Letting It Go

All my life I have been brand loyal. And before I knew the science behind it, I had found myself making choices which baffled many, sometimes even myself. When I got deep into it much later into life I realized few things, got more questions than answers and the fascination remained. A couple of months I made a decision which shook the very foundations of my life long belief system and my choices. And while making the decision I realized an absolute irrefutable truth about psychographic segmentation – we all have multiple personalities and rarely does any archetype explain an individual completely.

In the early nineties entire India was swinging to a song called, “Yehi hain right choice Baby” and we flocked to the stores to drink Pepsi while all of us had grown up on Thums Up. It was a difficult transition but we all made it. In a country starved for lifestyle brand, the eighties children lapped up the promise of Pepsi.

It was the brand of the rebel, of changing stereotypes, of a new India yet to find its place. When coke finally came in, the battle was already lost. It did a smart move by acquiring Thums Up but by then it had lost the moral high ground to fight for the minds of Indian youth.

It was My Brand. I respected Coke, admired their ‘Paanch’ campaign but always it was the brand of the others, of older people (who btw loved their old Coke coming back), a brand of the establishment. I continued to order Pepsi when we went out with friends.

But for the last few years Pepsi started losing the plot. It did too many things, stood for too many aspects of youth and you never knew what it was saying. Was it Sports? Was it Music? Was it Youth? I never knew. I still continued with Pepsi graduating from Pepsi to Pepsi Max. But almost always it was a choice forced due to a lifelong loyalty.

Coke in the meanwhile came up with their ‘Open Happiness’ campaign. The first few executions went over the top. I did not know what it meant. But to give them full credit, they stuck on with it and became better. The conviction behind their Masterbrand was phenomenal and slowly I saw myself liking the latest coke ads and while I did not want to let the rebel die within me, I saw him transform into a rebel with a cause.

The other day I went to the supermarket and suddenly I did not want to pick Pepsi anymore. The generational shift had happened. The eighties children had started moving onto their thirties and the new age Pepsi made small sense to them just as Lady Gaga remained incomprehensible. Coke had taken over the family space.

Will Pepsi again speak to me? Will a 20 year old relationship truly die? What will Pepsi’s new found mantra of focusing on Music do for me?

We wait and watch.

Fast Food Movie Reviews

As I wrote the review for Ek Tha Tiger I realized that it has been a long time since I have reviewed any movies and suddenly as I checked the list of movies I decided to write about, for good reasons or bad, lots of names popped up. So instead of a long drawn discussion on each of them, here’s a McMovie Review, if I can call it so.

Let’s start with Ferrari Ki Saawari. You probably have missed it. It apparently did not do well but then few good movies do. Watch it to understand how middle class India survives on dreams and hopes, how honesty is relative, how honesty and integrity generates goodwill and respect from almost every quarter of life, how a father tries to get a Ferrari for a marriage procession so that his son can go to his cricket training. Sharmaan Joshi excels in his act and probably would do good to stay away from the senseless comedies he makes at times.

Shanghai was one of the scariest movies I have seen in recent times. Rarely does a movie come which so blatantly portrays the reality of the realty sector in India and the nexus between developers and politicians and the entire debate between development and displacement. If you can get over the fact that Bumbada and Kalki kissed, you will be amazed at Emraan hasmi’s portrayal of the common man caught between the wars for land.

Kahaani was a fascinating movie to watch. Beautifully directed it brought to life the city of Calcutta which was as important a protagonist to the movie as Vidya Balan herself. Intriguing, taut and helped with a power packed performance by Vidya Balan it saw its climax against the backdrop of Durga Puja in Calcutta. And what could be more apt than the Female Power of Shakti triumphing over evil with a movie where Bollywood finally breaks its glass ceiling. Balan is our Fourth Khan!

I should not waste my time with Sherlock Holmes – A Game of Shadows but more and more I watch the franchise I realize this is something I can rarely digest. The histrionics of Holmes gets crazier and then you wonder if Robert Downey Jr. would be better off playing Tony Stark.

Brave was the new Disney Pixar offering for Summer. And while it had the brilliance of technology and a new Disney Princess, it lacked the heart of Pixar. The storyline had one single twist and you knew what was coming your way. I loved Merida, the latest addition to Disney princess but like everything in our times, she was the most obstinate little thing I have ever come across. I pity for her mom and absolutely love my sister for the way she has to handle my niece.

Iron Lady was one of the best bio pics I have seen recently. Meryl Streep brought to life Margaret Thatcher as accurately as possible. We lived with her through the unrest in Britain, through her struggles in the party, through the challenges in her own family life, through Falklands crisis. But it meant something more to an Indian. Her daughter travels in a black cab without security, her son works in South Africa without any political ambition. This is a country which has a dynastic monarchy. I wondered when we will learn to let go of our political dynasties.

