Apr 26, 2003 04:33 PM
4422 Views
(Updated Apr 26, 2003 04:36 PM)
What is the similarity between Dhirubhai Ambani and Virendra Sehwag? Obviously, the fact that they both came from humble origins. Dhirubhai rose to prominence after being born to a village schoolteacher in Chorvad in Junagadh. Virendra Sehwag, has not exactly scaled the peaks of success but his rise to semi-superstardom from the bylanes of Najafgarh has been equally remarkable. I am trying to draw a parallel between the two for one very obvious reason – Virendra Sehwag has modeled for Reliance India Mobile. It is a hypothesis but one which stands on solid ground. I feel that while deciding the model of the Reliance India Mobile, the entire team behind the campaign must have taken a very hard look at Sehwag’s bio data, and may have selected him on the basis of his similarity with the founder of the Reliance Group of Industries.
Now coming to the commercial. The very basis of popular, commercial art is its ability to strike an empathetic cord with its audience. In this particular commercial, we have all the ingredients that make (or should I say once made) for a successful Hindi film – nation, mother, a fight-to-the-finish, and an innocent child.
The commercial is visually located in a one-day match. India needs six runs to win of the last two balls, a la Lagaan. Virendra Sehwag is on strike against a bowler who resembles the exiled Zimbabwean bowler, Henry Olonga. Sehwag misses the penultimate delivery. There is a huge sigh from amongst the spectators, particularly a man and a young kid. Who the guy is we never discover. Ditto for the kid. Suddenly, Sehwag’s mobile that is with the duo (Why? Confounds me to date) rings. His mother is on line. The man says, “Sehwag ki ma. Later,” and tries disconnecting the phone. The young boy grabs the mobile set from his hands and beats all the security guards to reach Sehwag in the middle. Sehwag gets to read his mother’s message (It was a call, wonder how it got transformed into a SMS?) – “Kar lo Duniya Muthi Mein.” Blessed by his mother, Sehwag smashes the final delivery for a huge six and is given a hero’s treatment by the spectators.
I really do not know how many mobile phones the company managed to sell courtesy the commercial, but one thing is for sure - it has made a celebrity out of Sehwag’s mother. During the world cup, there was so much on her – Sehwag’s mother in newspapers, Sehwag’s mother sending best wishes to Kaif, so on and so forth.
We Indians do appreciate sentimentality, but these days we take it in controlled doses. Any excess in the same is instantly rejected by us. I believe that is what happened to the ‘Sehwag ki ma’ commercial. The amount of sentiment dished out by the creative team of the television commercial was far in excess to what we expected. Hence, instead of making us melt, it has most of us chuckling.
Everything about the commercial seemed artificial and contrived – the fact that Sehwag’s mother calls up not before the match but just as the bowler was marking his run up to deliver the final ball of the match in a do or die situation, was ridiculous; the manner in which the young boy says “No” and then rushes to hand over the mobile phone to Sehwag was straight out of a B-grade masala movie; and to top it all, Sehwag on the shoulders of his fans appeared bloated and comical. Sorry guys, but this commercial left me cold.
Dear Sehwag, you usually hit a lot of sixes, but this time, you were caught at long on.
