Jai Ho for Slumdog Millionaire at the Oscars

“It felt like an Indian movie awards function”
-Anil Kapoor

And why not?! Slumdog Millionaire – a movie that has an almost all-Indian cast and crew swept 8 awards of its 10 nominations at the Oscar night. It was a moment of pride for every Indian to see Rahman and Resul Pookutty walk the stage to receive their awards. It was heartwarming when Anil Kapoor, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto and the amazing child artists were up on the stage to accept the Best Picture Award, along with Danny Boyle. It was a night that belonged to Indian talent.

Yet the Indian audience’s opinion on Slumdog’s success is divided. While to many it’s a masterpiece, many others found the film to be nothing more than a feel-good movie. Though Slumdog tries to depict the morbid and dark side of life existing in India, yet its underlying theme of “from rags to riches” brings in an element of fantasy to the plot.
On the other hand, some opine, that there are many Indian films which are far better in their depiction of real India than the much praised Slumdog Millionaire.

For instance Parzania, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, A Wednesday – all present to you a slice of life from today’s India. Another film worth mentioning is Barah Aana, which I was lucky enough to watch at the Pune International Film Festival.

Barah Aana is a comedy of real life, set in today’s Mumbai. The story revolves around three unlikely friends - a driver (Naseeruddin Shah), a watchman (Vijay Raaz), and a waiter (Arjun Mathur) – who are pushed to their moral edge by the overwhelming inequality which they face every day, be it social or economic.

A gripping plot, dark comedy, high production values and great performances mark this 97 minutes flick. Naseeruddin Shah is a treat to watch. He doesn't speak through most of the movie, yet his presence fills up the screen. He conveys so much with his eyes and the way he moves. It's a subtle but powerful performance. And when he does speak, what a moment it creates! It’s perhaps one of his best performances ever. Though the film is yet to release in India, you can know more about the movie at http://barah-aana-the-film.blogspot.com/

Already Barah Aana has received a favourable response from the audience and the film critics at the Film Festivals. I only hope that on releasing too, it gets the same if not better accolades and reviews as Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a great year to celebrate talent; starting with AR Rahman and continuing to veterans like Naseerudin Shah for Barah Aana….Amen!

The viral power of Facebook

Facebook has done it again this time with pink chaddi campaign. The attack on girls in Mangalore pub led many bloggers to write against Ram Sene. First it was started as a blog by Nisha Susan, a journalist with tehelka. The idea was to send some ‘love’ to Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik, in the form of pink underwear. The campaign was then extended as a Facebook group. Later on many journalists and online campaigners joined the group and over 39,000 people responded. “The kind of mobilisation we got from our blog and Facebook group wouldn’t have come about if we had staged a dharna,” says Isha Manchanda, Susan’s colleague and campaign officer.

Facebook has created good buzz to mobilise public interests campaign at short notice. Marketers now have realized the power of various internet tools that can generate buzz about the product. The viral marketing is on the roll as it is easier and quicker to generate buzz. The Mumbai campaign and this recent pink chaddi campaign show that cyber activism can make noise on streets and kick up some real dirt as well.

The Twitter Revolution

Social messaging has taken a whole new form with the advent of the Twitter revolution. The most recent and popular examples of how effective Twitter has been can be seen in the twitter activity for Obama’s Presidential Campaign and the Mumbai terror attacks.

As LA Times reported – “During the attacks, users from around the world posted tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of short notes, updates, musings and links to the latest information on Mumbai — many, if not most, of the facts coming from mainstream news outlets.”

Another interesting story is how James Karl, a student , ‘twittered’ his way out of Egyptian Jail. He was arrested while covering an anti government protest. A one word twitter update sent by him got his friends alerted and eventually led to his rescue.

The fastest and simplest way to connect with an audience, Twitter has grown from being just a social messaging tool to a powerful business tool.

Online shoe retailer Zappos has experienced how Twitter has been helpful in the brand building process for the company. To quote Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos – “I've talked a lot in the past about how we've used Twitter at Zappos for building more personal connections with both our employees and our customers. In fact, we recently debuted on FORTUNE MAGAZINE's annual "100 BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR" list, and they began and ended the article talking about our use of Twitter to build more personal connections with people. That in itself is its own reward that has both personal and business benefits.”

The concept of ‘twittering’ has been criticised by many but maybe following certain rules will help in using Twitter to your advantage. Here are some tips from pearlanalytics on how Twitter can be used as a viable marketing tool –

1.Post something useful. You see a lot of people tweeting play-by-plays of what they had for lunch. Quite frankly, no one really cares, and you are simply clogging up my timeline. Tweet a link to an interesting article you found, or a poll question, a new blog posting, or in my case, I like to tweet Website Analyzer scores that were recently run.
2. Don’t spam people. Twitter’s version of spam is you going out and following a bunch of people you don’t know for any reason, and hoping they will follow you back. Your followers will should grow organically. There is nothing wrong with following people with similar interests, but let them know how you found them.
3. Update moderately, but consistently. I think of Tweeting like blogging. You wouldn’t fill up your blog with hundreds of meaningless posts, right? Don’t over-tweet, but don’t under-tweet either. 5-10 tweets per day seems like a good number, and if you are posting meaningful stuff people care about, that is probably a tough goal.
4. Don’t use Twitter to chat. Some get confused between Twitter and chat. Don’t have a one-on-one conversation with your buddy - no one will know what you are talking about, so the more of that you do, the less they will pay attention to your tweets, and will likely “un-follow” you.

So, if you haven’t joined the Twitter bandwagon yet, you might be missing something.