A glass of steaming milky syrupy tea is best served cut. One by two or two by three, it embodies the spirit of sharing and camaraderie (and more significantly a resource crunch). Come, have a sip.
I'm yet to watch the movie. Intend to do that over the weekend. There are too many things happening out here, for me to sit back and watch a film in leisure.
The concept is appealing, and the bits that I viewed, while converting it, displayed some decent work in animation. Simple can be a lot of fun.
Since in a welcome move the creator of the film Nina Paley has shared it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License, I'm putting it up here and in different formats to suit different needs.
About the film: Sita is a Hindu goddess, the leading lady of India's epic the Ramayan and a dutiful wife who follows her husband Rama on a 14 year exile to a forest, only to be kidnapped by an evil king from Sri Lanka. Despite remaining faithful to her husband, Sita is put through many tests.
Nina (the filmmaker Nina Paley herself) is an artist who finds parallels in Sita's life when her husband - in India on a work project - decides to break up their marriage and dump her via email.
Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets with Indian accents - linking the popularity of the Ramayan from India all the way to the Far East - narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic.
In her first feature length film, Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining yet moving vision of the Ramayan. Musical numbers choreographed to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw feature a cast of hundreds: flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs.
A tale of truth, justice and a woman's cry for equal treatment. Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told."
About the filmmaker:
Nina Paley (b. May 3, 1968, Champaign, Illinois, USA) is a longtime veteran of syndicated comic strips, creating Fluff (Universal Press Syndicate), The Hots (King Features), and her own alternative weekly Nina's Adventures. In 1998 she began making independent animated festival films, including the controversial yet popular environmental short, The Stork. In 2002 Nina followed her then-husband to Trivandrum, India, where she read her first Ramayan.
This inspired her first feature, Sita Sings the Blues, which she animated and produced single-handedly over the course of five years on a home computer.
Nina teaches at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan and is a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow.
This ad was based on the famous Leo the Lion - the mascot of the Hollywood film studio MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).
From the late 1970s, it should be one of the earliest animated commercials on Indian television.
One of those ads from early childhood that is still etched in my memory.
This reminds me of a story from my childhood:
The lion lost all his skills (I don't remember the reason why) and went to his aunt (the cat) to teach him.
Being a good maasi (maternal aunt), the cat taught the lion all that it needed to survive.
On regaining his skills, the lion turned arrogant. When the cat tried to make him understand the lion chased her with the intention of killing her.
The cat climbed up a tree, but the lion couldn't. Because the cat didn't teach the lion this one thing, intentionally. And the cat lived on to shed hair on my favourite chair.
Moral of the story: Knowledge is most powerful when others do not possess it.
Tata Sky Plus has released a new viral ad titled Ek Ruka Hua Faisla. But it has nothing to do with the intriguing 1986 movie, instead draws the cast and the dialogue from the 1993 dhai kilo ka film - Damini.
The weight of Govind's (Sunny Deol's character in the movie) arm is established right in the beginning. But the jhatkas of Indrajit Chadda's (Amrish Puri) hair/wig are missing. And Damini literally weeps buckets of tears. See for yourself:
While you are here, don't forget to visit this website - AdultDost.com (If you haven't already. Do not worry, it's totally safe for work. Though my boss got a scare when I first showed it to him in front of the whole office).
And Asin's new Tata Sky ads have already started airing. But they are meant for the southern India market. I've seen four ads and though I couldn't understand the language they seemed humourous. She was indeed a little over the top in the overrated Hindi Ghajini.
Most people I know are happy that Taare Zameen Par didn't make it to the Oscar nominations. They just couldn't take any more of Aamir Khan, and neither can I.
And the other day Yash Raj Films released full page ads in newspapers proclaiming that their latest film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is "the highest grossing film ever of Yash Raj Films". Do they seriously expect us to believe that a less than lukewarm production like Rab Ne... has actually bettered Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. No way!
Nowadays there seems to be a trend of inflating earnings and declaring movies hits even if people who actually go to watch the movie do not have many others in the theatre for company. Another trick to gain a little more mileage.
Slumdog Millionaire, another overrated movie, has actually done itself some serious harm by releasing so late in India (it's releasing even later in many countries). With the hype around the movie increasing, people who would have otherwise purchased tickets to go to the theatres are watching pirated copies. And since the ones leaked are DVD screeners, there are even more takers. It is already one of the most popular on the torrent network and other video sharing and online storage sites are already displaying millions of views/downloads. And people are gleefully passing it on.
I wonder why don't producers try for almost simultaneous releases?
Though I'm glad that AR Rahman got the Golden Globe, it is necessary to emphasise that Rahman's music in Slumdog... comes nowhere close to what he is capable of. Though the award is big, the music will stand small in his oeuvre.
