Indira's Rasam advertisement - Racist and Sexist

 

It is a very racist and sexist advertisement. It says "If you are a North Indian wife, you just need a minute to make rasam, with our Indira rasam powder you can make Ghuma Ghuma Lade rasam (piping hot rasam) in few seconds". 

This ad on this Karnataka bus had gone viral. the advertisement assumes that if a South Indian husband has a North Indian wife, she does not know how to make rasam, a South Indian dish, 

Basically, that is the crux of the matter. The statement smacks of gender discrimination, there is regional philosophy that rasam is south Indian, north Indians cannot cook southern dishes, that southern men should not marry north Indian girls and, that if they do, they should forget their favourite south Indian dishes, give up on their main dishes, southern dishes are better than northern dishes, etc. At best such promotions should be avoided.  

"Eye-balls Marketing"

What sort of promotion is this? I would call it "buzz marketing" or cashing in on the sentiment. We can call it  "eye-balls marketing" too!!!!

Common Sense is not common, Thums Up Should have done this 30 years ago.

Common sense is not common. This we Hyderabadis knew for generations. So much so that Coca-Cola had five zones, North, South, East West and, Hyderabad. 

After a heavy Biryani nothing like a nice "Thanda Toofan". It is not a cool drink it is Tumps Up. Pity that Ramesh Chauhan sold the brand to CocaCòla. It would have given a run for the money both for Coke and Pepsi. 

The point is why wait for so long. This ad should have been released twenty years ago.

HanuMan a well made movie that brings to the fore some uncomfortable truths

Originally  posted on Facebook on 18th March 2024.

I watched the cleverly made Telugu movie "HanuMan". It is extremely well made. Viewers can identify with it, just like in typical Malayalam movies.  Like Malayalam movies, it relies heavily on a good story, tight screenplay, and no bombastic dialogues. It does not have hyped-up action, vulgar dialogues, a mandatory love track, item songs, or punch lines. 

Made on a shoestring budget of 30 crore rupees, HanuMan raked in over 300 crores. Some have even commented that it is the sleeper hit of the decade. Shot in natural locales with mostly unknown actors excluding Vennela Kishore, the movie stands out for its conviction and sincerity. What started as a Telugu movie became a pan-India movie. It created records even in overseas markets. 

The master stroke was to take a very slender and skinny hero (come to it, most Telugu heroes are skinny and not very muscular except hulks like Prabhas and Rana) and turn him into not a hero rather than a superhero. Most viewers smile and groan internally when a slender hero like Mahesh Babu smashes the baddies and creates havoc. We are told to believe that he is normal, just like any one of us. 

But HanuMan cleverly mixes mythology and fiction and creates a superhero who gets his power from who else, the mighty Hanuman. As he is shown being puny and getting trashed in the initial scenes, viewers love him when he pummels everyone with his superpowers. This clicked with the viewers. 

They could identify themselves with the hero. Can we identify ourselves with either Bala Krishna or Mahesh Babu? No way. The story is well told, and actually, there is hardly any story, but whatever the story, it is well presented. 

The monkey part was initially boring and perplexing, but the way the director gave the monkey a key part at the end was amazing. Ravi Teja's voice added naughtiness to the monkey's role. It was refreshing to see a real monkey and not a graphic animal that appears tacky and unnatural. 

The director seems to have a wicked sense of humor and sarcasm. His use of the "sacrificing star," Sunisith, was a coupe-de-etat or a master stroke. The songs and the special effects added to the drama unfolding on the big screen. 

HanuMan movie is a telling example of treasures that are hidden in Indian mythology. It is a pity that we are looking yearningly westward at the Marvel world. Yet we have not discovered our own superheroes.  Arjuna, Beema, Krishna, Rama, Hanuman, and Bheeshma—our epics are full of gods who are ten times more powerful than any Western superheroes. 

I wish directors like Prasanth Verma and Rajmouli came out with movies based on our own "Indian Super Heroes".  An earnest appeal: let them make these movies quickly. I can't really wait for five years for one movie from Rajamouli.

HanuMan is also a wake-up call for the rest of the Telugu movie directors and actors. They need to come out of their pretensions and make movies that impact the viewers positively.  With the onslaught of OTT, viewers can easily see the best of the movies, and undoubtedly, Malayalam movies are the best, followed closely by Tamil and Kannada movies. 

Telugu movies? The less said, the better. Two movies stand out: Balagam and HanuMan. The rest,  Garbage in and Garbage out!!