Chola Maati Ke Ho...

Today is Independence Day. Me & my cousin just saw Peepli Live. Well just an insignificant co-incidence. To us what matters more is that today is Sunday and we have an off. Independence ?! What independence ? (Will come to that later.)

The story of Peepli Live revolves around two brothers. Budhiya & Nathha. Their village is somewhere in MP, quite close to the native place of my own ancestors. Another insignificant co-incidence.

Continuing on similarities, my forefathers also had farmlands (still do), although much more prosperous, thus ensuring that my parents & uncles got a decent enough education and ventured out of the village with most having government jobs. ‘Chachaji’ became a textile engineer in the ‘private sector’(a big achievement & matter of pride for my grand parents :-).

For those who have already seen the movie (am not going into details here), Nathha lands up as a construction labourer in Gurgaon working in one of the myriad real estate projects.

I also live in Gurgaon. With my cousin. And we couldn’t help feeling a little bit like Budhain & Nattha ourselves. We had a good laugh about it. Also how our ‘middle class’ moms too vented out their hearts to us, especially when like all middle class moms, they were trying to make us ‘engineers’ & our sisters into ‘doctors’ ;). But at the heart of it, there is more….

Both of us are also somewhat ‘labourers’. My cousin is an engineer working in Wipro J . I needn’t say more. And I slog in an ad-agency to sell ‘sabun tel’ (actually cars, ACs etc.) for….

But ultimately we are small gears in a huge machine which over generations has moved us from villages to cities for reasons similar to Budhain & Nathha. Umm…money honey !

Yes, we are a few SECs above them and have a better lifestyle, but we too are in a ‘naukri’ for bread & butter at the end of the day. And all those of you who are fellow ‘naukars’ in your respective cushy jobs, do understand what I am trying to hint at…

Thus my earlier sarcastic remark on Independence Day…

Now, talking of change and trying to bring about a change…hmm…well, incidentally I am currently working on a CSR project which is about empowering farmers & stopping the migration to cities. However its impact (if it DOES get rolling) will perhaps be that of a needle on a haystack.

So then is the situation quite as hopeless as Peepli Live suggests? I don’t know.

Let me take a little detour here. Before we went to watch Peepli Live today, there was ‘Gandhi’ being aired on TV today. And like every time I see this movie, I got quite hooked & developed goose bumps. Especially in the scenes when Gandhi fasted for days to stop violence or when ‘satyagrahis’ voluntarily marched into the lathis of British police, file after file, got beaten, with each file of wounded men being dragged out & bandaged by their women….for one whole day!

We respect our soldiers & revolutionaries. I too do. With all my heart. But doesn’t it take more courage to walk into an ambush unarmed and not hit back ? What were these men made of ? And what was this man Gandhi who inspired them ? He would fast for days, weeks…just because some Indians hit back at an abusive British police patrol ?

The reason I mention Gandhi in between this Peepli Live story is that it would perhaps take no less than a Gandhi to change things in the India of today.

And my dear fellow naukars (‘corporate’ or ‘sarkari’), let us not delude ourselves with ‘independence’ any more….we all know our own little stories. We are either servants or consumers of biggies in a system which is gettimg more & more top-heavy & consolidated (quite like US) and where smaller firms & shops are disappearing in favour of biggies & malls who are gobbling them up like the bigger fish do with tiny-minies…

Somewhere we are all Budhain & Nattha…give or take a few SECs…

Gandhi had said that it is not material prosperity which makes a people happy (although approx. 70% of India doesn’t even have that !), and if we import a Western system we will also import their spiritual poverty…and that poverty is quite visible in the prosperous metros…..while the rural hinterland continues with material poverty..

Solution ? Well, Gandhi had a solution for that too. An economic system quite different from the one we imported from the west. A system which was not top-down but bottom-up. A system which was about empowering the smallest man and not making him your TG (target group)/consumer or servant. A system which was not about bigger machines but happier people.

But I think I’ll end this article here. I am not quite sure whether it is the right time for this monologue. Or even whether I am the right guy to talk about it.

Also, is there an ideal/perfect system possible at all ?

Or is the answer in the lines of the closing song of the film….

bhause paal lage barahe the, hari ke naam sumarle
sangi hare ke naam sumarle
ae duniya maa aake re pagla, jeevan mukti kar le
chola maati ke ram
ekar ka bharosa chola maati ke re
chola maati ke ho
haaye chola maati ke ram

Well, I am just another Nattha in Gurgaon, with more questions than answers and will leave you to think what’s what for yourself…

haaye chola maati ke ram
ekar ka bharosa chola maati ke re…

Udaan: The Flight to Freedom

Just came back after watching Udaan. And if some one asked me to sum it up in a line, the phrases which would come to my mind are, ‘the flight to freedom’, ‘the flight to BE our SELVES’ etc.


