors Tamil.[2]
The film is based on the real-life story of the veteran social activist K. R. Ramaswamy who received the nickname of Traffic Ramaswamy for his activism in controlling traffic related issues in Tamil Nadu.[3] The music for the film is scored by Balamurali Balu with lyrics written by Kabilan Vairamuthu while the cinematography is handled by Kugan S. Palani.
Ramaswamy (S. A. Chandrasekhar) is hit by a motorized fish cart and then beaten up by ruffians and left for dead in a gutter. Then we get into his family to meet his wife (Rohini), son in law (Chetan) and his little granddaughter who admires his every move. Ramaswamy's 75th birthday is being celebrated at the house and just at the time of cake cutting a call comes and he leaves abruptly to join in a protest against Tasmac where he threatens to jump from a building top and the authorities yield to him and shut shop. Then the story moves on to explore other protests by the activist and how gets beaten up often. He files a PIL seeking a ban on the motorized fish carts ("Meen body vandi in Tamil), that involves an MLA, Inspector, political kingpin and mayor who make arrangements to finish him off.
Director Vicky who worked as an assistant director to S. A. Chandrasekhar chose to work on a biopic about Traffic Ramasamy and convinced SA Chandrasekhar to play the lead role of Traffic Ramasamy.[4] The film also marked the full fledged acting debut for S. A. Chandrasekhar in a lead role at the age of 76.[5]
The petition pushed for an enquiry into the allegation that the CJI himself had taken a bribe to grant bail to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on October 17. Though the petition was brought before the bench by a Tamil Nadu based lawyer R. Krishnamurthy, the man behind the petition was a Chennai-based social-legal activist, K.R. Ramaswamy more popularly known as - Traffic Ramaswamy.
A name regularly-featured in news articles across Tamil Nadu, Traffic Ramaswamy has been responsible for filing over 400 public interest litigations over the span of over two decades. Separated from family, and found in his office from morning to night, this man has been responsible for a number of changes in Tamil Nadu.
"It was October 2002. I was standing on the road adjacent to the High Court of Madras regulating traffic when a man came near me and asked what the time was. When I was about to see my wrist watch he attacked me with a knife. The attempt was to kill me but my life was saved. I lost the vision in my right eye," said Ramaswamy as he recollected that day.
After learning weaving in 1954, at the age of 20, Ramaswamy joined Binny Mills as a weaving master where he worked till 1971. He voluntarily retired and it was then that he started developing interest in social service.
A founding member of the Home Guards in Chennai, he first turned to regulating traffic in the city. In those days, he could be seen regulating traffic in arterial and traffic-hit areas in the city. It was, however, in 1992 that the prefix to his name "Traffic" came. Since then, the name somehow stuck on.
Spending hours and hours on city roads, he studied traffic issues, harassment of street vendors by police and the practice of demanding bribes from motorists. Soon, he began taking pictures of erring police officers and sending them to the city police commissioner. Within no time, his list of enemies began to grow. The police started harassing him and filed false cases against him. "I was arrested and put behind bars seven times," he says.
In 2002, he filed a PIL against motorized three wheeler make-shift auto-rickshaws that were used for selling fish. "Bikes were stolen and those engines were used for such auto-rickshaws. They did not come under the Motor Vehicles Act because the government was unable to decide under which category they would come. Without regulation the number of such vehicles increased and there were a lot of accidents. I wrote to the Transport Secretary asking him to issue a tender so that manufacturers could come forward and manufacture these legally. He could not find any manufacturer. It was then that I filed a PIL pleading the court to declare these as illegal. Nalini Chidambaram, top lawyer and wife of former Union minister Chidambaram represented fishermen. They offered me Rs. 4 lakh to withdraw my case, but I did not. The court held my view correct and declared these vehicles as illegal. The fishermen community got very angry with me because my PIL affected their jobs."
There have also been instances when his PILs were in fructuous and he was fined by the courts. The most recent one was his petition that stated that the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu O Pannerselvam was taking orders from his predecessor J Jayalalithaa who had been ineligible to continue following conviction in a disproportionate assets case.
