Popular Posts

Tuesday, March 31

Firaaq -Kuch Der Se Hi Sahi


I saw Nandita Das's Firaaq about 10 days back, in a rather empty theater. It is not often that one is numbed by a movie these days. But Firaaq made me quiet for the day. I was overwhelmed by the way the movie captured the tension, fear, the violence and the psychological scars of a city...

There were many thoughts that traversed in my mind that day - sad, poignant, disturbing images, lingering anger. And yet like most bogged-down-by-personal-livelihood-problems men, I carried on the week. Often a fleeting image from the movie would cross my mind...

I would pause for a moment and then go back to the pressing personal crusade...Yet once again this morning images from Firaaq came to haunt me as I read a powerful write-up on Firaaq by Shoma Chaudhury in Tehelka...

Shoma captures the film, the reason why civilised society must never forget the Gujarat riots and the apathetic unconcern of people like us evocatively here. Do read it even if you haven't seen the movie.

And notes to myself from Shoma's article...
- OF THE many crises of our age, the most helpless perhaps, are the crises of word and image. Bludgeoned in ways it’s never been before by an excess of information — the entire compact of sight, sound, emotion — the human race has not just become inured, it seeks inurement. Obliteration. When everyone is desperately seeking inurement, how is one to evoke? All the old descriptions are dead. “Awesome” is no longer something terrifying or aweinspiring; it is just a good ice-cream.

Into this opacity of meaning, occasionally, something slips. Briefly breaching our fortifications. Briefly triggering a healing disquiet in our being. Nandita Das’ directorial debut, Firaaq is such a moment. To say something new about the horror of Gujarat 2002 is almost impossible, to evoke empathy for it is heroic. But Firaaq does that.

- Emotionally taut, self-assured, pared, Firaaq is a searing exploration of subterranean poisons unleashed by Gujarat 2002. Guilt, rage, self-hatred, suspicion, the brutalisation of survivors — Nandita reminds us that the legacy of violence is more dangerous than violence itself. In one of the film’s most disturbing moments, the little boy in search of his father smacks an ant dead with sudden force. “Maar diya sale ko,” he says with unexpected vehemence. He has borne witness to vast and tiny cruelties. Now, he is a premonition of a new generation.

- Says Nandita Das - "I wanted to take small ordinary incidents so that people who watched could not hide from themselves by saying, ‘Oh I would never do this kind of thing’.” Among other things, this is what gives Firaaq its disturbing charge. It reminds you it is not just the 2,000 dead that makes Gujarat such an indelible rupture in our national life (though that ought to be reason enough). What makes it indelible is that the riots were just the most horrific face of a prejudice that runs much wider beneath the skin.

- For all this, Firaaq should have been a moment of great gratification for Nandita. A moment of recognition and animated discussion. Instead, this quiet, thoughtful gem of a film has come unheralded into our multiplexes. In all probability, it will slide unnoticed out next week. The director’s great conviction is unmatched by her producers. This shameful neglect is just one of the many creeping crises of our time.

Tuesday, March 24

Sixth Sense - Game-changing wearable tech

Friend of mine sent this video of a wearable tech device that's quite 'minority report' like in it's potential and delivery!! Do watch the video. It's about 9 minutes. But worth every second!!
This demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz at TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some.

Pranav Mistry is the genius behind Sixth Sense - this wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.

Next is what!!

Sunday, March 22

Sinatra Test, Safexpress and the Power of Stories(yet again!!)

Was doing some research for my Bollywood book. Essentially trying to figure out why certain things, stories, anecdotes on celluloid stick, others don't. In this context, had ordered the book - Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath sometime back...

There is this interesting sticky story in one of the chapters of the book that I wanted to share. It's called the Sinatra Test.

In Frank Sinatra's classic - New York. New York, he sings about starting a new life in New York City and the chorus declares -"If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere!". An example say the authors pass the Sinatra Test when one example alone is enough to establish credibility in a given domain.