My level of liking for Aamir Khan seems to be getting lower by the day. But this isn't what this post is about.
The funny guys at Webchutney have come up with a new viral for Oktatabyebye.com.
This esentially is a spoof on Ghajini and like everything about Aamir Khan has only Aamir in the ad (with the exception of the tattoo artist).
The disclaimer reads, "Before we forget, the character portrayed here is completely fictitious (and NOT a perfectionist). Resemblance to any real-life person(s) is purely accidental."
Aur bheriye ne memne se kaha, Mein tumhe kha jaoonga... Hhh... hhh...
Gale mein khich khich? Vicks lo Vicks mein cheh aushidi tatwa hain, Jo khich khich hataye. To jab bhi gale mein khich khich ho... Vicks lo.
Gale mein khich khich Gale mein khich khich Kya karun? Vicks ki goli lo Khich khich door karon...
To share/embed this video click here Download video [00:00:32 FLV 633 KB] Download hi-res video [00:00:32 AVI 4.13 MB] Download for mobile [00:00:32 3GP 728 KB] [From this post onwards I'll also try to include high resolution videos of the ads so that readers who need them for alternative purposes can have it a little easy]
We all who grew up in the 1980s and the 1990s would recall the ad and the tune, it ran for a good decade-and-a-half. I had learnt a new word, 'khich khich'. And my young mind questioned the term 'cough drops'. My argument was that drops were supposed to be liquid and this was a solid logenze.
This ad made Jayant Kripalani a household face. The little girl in the ad was Isshita Arun (or is it Ishita? The wonders of numerology) - singer Ila Arun's daughter.
And if you, like me, are wondering (I'm not very clued in) where is she now?
She has grown up (obviously) and is an actress and a television host (Some readers might easily recognise).
Jayant was paid only Rs 500 (don't know if Rs 500 could be classified as 'only' back in 1982) for the ad. But this led to his entry into the world of television (though he was already into advertising and documentary filmmaking) and he was later seen in Limca ads, TV serials Mr Ya Mrs (I don't recall that much), Khandaan (not much here too) and Ji Mantriji (the Indian take on Yes Minister). He also appeared in a number of films, the latest being Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na. Others were Trikaal and Rockford (saw them all).
As this too would make for a nice nostalgic ringtone. Here's the ringtone version.
Long long ago There was an empress An empress on the outside But a temptress on the inside "Make love, not war" Her bold conquests took place on the battlefield And off it Armed with glow-in-the-dark condoms With the goodness of brahmi and banana extracts She had crossed the deepest ravines of her kingdom Going where no woman had gone before And doing what no woman had done before Bravely attempting to create 92 new creative Kamasutra positions Alas, the sex machine came to a grinding halt Rani Bonkeshawri's dying wish? To be buried in the royal grave's ... men's section -- Kama Sutra For the pleasure of making love KS Smooth
It seems that some of the effort that I've put in this blog might just become redundant. There's a new website in town called Indibiz.tv that acts as an online storehouse for all those TVCs.
This is from their brochure:
Indibiz.tv is a 24/7 online video directory for brands. Targeted at the global Indian, Indibiz.tv may be the answer to zapped out television commercials.
The '24/7' adjective before 'online video directory,' may seem superfluous. The web is 24/7 (unless you have subscribed to the ISP I have). But then they are attempting to place themselves as complementary to TV. And against the seconds of airtime on TV, the '24/7' tag might have some appeal.
The site is in all in flash that takes a while to load and refresh. The interface is also not very user friendly. I tried opening the site in IE7 (Firefox is my default) and it just doesn't seem to work there.
Though this site is all about videos, text is also necessary for a more wholesome user experience. And using logos to identify the ads also don't help as different ads from the same brand have the same logo and I can't know which is which unless I play the video.
Nevertheless, they have a sizeable number of ads categorised under 24 different heads. But they still have a long way to go. Good idea though - No interruptive soaps, only commercials.
Sita is a Hindu goddess, the leading lady of India's epic the Ramayan and a dutiful wife who follows her husband Rama on a 14 year exile to a forest, only to be kidnapped by an evil king from Sri Lanka. Despite remaining faithful to her husband, Sita is put through many tests.
Nina Paley (b. May 3, 1968, Champaign, Illinois, USA) is a longtime veteran of syndicated comic strips, creating Fluff (Universal Press Syndicate), The Hots (King Features), and her own alternative weekly Nina's Adventures. In 1998 she began making independent animated festival films, including the controversial yet popular environmental short, The Stork. In 2002 Nina followed her then-husband to Trivandrum, India, where she read her first Ramayan.
Tata Sky Plus has released a new viral ad titled 
