It just doesn’t have the resolve or dexterity to sway you with an argument or a stand. The supporting performances by the likes of Mahie Gill and Pallavi Joshi are listless. Even connoisseurs of art cinema will admit that after a point, Buddha just seems all up in the air. The only thing it can provoke in its viewer is ennui. Another one of those well intentioned movies that go absolutely nowhere.

Agnihotri makes it all-too-evident that the film is a treatise on a clash of ideologies in this country, structuring his screenplay in chapters and an attempt to be balanced. However, by the time the film ends, it’s very clear that it is meant to be a vehicle for the liberal variant of right-wing thought.

Even though Arunoday can barely pass off as a young student in his early 20s, he is earnest and gives a decent performance. Kher yet again shows his brilliance as an actor as you want to believe him even when he is spouting the most unbelievable, silly lines in the film. Joshi reminds us of the naturally talented actress that she is, and one wishes to see more of her.

Buddha in a Traffic Jam is a serious film that may appeal to a niche audience. If an entertaining light-hearted flick is what you are hoping for, then you may want to give this film a miss. But if you have a keen interest in politics and films that present the blunt truth in an uncompromising manner, you will absolutely love this movie.

Fortunately, Agnihotri isn’t as skilled a propagandist as Leni Riefenstahl and more a modern-day Don Quixote. As he sallies forth against the windmills of his imagination, his political and economic prescriptions for a better India get the better of his storytelling. And to think that it all began with a pile of unsold pots.