MxMIndia

Category: HARD KNOCKS

Anil Thakraney’s view on adland, medialand and more

  • SRK and Salman must understand that movie-making is an art, a creative process, it's not the same as selling cars and underwear, writes Anil Thakraney

    Anil Thakraney: Khans are misusing their charisma

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    I haven’t watched Chennai Express although everyone I know seems to have. Now, after reading the sad reviews, I am not sure I want to blow up three hundred bucks (plus popcorn). However, trade reports indicate that the film grossed a hundred crore plus rupees on the opening weekend, which means the junta is hitting the halls in hordes. Clearly, it has to do with Shah Rukh’s appeal, which shows no signs of waning.

     

    It is the same story with all those crappy Salman Khan flicks. These two Khans (and Akshay Kumar, to an extent) get the crowds in on the strength of star power and aggro marketing, and the producers make a lot of money even if the script sucks. While good movies with not-so-famous actors fare miserably at the box-office. And even if word gets out that the Khan film is a disaster, it’s too late in this age of multiplexes, satellite rights and brand tie-ups, the money has already been pocketed. I blame the masses for this blind idol worship; they seem to be okay with the two Khans acting themselves in every single film, no matter what the character demands. It’s quite a unique situation, this does not happen anywhere else in the world. Clooney, Pitt and Depp don’t carry their persona into the films, they get into the skin of the character.

     

    All this basically means a whole lot of moolah gets pumped into rubbish. And many Bollywood financers would give two hoots, they are here only to do dhandha. The onus then is on the two Khans. They need to evolve, hone their acting skills, and only agree to perform if the script is super-exciting. And they don’t need to tax their brains too much, the role model lives in their own backyard: Aamir Khan. AK has found the correct balance between star appeal and story. Despite the fact that a film from him gets a huge initial draw, he rejects most of the scripts. While the other two Khans continue with their hit-and-run strategy (er, in Salman’s case, that takes an entirely new meaning!).

     

    Bottomline: If Bollywood wants the world to take it a bit more seriously, its biggest stars need to get their act together. SRK and Salman must understand that movie-making is an art, a creative process, it’s not the same as selling cars and underwear. Which the two anyway do in the ads.

     

    PS: A collection of outstanding print work. A reminder for lazy Indian creative directors that you can have fun with press ads, that life does not begin and end with the TV commercial.

     

    Link: http://www.creativebloq.com/inspiration/print-ads-1233780

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached via Twitter at @anilthakraney

     

  • While Anil Thakraney has taken a break from his writing (a well-deserved one, since he's been writing every day for nearly two years), he couldn't hold himself back from writing this one.

    Anil Thakraney: Rape: News channels get it all wrong

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    In a frantic attempt to come up with a new ‘angle’ on the gangrape incident, some television channels have taken off on a wild tangent. All the debates about ‘Two Mumbais’, ‘Clash of the Haves and the Have-nots’, ‘Influx of Migrants’, etc, have been keeping me quite amused. All bollocks.

     

    The problem in this case is clear: It was a plain and simple case of policing failure. And all these bizarre arguments are serving only one purpose: Get the cops off the hook. What happened inside the abandoned Shakti Mills compound is this: A few criminals got lucky. They had discovered a secluded adda to conduct their nefarious deeds, and had found it to be a cool pad to obtain free sex, read, rape women who happened to be passing by. Mirror’s headline, which revealed the exchange between the rapists, says it all: ‘Mehmaan aaye hain, khatirdari karne aaja.’ While only further investigations will (hopefully) reveal the truth, it’s clear that the gang had assaulted women before, perhaps on several occasions. And these unfortunate victims could have been ragpickers, maids, college students, couples looking for a private dating spot… just about anybody. Because the woman who reported the incident happens to come from the middle class does not mean the dregs of this city were out to fix the rich city girl. She just happened to be at the wrong spot, it could have been anyone in her place.

