Of Ads & Offers

Everyday we watch TV be it the (stereo type) saas-bahu serials, sports channels or any other. I remember an ad on one of the news channels. It was with Sachin with a yellow shirt saying life is like cricket... blah blah blah... another one in which SRK & John fighting to autograph a stupid looking bloke, to be finally called "Uncle"… "mujhe accha nahi laga…"

Today advertising/promoting your product/commodity is more important as compared to its quality/service. Every channel, every 5 minutes has an ad about some or the other thing. Earlier at least news channels were being spared but, now I guess, news is being telecast between ads.

Technically speaking definition of advertisement would be where a one-way communication through a medium which is being sponsored by the seller. When I say medium it includes television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and billboards. Some crazy people have gone to the extent of body advertising. By advertising a product, some feel any thing and everything can & will be sold.

The best part of advertising comes on the Indian Television channels. For the very smallest and simplest of products there is a lot of emotion, love attached to it. Does it actually help in improving the product's image? I'm not sure. But none the less there is. Say a simple thing like pet food. People have gone to the extent of introducing flavored pet food. What's next? Flavored energy drink for pets?

Coming to the point of emotions & all, just before & during the world cup of cricket remember there was a series of ads saying Hoo Haa India! Aaya India! After a dismal showing of the Indian cricket team, I don't remember seeing it. It was totally taken off air and posters were pulled down overnight. The companies didn't want to associate themselves with a bunch of "losers". They quickly took to movie stars. They are a safe bunch you see! Not much of national pride associated here. Pretty safe huh?

When one talks of movie stars in ads one can't forget but to notice every other product from chocolate to skin care cream, hair oil to pain balm, polio campaign to cement, there is a common face & a pretty familiar one, yes it is the Big B. some times I feel we've had an overdose of him. Thank god they don't rope him for ladies beauty products! Phew just imagine… The other two stars giving the Big B a run for his money in TV ad campaign are Sachin and SRK. Most of the ads are senseless & do in least promoting the product. Uncle zara iside dena... Move on... GHve way to younger people. We have had an overdose of you in cricket matches and your movies respectively.

Long time ago I remember seeing an ad on TV. It was very simple one well presented. It was a old chap fishing in the country side early morning, villager comes singing some tune. The old chap hushes him. The villager puts 4-5 drops of some liquid on a iron rod sticks it in the lake. Next minute he has caught 5 fishes & leaves happily. If I'm correct this won the best Ad for a couple of years. Why can't, if not all most of the ads be like this? Some measures of sensibility or at-least which help boost the image of the product.

Now to tell you another example: I was watching this BBC Entertainment channel; there was an ad of the Audi A4 sport variant. Such a wonderful ad, it hardly had any emotion or crass to it. Just all about the vehicle and comfort of driving it. It was a refreshing one.

I for one believe that an ad must be made such that it captures your imagination or gets you thinking. Not just senseless emotion, not promoting the product just for the heck of it. We have so many good ad men in our country. Guys wake up get your brains to work. Give us some good ones which will be remembered for a long time to come.

Apart from the television advertising, the next biggest one is advertising on net. Everyday we get so many promotional mails; every other site today is being sponsored, Google and Yahoo to name a top few. You can view advertisements based on your choice of search, your interests. But there is a problem here if you don't know how to benefit from this; it's as good as gone astray

After advertising the next big thing is Offer/Sale.
There is an MRP, cost price, selling price, profit and discount associated to a product. Every product is manufactured at a particular cost, overpriced to a preset sale price add to it sales tax, this tax, that tax, what tax, what not tax… to get MRP. Now all this excess money will give people in the supply chain a hell lot of money.

Just for example, say person A has a business setup of his own. They are retailers of products B & C in a small town. Now would you believe he makes a whooping amount by just being the retail dealer? I.e. gets stuff from a guy higher in the supply chain & transfers it to smaller trader. For doing just this one is paid a whooping amount.

So wondering what has that to do with what we are discussing? Well the roots come from there. If one of the blokes in the supply chain says ok I'm having a huge stock, I'll sell it at lower price to make up my loss, the guy at the end of the chain gives you the buyer what he calls discount. I.e. he is still making money but to you it seems like a huge amount because you don't realize how much more you end up paying. A similar network works in the Am-Way and other such products too. All the posters saying discount, sale and offers are nothing but selling you things instead of keeping them in storehouses.