But activism has cost him much. An eye, quite a few friends, and his family. His wife, whom he married in 1964 without taking any money as dowry, stays separately. "My father did not attend my marriage because I refused to take dowry," he says.
In March 2015, he was arrested by the Chennai police at 4 am over a complaint by a businessman. Traffic Ramaswamy had personally torn down banners of J Jayalalithaa that had been erected illegally, an act that not many in Chennai would have dared to do. The businessman told the police that Traffic Ramaswamy threatened him when he complained that traffic was being held up due to him tearing down banners. But the Madras High Court came down heavily on the Chennai police, questioning the necessity of arresting an octogenarian activist at 4 am.
As we were leaving, the diminutive 82 year-old was seen yelling into his phone, threatening the man (presumably a government official) at the other end with dire consequences if he did not abide by the laws. His voice was hoarse, but the strength in it carried his message.
Much of his activism relates to regulating traffic in Chennai and filing public interest lawsuits in court.[4][unreliable source?] Initially he started unofficially directing traffic at the city's busy Parrys Corner.[5][unreliable source?][unreliable source?] The local police were pleased with his efforts and provided him with an official identity card.[5][unreliable source?] He acquired the nickname Traffic Ramaswamy after that.[5][unreliable source?]
He has brought many public interest lawsuits in the Madras High Court as well as Supreme Court of India.[5] In 2007, he was attacked by his opponents' lawyers on the steps of the courthouse.[5] This was not the first time, he has been attacked: in 2002, he was assaulted by fish sellers after he obtained a ban on the use of motorized fish carts. His family later disowned him.[6] He has also had his office ransacked and papers were stolen.[7] However, helped by donations from friends and public he claimed he would continue his fight to make Chennai the most livable and lovable city,[5] his Advocate Mr. S. Ganesan helping him to file PIL case from 2007.[citation needed]
His activism has resulted in the demolition of many illegally constructed buildings in Chennai, restrictions on motorized fish carts, decongestion of major bus routes by banning auto rickshaws from them, and a review of lavish state funding for a feature film (arguing the money could be more properly used for development work).[citation needed] He was accompanied day and night by an armed police bodyguard appointed by the Madras High Court.[8]
His work in the removal and banning of illegally placed hoardings received renewed public interest in September 2019 following the traffic death of Chennai-based engineer Subasri.[9][10] She had been traveling on her two-wheeler when an illegally placed banner of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam fell from a height of approximately 15 feet directly in front of her two-wheeler causing her to lose control and fall to the ground and be crushed by a water tanker lorry coming from behind her which was unable to halt in time.[11]
A former mill worker, Ramaswamy shot to fame in the 1990s when he offered to help the police manage traffic near the High Court area. There were so pleased that they even gave him a volunteer card armed with which he got on with the task. And that is how he acquired the Traffic prefix. But Ramaswamy soon came to realise that the police were as much part of the problems that the area faced. Unregulated parking and hawking on the footpaths were both root causes and these flourished with the tacit blessing of the authorities. They therefore hated it when Ramaswamy began questioning their complicity.
But what they found unforgivable was his deciding to rid the city of flex banners, posters and cut outs. These had become regular features of Tamil Nadu politics, especially with the advent of J Jayalalithaa, who it would appear rejoiced in these public forms of adulation wherever she went, even if it was as routine as a car ride from home to office and back. The DMK, when it was in power was loath to pass up on a good publicity technique and copied all of this. As a consequence, motorists and pedestrians were put to great risk as they went down roads through which a chief ministerial cavalcade was to pass. There were fatal accidents as well. But all of this did not make the administration turn a hair.
Ramaswamy threw himself wholeheartedly into the fight. His methods were simple, and most dramatic. Minutes before the VIP convoy would pass he manifested himself and began tearing down posters and hoardings. He was sometimes whisked away by the police and at other times attacked by party cadre but he was not deterred. Eventually, it was the High Court that once again stepped in with regulations for the erecting of hoardings and banners. Not that these were followed. But there was at least a law in place. And with the passing of the great Dravidian stars, the need for adulatory publicity material has also diminished.
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