     

    Instead, the media pressure should be on the bumbling cops. While they have done a good job post the rape, one has to ask why they aren’t patrolling such desolate spots that are located right in the center of the city, why they aren’t evicting all the squatters from out of there?  Surely their khabris would know that Shakti Mills has been taken over by anti-social elements. And this has nothing to do with shortage of police staff. Try parking your car in a Lokhandwala or Bandra or Colaba lane at 11pm, with your partner sitting beside you, and within minutes a patrol team will arrive to kick you out of there. Even if you are only chatting. This tells me the cops find it great fun to harass the aam aadmi, but getting after drug addicts who are happily chilling in lonely places is too much of a bother. And perhaps boring.

     

    In short, all these crazy debates are only ensuring the cops don’t take responsibility for what is very clearly their fault.

     

  • in his new avatar as a cricket commentator, Manjrekar’s journey has been quite noisy, he has been getting a lot of attention, most of it negative, writes Anil Thakraney

    Anil Thakraney: Shredding Sanjay Manjrekar to bits and pieces

    Anil Thakraney

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Sanjay Manjrekar did not enjoy a very impressive career as a batsman, especially if you compare it with that of his colleague Sachin Tendulkar, who played alongside him. He promised a lot, in fact, in the early nineties. Manjrekar used to be called a ‘technically correct batsman’ by commentators at the time, but delivered a lot less. Before walking into the sunset, Manjrekar managed to play just 37 Test matches and 74 one-day games, registering a mediocre average score and strike rate. Basically he disappeared from international cricket without much noise.

    However, in his new avatar as a cricket commentator, Manjrekar’s journey has been quite noisy. He has been getting a lot of attention, most of it negative. The trolling on social media has been rabid, he has often been called a ‘panvati’ commentator, his coarse voice and poor command over English has been dissed, some of the abuse he regularly receives on Twitter is not even printable. Things got worse during the ongoing World Cup when he called all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja a ‘bits and pieces’ player, the cricketer hit back and termed it as Manjrekar’s ‘verbal diarrohea’, and of course all hell broke loose for Manjrekar.

    The question to be asked is this: Would the same abuse have come Tendulkar or Ganguly’s way if they had called someone a bits and pieces player? I suspect not, having been a low achiever in his own career, Manjrekar does not command much respect from cricket fans or current players. However, does this mean he cannot speak his mind while commentating, should he be expected to always say goody-goody things about current cricketers? Is he paid to be honest about his perceptions or to be politically correct at all times?

    Now, I am not a fan of Manjrekar’s commentary either, I also believe he is a bit of a hypocrite. Case in point, when ex English cricketer and current commentator Michael Vaughan made fun of Manjrekar’s ‘bits and pieces’ remark, Manjrekar promptly blocked him on Twitter. This proves while the man is ready to dish out criticism to others, he isn’t cool about some of it coming his own way.

    And yet I am a firm believer that he must be allowed to freely speak his mind on air and on social media, that’s his job. If a current cricketer doesn’t like what Manjrekar has to say about him, that cricketer should learn to take it on the chin or hit back hard, as indeed Jadeja did. If sports television networks and tournament organisers gag cricket commentators, it will take us back to the days of the boring, life-less radio commentary, when commentators only reported what was happening on the cricket field and not much else, that would be a really regressive step.

    Incidentally, during the current cricket World Cup, Michael Holding, the ex-West Indies bowler and now commentator, was furious with the International Cricket Council for asking him to cut down on the criticism of umpires. He reportedly said in his reply that, ‘Commentators are being more and more compromised by controlling organisations to the point of censorship’. This is indeed a sad development, it will not just render cricket commentary impotent, it demolishes the idea of freedom of expression.

    There is a general feeling this may have been Manjrekar’s final stint as a cricket commentator. If so, that would be terribly unfair. Sack him by all means if you believe he is a poor commentator, but don’t sack him for speaking his mind, that will set a disastrous precedent and strike terror into the hearts of other commentators, it will trigger the death of honest cricket commentary.

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. Our readers would remember that he was a regular columnist in the early days of MxMIndia. Thakraney will now write a little more frequently for MxM. Khabardaar!

     

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