Another thing that can happen is the guy who is selling you a product first overprices it and then gives you some discount. This again you are at a loss. Oh just don't forget to read the terms and conditions of the sale. Which will invariably say: objects once sold can't be returned. I.e. you're a goner.

Nowadays these offers have become so common that even airlines are giving offers! Domestic & international travel has become so common & economical that airlines can afford to give discounts & offers. What this is doing is heating up the air & room for survival for is shrinking… So soon there will be a situation that there are only a couple of players & the others have gone bankrupt or moved out to another sector. Finally it is the customer who pays the price.

Well as long as the things are in our favor why worry about what might happen sometime in the unseen future. As long as we are paying at least something less or apparently less; as long as it gives us a feel good factor, it is time to enjoy and savor.

Riddle Of Horcruxes…

Protego! Expelliarimus! Avada Kedavra!

Got what the topic of writing is about? Oh you know it! It is all about ‘The-boy-who-survived’ & ‘He-who-must-not-be-named’ or You-know-who’.

First things first, very well written book. An enthralling read. I should say I took more time reading this one as compared to the rest of the series. I needed it. As all stories end, this one too had a happily ever after ending. Surely disappointing after the media mania it generated.

One doesn’t fail to notice the fact that the last book has been highly influenced by Bollywood movies. What? An English author influenced by Bollywood movies? Crazy or what? No, I felt so & eventually even you would if you follow the flow of events carefully.

Ok, let me give you some hints, the-miss-know-all girl Hermione Granger, in the first part of the book, is made to cry till her tear glands dry up. Shuks, for simplest of happenings. I felt this part was inspired by the K______ serial on star network.

Hmm… one more point where this becomes obvious is when ‘The-boy-who-survived’ separates from his foster parents the Dursleys. There is the ever-slight bit of tension & feeling of separation that is made evident. If that is not enough, when the three of them are at their hiding place, the initial treatment from the house elf Kreacher & then a u-turn in treatment. Don’t these remind you those monotonous family melo drama movies of late 80’s & early 90’s?

Another big hint indicating the connection is the escapes the three of them make every single time they are chased/caught by the bad guys here they are called death eaters. Be it at lovegood’s place, Mafloy manor, Ministry of Magic or N number of times they are in trouble. I personally liked Dobby come to their rescue part.

Towards the end of the book, one thing that totally confused me was that Harry was himself a horcrux. A Basilisk can destroy a horcrux. Now if we recall, in The Chamber of Secrets, the same basilisk fang punctures Harry but nothing happens, but it can destroy the book. Missing something somewhere.

The point at which I deeply felt a strong connection between Bollywood and this book was the last fight scene. All magical creatures are now on the good guy’s side, Harry’s & come out in open to fight You-know-who. This time you-know-who doesn’t have any protection left even if he was one of the most powerful wizards. He is finally martyred. A simple spell beats a killing one! Wow! A mediocre teenage wizard can survive a killing curse while one of the most powerful wizards can’t. Yeah at this point you do feel that the author was itching to finish the book & say: Thank You. Good Bye.

I liked the Ron character, he did end-up doing some valiant stuff. After all what more can one ask for than a beautiful, clever witch for a girlfriend?

Suspense has been a part and parcel of the book though at points it seemed obvious there have been enough twists and turns to the Riddle. The most well concealed one is of Snape giving the sword & the mystery of his patronus. The part of deathly hallows, I felt would have a larger impact than the just man-o-man duel at the end.

I did feel like a points the author was including events just to prolong the book but everything fit in very well written making it an enthralling read. A riddle of horcruxes, deathly hallows & yes of course as it says ‘death shall be the last enemy to be conquered’.

Impossible is nothing - part III

Carrying on with the movie mania effect, let's highlight things in a more Indian perspective. I tried to but could not merge this with either of my two previous posts on the same topic of movies. Thus a complete column dedicated to Indian movies. Movies here are welcomed with zest, with fanatic fan following, people from different walks of life being involved, and maybe as it is in a language closer to heart compared to foreign ones.

The movies here are more often than not linked to local emotions & events. As one of our yesteryear heroes says, "is mein action hain, tragedy hain, emotion hain, drama hain", would sum it up. Writing a concise column would be more challenging than the previous ones. Let's start with the regional ones & move to Hindi movies. What I'll do is a two part series. One dedicated to South Indian movies and the second to Hindi movies. Well Bengali industry has and continues to give a good contribution to our major tinsel town. From talented artists to heart touching stories, to the year's largest grosser. My knowledge of Bengali movies just ends there so not much to write. But I sure do promise to write on movies made in most Indian languages sometime shortly.