And also the other aspect of the same, running away or may be pushing away who we are not and what binds us.


This blogpost is about this second aspect. Without going into too many details of the movie I would just focus here on what intrigued me the most and kept me thinking long after the movie was over:


Turning away from who we are not.


We all seek an idyllic island where we can be with like minded people and be ourselves. What we ‘do’ then becomes secondary. It might even be something as ordinary as a restaurant/ dhaba or perhaps just a ‘chai ki dukaan’. As long as meets our basic needs, and allows us to be ourselves/free, we enjoy it.


Success/money ? Somehow the freedom to BE ensures that the necessary material accomplishments follow you, because you are in FLOW, and naturally the best comes out of you….and the world…which I consider to be an active, dynamic and responsive field of energy (refer Alchemist & E=mc^2 :) ensuring that the best comes to you.


However, this we all know. What intrigued me is whether BEing ourselves is a function of external variables? Do we HAVE TO be in the RIGHT PLACE & among the RIGHT SET OF PEOPLE to BE….our selves ?


Aren’t we always (& all ways) our selves ?


Can’t we be our selves even in the midst of a battle field (like Arjun) ?


Isn’t all that matters is whether Krishna is with us ?


And isn’t our SELF Krishna himself?


Thus, aren’t we always who we are…..Krishna ?!


Being here or there…doing this or that……being with him or her….are they really determinants in deciding whether we can BE our selves?


Having raised this discussion to the highest philosophical argument I can conceive of, I would like to bring it down to the movie and the terra firma on which we live?


Could that boy be him self living with an abusive, insensitive & cruel father ?


Was running away necessary ?


The immediate gut feeling is to say, YES.


But what about the OTHER possibility. Could he have stayed back and still followed his heart and ensured that his younger brother also did the same ?


Let me now elaborate this line of thought further.


Wherever this young man goes, all he has is his self belief and faith. There is no guarantee that he’d become a writer or even that the restaurant he runs is going to be profitable & thus something which can sustain them.


It is just their belief in them selves.


What if he had stayed on with the same self belief and gone on writing ? What if, for some reason he was bound to stay back with his father ?


Now, going back to the initial argument that our SELF is always (& all ways) the same everywhere & anywhere. There is really no force in nature which can take that away from us.


Yes, our bodies can be hurt. Our mind can be tortured. But again is BEING a function of what the body does or what the mind thinks ?


And if we not, aren’t we perennially free and isn’t the ‘udaan’ actually INside, to the island of freedom within rather than a physical movement ?


Of course, the field may be responsive and circumstances may be favourable to such a flight. But what if they are not ?


What if we are like prisoners, like Krishna’s parents who were in Kansa’s dungeon for many years ? Were their selves not free ?


Did not Krishna himself come to free them (physically too) ?


So isn’t freedom a function of what’s within rather than an external contingency ?


I liked the movie but I believe that a sequel to Udaan which talks of the flight to the self is also a story waiting to be told…


For now, do watch this movie. Totally loved it !!


PS: With the same thought in mind, and referring to Shakespeare’s ‘all the world’s a stage’, aren’t our roles merely a ‘play’ ? The way Mani Ratnam casts the same guys as both ‘Ram’ & ‘Raavan’ in Hindi & Tamil versions, does God make us play the same way on this stage in life ? Where are our selves remain the same and perceptions of good & evil (& situations which cause them) being temporary constructs to ensure that a script can be written with heroes & villains, with joys & sorrows & enough drama to ensure that we enjoy the show !! ….because the show must go on…… ;)

Raavan Review

Before I begin the review of ‘Raavan’ I have to define the layers I am looking at:

1. Naxal angle: Which I felt to be stronger than all others

2. Take on Ramayana: Which most people focus on

3. Closeness to nature & and an alternate lifestyle: Almost enticing

4. Fullness of life: Abhishek’s desire to experience even jealousy with open hands, almost reminds of an article by Osho, talking of experiencing every emotion (positive or negative) in full in order to transcend it & thus become a spectator.

I guess now I can move on and deal with the details.

Naxal angle

For most part of the movie I felt very strongly that the reason for making this movie is to very subtly use Ramayana as a metaphor to bring focus on the Naxalite problem in India, with Naxals being the heroes and the police/ govt./ system being villains. So it is a role reversal aptly brought out in the last scene where Beera says before dying, “Shoot & show who is the real Ram & whose the real Ravan.” And the police SP obliges by making a martyr out of Beera by getting him shot by a battery of policewalas.