And finally it was time for Hugo. Martin Scorcese gets better with age and in his latest film, he pays tribute to the man who gave us the magic of movies. In an unique way, the life of Georges Melies comes to our screens and we bow our heads to creativity, to craziness, to those few people who sacrifice themselves for following their hearts. Beautifully directed and scored, Hugo remains one of those movies which tell the story not just of a man, but of an age.

The Story of a Spy

Or maybe not. That’s what was going on in my mind as I came out after watching Ek Tha Tiger. One of my most memorable spies of course has been GunMaster G9 – our very own Mithunda saving India from the world’s deadliest villains.

Indian spies have it tough. Ask Sunny Deol. He had to even call his movie Hero – Love story of a Spy. Agent Vinod kept confusing people about whether he loved the girl or not and audiences kept away from Saif. We need our spies in our own Made for India format!

But Salman is in a different league of his own.

And therefore strangely Ek Tha Tiger is not an out and out Salman movie. Imagine a tiger in the forest and a tiger in the cage. This film is the cage of Yash Raj Films which keeps Salman toned down.

The movie to be honest is good. It’s not Jason Bourne; neither it’s Veer Zara but imagine Pierce Brosnan going all Hugh Grantish in a Bond movie and you would have figured the movie out.  And add to that a Katrina Kaif who seems to become better with every movie.

Salman’s entry is less than spectacular in terms of histrionics but fantastic in the use of the slo-mo camera. He doesn’t let go ever in the movie. It seems he feels the pressure of a prim and proper studio watching his every move. This movie was made to appeal to both the urban elite and the urban poor and thus Salman loses his T shirt only once in the movie.

His films in the last few years have 2 kinds of audience – the first who watches his movies to claim how mass minded and absurd it is. And the second, people like me, who still go to the movies to believe in the magic that Georges Melies had first shown us. We go to the movies to forget, to laugh, to cry, to love, to suspend reality as my dad calls it.

It’s the split that’s evident in India today and the stars who can crossover effectively are becoming rarer. Salman remains one of them. The intensity in his eyes is still the same that had made my sisters swoon in the nineties when Maine Pyaar Kiya had released. His buffed up body looks more chiselled than ever but nowhere in the movie does it look that he is having a lot of fun doing it. The humour is measured, the fights are less than fantastic and his dialogues lack the spice that makes him the darling of the masses. Thankfully Katrina does that with aplomb.

But in the end when ISI and RAW are both chasing them, and he is shot by his friend, he still rides the bike towards the plane and in one spectacular jump catches the open door; the prim and proper Singapore audience erupts in cheers reminding me of my past in Gaiety Galaxy.

People kept asking me how the movie was and my answer was simple – it lacked the rustic charm of Dabaang, but it was worth the ticket. That’s what Bollywood should be about – Paisa Vasool.

Why I Feel Let Down by Mr. Nolan

By now I would think everyone who has been crazy about the Dark Knight trilogy must have seen the movie so it’s a safe time to put my comments in for all who cares to listen or read. In a line – The Dark Knight Rises disappoints. For the entire running time, I never stirred in my seat; I was hooked by the spectacle on the screen but I never felt the tension that had built up while I watched batman take on Ras Al Ghul or the Joker. And that’s where lies the failure of the Man who gave us Memento, Inception and in my opinion the greatest villain in the movie world – Joker.

Both the earlier Batman stories were more than just stories – it had all started with Ras telling Batman that he had to become a legend. And for the two movies he became just that – an apparition – a dark knight who was ready to take the fall. He battled not the events; for the events could have been taken on by any superhero (or even the earlier Bats); what he battled were ideologies – the contrived, unforgiving justice of Ras or the crazy chaos personified by the Joker.

And that’s where the movies were different from the Boy Toys. The Batmobile never became the centrepiece, neither did the spectacular chase sequence halfway through Dark Knight; what remained with the audience hours after they had left the theatres was a primal fear – of evil, of lawlessness; of retribution at some strange justice for none of us have our souls clean.

Against this backdrop, came the story of The Dark Knight, more promising than ever before; with Bane taking up the mantel against Batman – the only one in the graphic novels to have broken Batman’s back and rendered him helpless (you can almost see a recreation of the comic book page in the movie.) You had Cat Woman – about whom we have had endless fights discussing whether she’s good, bad or grey and whether she feels for the Bat. You had scenes reminiscent of Bastille and the anarchy that follows a revolution and a fascinating trailer showing a football field getting devastated and yet what we have is a predictable Good vs. Bad movie which could have been directed by anyone with an eye for special effects.

And that’s where I feel let down by Mr. Nolan. Anyone else directing this movie would have been showered with applause and then promptly forgotten till the next ironman movie came along but here was a director who had forced us to think about the nature of the evil, about choices, about justice and all that he gave us was a movie where we see a faint hint of a Robin coming in for a possible future movie, a Batman retiring and making the fight with Bane a personal one.

