Nevil Gibson
On my first visit to India in the early 1980s, the absence of western consumer goods was noticeable.
I imagine it is still advisable that foreign travellers restrict their beverages to boiled and bottled drinks.
In those days that meant drinking Campa Cola, the market leader in the 1970s and 1980s when foreign brands were banned.
India liberalised its economy in the 1990s, allowing Coca Cola and Pepsi to reclaim a market they had been excluded from for 15 years.
The Pure Drinks Group introduced Coca-Cola to India in 1949 and its Campa Cola brand kept the familiar bottle shape and logo. That made it easier for marketers when the “real thing” returned. But it meant the demise of the imitator and in 2001 its bottling plant and offices in Delhi were closed.
Campa Cola has a key role in ‘Photograph’ (distributed by Madman), a low-key romantic drama in which a shy street photographer, Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), attempts to woo Miloni (Sanya Malhotra), who asked him to take her picture at Mumbai’s Gateway of India.
Urban-Rural gap
The gap between the two is considerable, given India’s widely disparate class and social systems. She is city-bred, well-educated and about to travel to further her education. She has also started a modelling career.
By contrast, Rafi is from a village and has few skills apart from being able to develop instant pictures from his Nikon camera.
He is also well past the age when he should be married, though he is still in his early 30s. Under pressure, he sends home the picture of Miloni as his “girlfriend,” prompting his Nani (Farrukh Jaffar) to join him in Mumbai to speed up the marriage process.
She is plain-speaking, refreshing in an era of political correctness, and has firm views on race, religion, sex and the purpose of life.
Hindi films woo
Hindi-language films are noted for their accessibility for Kiwis and other non-Indian viewers, as half of the dialogue seems to be spoken in English. Like writer-director Ritesh Batra’s previous film, The Lunchbox (2013), Photograph is aimed at arthouse audiences in the West.
This distinguishes them from Bollywood-style features that make up the bulk of India’s output. But that is changing as co-productions, such as ‘Lion’ and ‘Hotel Mumbai’ from Australia, or the ‘Marigold Hotel’ series and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ from Britain, meet the demand for Indian content.
Recycling plots
American Darcy Paquet, who is a film school director in Busan, South Korea, made an interesting observation at a recent University of Auckland seminar.
He said that as most Asian audiences (as elsewhere) don’t like subtitles, it is rare for countries with unique languages to make films with other countries.
Instead, successful plots are recycled.
He named one popular Korean comedy, ‘Miss Granny’ (2014), as being remade in China, Japan and Indonesia with an American version in development.
Hollywood is aware that audiences lap up Indian themes, with Disney backing ‘Million Dollar Arm’ (2014) about a Cricketer who becomes a baseball star.
The Netflix NZ catalogue has several dozen titles that give an excellent introduction to Indian movies. For newcomers, I recommend these: gritty social issues (‘Ajji,’ ‘Beyond the Clouds,’ ‘Gandu’), teen comedy (‘Nasha’), adult romance (‘Aitraaz,’ ‘Beiimaan Love,’ ‘Lust Stories’), period drama (‘Rang Rasiya’), crime (‘Andhadhun,’ ‘Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena’) and sport biography (‘Dangal’).
From Pakistan: ‘Chalay Thay Sath’ (for the scenery) and ‘Pinky Memsaab,’ about migrant workers in Dubai.
Nevil Gibson is Editor-at-Large at The National Business Review based in Auckland. He has been a Judge of the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards since inception in 2008. The above article appeared in the ‘New Zealand Catholic.’ Indian Newslink Editor worked as a Correspondent/Contributor to NBR for eleven years from 1999 to 2010.
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Photo Caption:
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra in ‘Photograph’ (Picture Supplied)
- Adult Romance on Netflix: Sunny Leone in ‘Beiiman Love’ (Bollywood Hungama)