The SP is shown to have gone wrong on various occasions:

1. He is told of Beera’s ‘Robinhood Traits’ by the local tribals on various occasions and yet he chooses to ignore them and just blindly follow his ‘KRA’ of killing the man at all cost. Seems pretty inhuman to me.

2. He ignores crimes (assuming that he must be aware) by police staff who rape Beera’s sister mercilessly. There are also stories of police atrocities which are floated as hints through the movie.

3. In the end, the SP uses his wife as a bait to lure Beera and shoot him. That a man would do that just to do go beyond the ‘call of duty’ again seems wrong for he is risking his wife’s live and also using words which can make a woman commit suicide again seems a little evil.

4. At one stage he is even shown to ignore Beera’s brother-in-laws recently maimed hand and literally squeeze information of the same hand !

5. Also when Beera’s brother comes as a messenger of peace, the way he talks back by first shooting a bullet to touch him (quite Rajnikant style ;) and then finally shooting him again weakens the case for SP & the police.
   

In all, the way the story is weaved, Abhishek seems a crazy, heartless criminal (a psycho.) in the beginning, and our SP seems a decent, dutiful & brave officer with attitude. However, by the end the real intentions of the director are easily apparent as he slowly & very subtly reverses the role of Ram & Ravan.

Take on Ramayana

This seems a good stage to move on to the second section about Ramayana. While Mani Ratnam has obviously used the end to showcase the striking similarity betweem Ram & the SP by making the latter doubt Aishwarya’s chastity, there are similarities all through. Hanuman being one of course. (Talking of Hanuman, he seems the most lovable character (played by Govinda) through the movie. He seems the only non-biased & non-obsessed guy through the movie, showcasing the rights & wrongs of both sides but doing his job none the less.)

Coming back to the SP and him questioning Aishwarya’s chastity, Mani Ratnam raises the age old question of why Ram let go of Sita. However, in this case the SP is more of a Ravan than Ram and he leaves her for reasons which seem to be either personal or highly professional (to shamelessly use her as a bait) rather than setting any societal example. So definitely Mani Ratnam does not make a very strong point against Ramayana despite his subtle attempt/suggestion.

I’ll not discuss Ram’s actions in the original epic for I feel no desire to go beyond my ‘call of duty’ :)

The story of Shoorpnakha’s nose being disfigured by Lakshman is also used only used to draw a resemblance but the scenario has no similarity to the original plot for here Lakshman is clearly shown to be a rascal of the highest order and the vengeance Beera takes on him seems to me a little kind. While watching the movie the audience might feel tempted to personally sort out the SP’s sub-ordinate, clearly a an evil guy.

Whether Mani Ratnam is trying to suggest that the original act by Lakshman could also have been similar might seem a little far fetched, but if he is indeed trying to make a case against Ram, again the plot is very weak. For the scenario clearly shows the police and system as the evil side.

All in all, it doesn’t seem to me that Mani Ratnam is trying to subvert Ramayana in this movie, for I still feel that the larger & very subtly disguised motive was to make a case for Naxals. And the timing seems apt as it is currently a raging problem.

Closeness to nature & and an alternate lifestyle

The tribals/rebels lifestyle in the village seemed very enticing to me. I almost felt propelled into the movie & joining the clan of ‘lal mitti’ (again seems a hint at the Naxal movement with a double meaning). The closeness to nature and the affable simplicity of the tribals, away from the current system of concrete, metal, traffic, pollution, rat-race & unbridled greed seemed a far better option.

While I do not doubt the fact that no ‘system’ is perfect and also do not think that Mani Ratnam is trying to say that we have an alternative lifestyle/system available to us (his vision is more focused on the micro), nonetheless the whole imagery of the jungle/village/festivities/raw & brash lifestyle did make me think of bottom-up systems/ ‘gram swarajya’/ Gandhi’s vision….

However I’ll go no further on this topic for this issue deserves a book not a movie blog. For those interested, Gandhi’s philosophy of ‘Gram Swarajya’ is a good starting point. There is lots of other literature available. The most recent book I heard of was ‘Making India Work’ by the owner of FabIndia. Although this seems a little impractical in it’s solutions even though his analytical dissection of the problems with the current economic system is near perfect.

Fullness of Life

Phew…I am almost repulsed by my endless ‘analysis paralysis/magajmaari’ at this stage but I have to do justice all layers mentioned afore and thus I will add a few words about the subtlest layer I observed, again this seemed almost unintended and quite similar to Abhishek’s role in Guru & to some extent..Yuva.