Ok when I say regional movies, first thing that comes to my mind is South Indian movies especially Tamil & Telugu movies. The two film fraternities are in a sort of parallelism but still fighting each other for supremacy. Both have had their share of greats. Here I am not ruling out the other major south Indian languages of Kannada & Malayalam. They have the competence to give the other two a run for their money. Well all the four major filming fraternities are known for their One Big Hero in the industry types. Of-late the latter two fraternities have sort of started trailing the other two.

On the storyline front, personally I feel the Malayalam ones rule the roost in south Indian movies. The best of the lot have found a remake in almost every language spoken in India. On the numbers front Telugu & Tamil always seem to have a tug of war. Being a Kannadiga, the plight of Kannada movies pains me. Kannada movies had a huge set back due to poor showing, localization beyond necessity, too much of a one man show, unable to break the cliché. Nowadays there is a trend to attract more people, a bigger pool of talent, trying & testing new ideas. Good luck guys.

The more commercial movies in South are ones that are still stuck in the 80's timeframe with modern day technology. Here I'm not making a comment specific to any one movie but rather a generalization.

The hero invariably happens to be a poor guy whose parents have been oppressed by the rich & bad heroine's father/uncle. The guy & girl fall in love. The rich father doesn't approve & hell breaks loose on the poor chap. He fights all odds to marry the gal. In between all this is a sequence of some foot tapping numbers most of them miserably choreographed and lots of tears. Somewhere far and between are some comedy scenes included which have no correlation at any part of the movie.

If you feel the one described above is all. Hold on to your horses, there is more. This time round the hero happens to be a son of a very rich dad but destiny has other plans for him. His dad is killed by his brother/some close relative (most of the time)/friend. The hero is oppressed & underfed in childhood & is laboring hard thru out his childhood & all of a sudden there is a strong muscular young man who is the best in studies! Man I did for sure believe that hard work pays, but this way? Phew! Shane Warne's spin is easier to comprehend. Now he gets a high paying job in the bad guy's office, falls in love with his daughter & same story. Oh, lord please save me. Finally, the bad guy apologizes & gives back the assets to the rightly owner/dies rather should I say gets killed for his bad deeds. Hey one more point here, our hero never gets jailed for killing the bad guy. Of course we have a sequence of some numbers, lots & lots of tears and some comedy scenes having no correlation at any part of the movie.

If you thought the two are the only classifications you are absolutely wrong. There is college love story with the gal's dad being the bad guy (this is stereo type for me to even write in my column). He is involved in all sorts of "evil to society" acts but still retains a good guy image in society & same old story. Hero beats him, gets the gal & they lived happily ever after.

To some description on the dance oops, song sequences. There is bound to be a rain dance (wonder do they ever catch a cold?). One drill dance (like the boring P.T we used to have in school but this is with a song); one running round trees/beaches/parks dance, one teary number, one in praise of the lord, one Item number, one for the long lost mother/father/brother/sister, so on & so forth. Hey that’s not all. Remember all those extras appearing in the dance sequence. They somehow amaze me. They are walking along on a busy road; see the hero/heroine dance, join them. Whatever happened to the urgent work they were attending to?

Now to fight sequences. First is the hero's father getting killed either with a bullet/brutal murder (if there is time for that). Second is hero getting bashed up by sum ugly looking guys, hero gate crashes the bad guys party smashing & thrashing some of the bad guys, the bad guys now take their revenge, followed by hero taking his revenge & finally hero thrashing the hell out of everyone in sight.

Now let us focus on the ages of our characters. Hero - 40-75yrs Heroine 15-25 (sometimes 28 if the producer & director don’t have enough funds/hero asks for a particular heroine). Hero's mother 30-65; most of the times the mother would have played the hero's gal in her hay days (read - at least 5-6 yrs back). Hero's father & bad guy some character actor in the age group of 35-55. These are the guys who came to the industry to become heroes but didn't have enough backing/funding. Extras come in different shapes, ages & sizes.

If you have started to think that I detest south Indian films & they are only the crap type, which I said. Rethink. Maybe you need to watch Sivaji – The Boss or maybe wait for Friday where you surely will find a revitalizing new regional movie to exact all your delusion. Ok now for the regional movie buffs. Wait a few more days & my views on hindi movies are bound to amuse you.