To be honest the hero in the movie perhaps is Commissioner Gordon; trusting his instincts, doing his job, facing a bigger threat than he can handle; giving new heroes their chance to stand up for something that they believe in and never losing hope even till the last moment because he knows whatever be the outcome, he has to fight on for the right reasons.

Maybe that’s what the ultimate truth is – superheroes exist on the silver screen. In life what matters is never giving up on what you believe in.

The Punter

He knew all about horses At least he thought so. So he bet on them. Always on which horse will win. He felt it beyond his dignity to bet on a horse losing. After all, the horses had some self respect.

He was a bit arrogant when it came to horses. He was an idealist as well. A strange combination one would say but it served him well. He knew if he was right and did his bets honestly; the horses would not let him down. Now as you would know, for any story to succeed, you have to get in some drama, action, passion till the point of time when there might be a strange sense of indigestion.

So in the peaceful life of this old punter of ours, came a few young colts and for the first time perhaps he slipped. He picked a few colts, rooted for them, what the heck he trained them for greatness. And then came the second round of colts. Better, stronger and designed to break every record ever held by horses!

But now something strange happened! The first set of colts began behaving strangely. It was almost as if they had become humans, full of jealousy for the new kids on the block.

And slowly the races began to look like wrestling fields with the horses crossing courses and neighing and kicking up dust till our poor punter was covered with mud. He thought, “What the hell. Enough of horse racing for a life time!” just as he was about to leave, he got a kick on his back. And what a kick it was.

He was bedridden for years. People said it was one of the older colts but our punter would have promised that it was not even a colt that he saw through the corner of his eyes as it kicked him, it was in reality a mule!

It was said, the older colts ran over the racing fields and the younger colts never ran a single race after that on those courses.

Years passed. Our Punter was old and wiry but much better now that he had given up on racing. But the other day, he opened his television set in his perfect Lego world and he saw an arena larger than anything he had ever imagined.

And there were his younger colts, racing and winning and breaking every record known to horses and to men.

And as I saw him watch the race, I wondered if this was a story of horses, of colts who grew up or a punter who honestly like most existential heroes, did almost nothing and yet was the protagonist.

The Four Little Mice Grow Up

One of my favourite stories as I was graduating and beginning my journey to understand Brands was about the four little mice. Their story is one of hope, of camaraderie, of possible futures that they wish came true some day.

But as life goes by I see the story of the four little mice change, evolve, develop – whatever you might call it. It’s interesting how each copes up, running on the little treadmill so that the scientist on the outside can observe and take notes on the little black book.

So as we move forward with our story, let’s see how the little mice fared. They all aged, they all greyed, they all added and shed back a few pounds but all in all they survived the big, bad city. And they met the ladies. Oh yes, you see as the every mouse grows up, according to all fairy tales involving mice, there has to be a mouse princess. So each met their princesses and some of them met the right ones, while the others waited.

The family mouse, the wise old one, who loved his family a lot, kept going further and further away till one day he decided to set sail again. His family wanted to open a Ratatouille store in a land far far away.

From each of their ships they could still see the other three, but it required a lucky wind to get their voice across to others. They called out once again, with the hope that “One day the ships will return.”

Jalebi No Longer Tastes as Sweet

One of the biggest challenges I face in my daily life as I go about my work is to tip toe on the thin line between plagiarism and inspiration. From my dad over his years of distinguished service, if there is something I have picked up, it is the absolute honesty with which one must do his or her job and then believe “Ma Faleshu....” The Bhagvad Gita has a lot of answers if we seek them well enough.

And thus as it is extremely important for me to create products that absolutely are brilliant, it is also my responsibility to give full freedom to creativity and let brilliance of individuals take over. But I am a scared man. And that’s because the line I mentioned above is absolutely thin. Every single individual who creates an advertisement lives in that constant fear – “Has the idea that has germinated in my mind, already been used in another country, in another product?” I have been fortunate to work with individuals who adhere to this strict sense of propriety and thus have rarely been worried. But even I live in that fear. If there are 6 guys in this world who look exactly the same, it’s not unnatural if 2 people have the same idea. But imagine the fall-out of such a situation.

This year itself there have been 2 movies both dealing with the theme of Snow White in a different setting. Who had the original idea? Did they individually come up with it?

The problem with ideas is essentially that since no longer we work in isolation; even ideas are results of group think. We build on each other’s thoughts to come up with a solution so that the end result can claim no one originator.

Anyway, coming back to the reason why I am going on and on is because of this ad. You all would remember it. One of the most touchingly emotional ads made in India. It might not be a great ad in terms of standard checks we have on an ad, but its greatness lies elsewhere. It stays on with you. You remember the moment. You remember the characters and from a world where there was so less clutter, you remember the Brand.

Now look at this ad – made way before by another great food company.

Where is the line between inspiration, coincidence and a feeling of betrayal? It’s too thin.