Beera, in one scene expresses the jealously he feels after Aishwarya tells him of the love she shares for the SP. And instead of reacting violently he just accepts it and shouts that he wishes to experience the emotion of ‘jealosuly’ as much as he could. I do not know whether Mani Ratnam is trying to show him as a psycho. or not but to me he seemed like a guy who is naturally driven to experience every emotion (positive or negative) in full in order to transcend it & thus become a spectator. While the latter philosophical angle is only my personal interpretation with neither the director nor Beera showing any reflection of the same, it does seem that Beera is larger than life.

And this fullness of living is shown in various places, festivals…love…with his clan…definitely making him lovable despite his ferocity and violence.

Here, I’d rest my case for this movie and make an ardent request to watch it. It is too good to miss. The cinematography, music, the plot, the acting….all definitely paisa vasool and totally grip. Not a drag for even a moment of the movie.

My rating…umm…definitely between 8 & 9 on a scale of 10.

Cheers !

Brand is the Medium

Marshal McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message”. I guess, in today’s time & age, extending that analogy, one could say that brands are the medium & hence also the message.

Why? How?

With the plethora of segments (their sub-segments), brands (& yes, their sub-brands) in each category, and also the tonnes of advertising in dozens of mediums happening across the globe (thanks to cable & DTH, we get to see it all in our own little home theatre) through hundreds of channels in scores of languages & genres, the poor little consumer has without doubt an information load which is unprecedented in human history.

In such a scenario, a sarcastic but honest comment by one of the senior advertising professionals in the industry makes perfect sense, “You know, some brand managers actually think that advertising will increase their sales!!”

Well obviously, the comment might be a little overstretched by the advertising professional’s personal/emotional frustrations (the kind one faces in advertising industry ;-), but on the whole it does sum up the state of the industry, for it is perhaps next to impossible to get a direct correlation between advertising spends (or GRPs for that matter) and sales. In fact even a very weak correlation with awareness scores often leads to unprecedented elation in the advertising industry which starves desperately for adulation.

Anyways, coming back to ‘Brand is the Medium’, one can see that in many cases it is perhaps the message (tag line, positioning, theme, story) which benefits more through advertising rather than the brand. In technical language, one could say that the thematic/creative recall is higher than the brand recall.

So, a ‘Journeyman’ from Apollo Hawkz might get more leverage than Hawkz it self, thereby reducing the poor brand to just the medium, although it is also the message. (Again, ‘medium’ is the message). Thus, the advertising professional’s job becomes all the more tough to get a connect as strong as say NIKE and “Just Do It!” or perhaps PEPSI and “Ye Dil Maange More!”. Even the Army Major who died fighting in Kargil, conquering one peak after another (and thus also winning the Param Vir Chakra) is said to have famously said during his last conversation with his senior officers, “Ye Dil Maange More!”. I am sure that the audience which heard that news report on TV recalled PEPSI right away.

So, the challenge is, HOW DO YOU GET THERE?

However, before we move there, let us, for a moment, place a hand on our hearts and honestly think whether at times the satisfaction of having the message dominating the medium (brand) is not truly exhilarating.

More often than not, the brand manager/ account planner/ creative/ servicing guy’s personality does leave an impression on whatever brands/campaign they handle/create.

An adventure enthusiast has a high chance of leaving that impression on his brand. A philanthropist is bound to raise his brands to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) planks naturally. So on and so forth.

Thus, it becomes extremely important to detach & rise above one’s ego & do justice to the brand without bringing one’s personal biases/inclinations to the picture for it is very tempting to use the brand as a medium for our own little agendas in life, because the high of doing so might rival that of a hefty raise in your remuneration or even being given an elevated designation/a stake in your firm ;-)

Now, getting over this slight detour & focusing back on, HOW TO DO THAT is not as easy as one might suspect. As mentioned above, the media & advertising clutter makes it extremely tough to truly benefit brands unless you go niche (focused on select mediums for your TG) or go extremely big, say using IPL for bombarding the audience with a budget which would rival that of a telecom player.

Surely, there are other ‘scientific’ & ‘well researched’ ways of getting across messages cognitively, affectively, thematically ……& every other ‘…..lly’ that we know of in the world. But the dilemma remains tough unless a Bruce Lee ;) technique is used to fight out the dozens of rivals & one’s own segments, sub-segments, brands & sub-brands.

So do we have a catch-22 on our hands with ‘Brand is the Medium’ being the future of communication through advertising?

Long live advertising!