Safexpress, a family owned shipping/ courier business used the Sinatra Test to it's advantage. Sometime back it was very keen to win the account of a major Bollywood studio. The competition were the likes of FedEx, UBS!!

For Bollywood, piracy is a major concern, so distribution is mission critical. If the film gets in the wrong hands before release, bootlegged versions show up at the street corners within days...

Fortunately, Safexpress had a powerful credential ready. Safexpress had successfully delivered the 5th Harry Potter book recently. Every Potter book in every store had been delivered by Safexpress. The books had to be delivered by 8 am on the day of the release. Not too early, or the bookseller would be tempted to sell and the story would be out. And not too late or the store would have had to face irate customers and loss in sales!!

This one credential story was enough for Safexpress to get the Bollywood studio account. The Harry Potter story passed the Sinatra Test. Safexpress could have used statistics that 98.84% of all it's deliveries arrived on time or it could have given an external source of credibility from the CEO of a big MNC company!

But there is something extraordinary in being the company that delivered Harry Potter on time!! It passes the Sinatra Test. It sticks. I am sure I will remember Safexpress and this sticky factoid years from now.

This 'stickiness power' comes from the concreteness of the story rather than from numbers or authority! The story makes one believe - If Safexpress can deliver it there, it can deliver anywhere...

Saturday, March 14

Hasn't Grown Up!!

Just saw this new Frooti film on Bhat's blog - http://www.lbhat.com/advertising/frooti-slurp-ad/.

One of those clever, slickly produced ones which get talked about in the ad frat. I didn't quite like it. Don't think it will end up doing anything substantial for the brand.

Frooti has a perception(kiddie drink) problem. (Actually, that may not be such a problem after all) And in a related sense, it's got a design(read packaging design) issue.

But over the years Parle has been trying in vain to solve the two problems by merely making 'different ads' be it the Digen Varma one or the 'India has changed, Frooti hasn't'(last year sometime) and now this...

Fruit drinks have been historically subservient to colas in image terms. Don't think it's quite bridgeable...except maybe some design(packaging) turnaround is possible.

I found 'Why grow up?' quite an unconvincing stance for a brand that's been around for decades!!! For me, it's brand Frooti that hasn't really grown up with the times:-)

Have no clue how the sales are but this flip-flop every year is not quite helping Frooti! This one too will be forgotten among the ad debris...Sad, as Frooti is amongst the few classic homegrown Indian brands that's still around with all the MNC onslaught...

Tuesday, March 10

What 'Sarkar Ki Duniya' can learn from homeless in Houston


Read this news item about a homeless guy in Houston, Tim Edwards who thanks to an Internet marketing campaign has become the face of homelessness in the US to thousands of online viewers...Check out the website Pimp This Bum!!

1. The site hosts regular web casts on Tim. One can ask questions about Edwards' life and his slow fall from office manager with a home, a car, and a future to a homeless guy on the street short of hope.

2. The website also is a place where visitors can donate money, services and goods to help Edwards yank himself out of homelessness.

3. I don't know enough behind-the-scenes story about this case to comment whether this is yet another case of marketing stunt rather than substance but if an online forum can get a guy some money in his hour of need, it's a good effort!

4. Closer home, it's a pointer for reality show programs like 'Sarkar Ki Duniya'(the new kid on the block) on the newly launched channel 'Real' to take a cue and do some meaningful stuff and create some goodness rather than waste national time and attention on choreographed inanities that strain to get diminishing TRPs...

5. What Tim Edwards and Pimp This Bum show is that even in a low attention span economy - content, commerce and real life can come together to produce an engaging story. Can we create stories around struggling farmers, unrecognized artisans, slum kids and use the tremendous power of the Internet to mobilise public opinion and funds...

6. The Internet has this amazing power to connect the dots - between loneliness and friendship, between problems and possibilities, between scattered stories and a fragmented audience...

Am sure a lot is being done but a hell of a lot more can be done if people in media and marketing can connect some dots outside our narrowly defined jobs...