FREE IDIOTS : The New Age Genre

TAARE ZAMEEN PAR
ROCK ON
WAKE UP SID
ROCKET SINGH

...and now 3 IDIOTS (more than 400 crores in box - office revenues, all records broken)


Points to be noted:

1. All these films are about ‘Idiots’, or about people who followed their passion against all odds.

2. In media verbiage, the frequency & reach of these films is increasing with alarming rate.


Hypothesis:

Films are always a reflection of the society, whether it be the ‘angry young men’ of yesteryears or the ‘Idiots’ of today. The mass consciousness seems to be reaching a tipping point and this is reflected by the most successful films of late. These films comprise a New Age genre with some common attributes. These attributes are:

1.All of them are about following your passion rather than blindly & mindlessly aping systemic norms.

2.They talk about working for fun and not just money.

3.‘3 Idiots’ also takes a dig at covetousness’s negative avatar & rat-race creeping into Indian society.

4.They promote an infectious positivity (AAL IJJ WELL, AAL IJJ WELL :) in the face of all odds.


The values underlying these attributes are:

1. Follow your heart.
2. Do what you enjoy.
3. Live simply, live fully.
4. Always be positive.


Implications for Media & Brands:

The values espoused by these films are universal & timeless. However, the era that we live in has made them even more relevant to a large chunk of the populace. Thus, both media & brands might benefit by imbibing these values in their communication.

‘AAL IJJ WELL’: Are we at the Tipping Point ?!

Movie:

3 Idiots

Current Revenue Statistics:

Within 12 days of release, 3 Idiots has become the "the highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time." As of 5 January, 2010, it has earned 2.4 billion rupees (51 million dollars) in the combined international and domestic markets since it opened.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Idiots)

Tipping Point:

Tipping Points are "the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable." Gladwell defines a tipping point as a sociological term: "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point." As Gladwell states, "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do."

Scene from ‘3 Idiots’:

Aamir (Ranchordas Shyamaldas Chanchar) has been dragged into class to teach students by Prof. Viru Sahastrabuddhe (VIRUS) for criticizing him on the death of a senior who committed suicide as VIRUS discarded his genius invention as ‘impractical’ and told him that he will not graduate.

Chanchar gives the class one minute to find out ‘FARHANitrate PeRAJUlization’, terms which do not exist and have been coined in jest from the name of his pals, Farhan & Raju. The class (including VIRUS) start searching mindlessly in various books but obviously find nothing.

Chanchar then says, our whole system is just about mindlessly running without even pausing to think what we are doing. He says, they are in a college, and not a PRESSURE COOKER!

Food for Thought:

Does that say something about the present system & how it is struggling with itself for change? Does it say something about how tomorrow’s world will be different from today?

One can readily shake off ‘3 Idiots’ as an exception (although it would have to be a rather MIGHTY shake to neglect record breaking profits and perennially filled ‘full houses’ of many first & some second time viewers!)

And then it will also be difficult to ignore a slew of similar movies. Rocket Singh, Taare Zameen Par, Wake Up Sid, Rock On….they almost constitute an emerging ‘new age’ genre. In all of them, the theme was about slowing down from the rat-race to live lives more fully, more from the heart, to work for happiness & not just money!

Somehow, somewhere the India of today is realizing that the world in which they grew up, the lessons they were taught about being financially secure, professionally on top, that status really matters, all those middle class values are making him a machine working 8-12 hours, 5 days a week (may be even weekends) and that he has become another uncreative gear in the system preprogrammed to behave exactly like everyone around them!

We have reached an age where we face a conflict everyday between dreams & reality, between ‘practicality’ & morality, between materialism & spirituality (if I may use that bad word in public!)

The India of today is the most materially prosperous that it has been in the last 200 years, we have reached a saturation level s in materialistic acquisitions, and the mindless race has gotten so far that the only way left to survive ‘humanly’ is to slow down (perhaps THE SLOW DOWN caused by the mindless growth by ever hungry investment bankers in the West was really NEEDED to stop & think). Today, there is a struggle between day-to-day ‘practical’ survival and some time to pause and breath…we are like 100 meter sprinters on a marathon! Panting all the way to glory (?!)…

All these low budget movies (3 Idiots, Rocket Singh, Taare Zameen Par, Wake Up Sid, Rock On….) were centered on this idea & indicate a shift from the materialistic perspective of yesteryears to one which is more from the ‘heart’, more for the ‘heart & more of the ‘heart’.

Media Implications

Does that also imply that this sets the tone for how media & product consumption might differ in the years to come? Already print, internet, radio & TV are gearing up to catch 3 Idiots’ thinking heads for columns, reviews, interviews..

That Hirani has done this for the third time in a row (Munnabhais) & similar movies are also doing very well, how much more time before TV also takes the cue?

So if these are the movies we today love, what would be our media be like in the future?

Or in short, what would this ‘new age’ genre comprise of in media?