STARS COME TO KERALA (IN UK)
London, Sept. 22: Some hated Kerala Tourisms new ad film with the message, Your moment is waiting. Others loved it.
The Telegraph fell into the first category. After the second and third screenings, though, it found itself tipping over into the latter category.
The ad is probably acquired taste and takes a while to sink in.
The three-minute film, directed by Prakash R. Varma, was shown last night at the spacious Saatchi Gallery, located in Kings Road in the heart of Londons fashionable Chelsea.
It takes Indian ad-making into unexplored territory and certainly divided opinion.
Varma, who grew up in Kerala but is now based on Bangalore, belongs to the younger generation of ad film-makers in India.
He was taken on by the Stark Group, the ad agency hired by Kerala Tourism to pitch the state in a radically different way to the west, especially to the UK which provides nearly a third of the 675,000 foreign tourists who come to Kerala every year.
We are seeing 10-15 per cent growth every year in foreign tourists, said M. Sivasankar, director of Kerala Tourism, who was one of those who worked out the concept of the ad film.
It would not be the usual kind of commercial film that highlights locations favoured by tourists.
The ad will be shown in cinemas across the UK wherever Eat Pray Love the movie, starring Julia Roberts and dealing partly with spirituality, was shot in India is released. An edited version of the ad will be shown on television.
After the UK, Kerala will be promoted across Europe.
Apart from its visual beauty, there is something about Kerala which touches the mind and heart, said Sivasankar.
The theme owes something to The Beatles Paul McCartney, who apparently said of Kerala that its truly Gods own country.
The task of converting this difficult concept into a short ad film was given to Varma, who decided he would not have a well known Bollywood face, such as Katrina Kaif, with whom he has worked before, to feature in the project. This is because he felt such a casting would have pushed Kerala into a supporting role.
Last night, Varma said he screen-tested many women but when he came across London-based model Miriam Ilorah, the daughter of a Nigerian father and a Swedish mother who happened to be on assignment in India, I said, This is it.
The film shows her caressing an elephant, and thrashing her hair in another scene as in the Kalpana Lajmi classic, Rudaali.
Sometimes in Kerala you get into a trance, said Varma.
In another carefully constructed composition, she is in the foreground with small boys in the background sitting on the spreading branches of an old tree.
It is certainly beautiful shot but what has any of this to do with Kerala, some might ask.
The film was shot over 11 days in locations at Thekkady, Munnar, Thalassery and Kannur but Varma insists he is not promoting tourist locations but the idea of Kerala. This is a raw, sensuous, spiritual film not just a good looking film, he said.
On the backwaters, a boat glides by with a woman, her face upturned to the sun. Another boat slides past with the same woman.
This mirror imaging is deliberate.
Sometimes, in the silence of the early morning, you can see into your in self, Varma explained.
Among those who expressed enthusiasm for the ad were the sons of daughters of Kerala, including Malayalam mega star Mohanlal (its a great film) and Shashi Tharoors sister, Smita (a brilliantly made film reflecting the true image of Kerala as a place full of surprises).
The British Asian actor, Jimi Mistry, was given the task of introducing the ad. Dev Patel, minus Freida Pinto and protected by a PR girl, came and went before anyone could ask, Wheres Freida?
But Dev issued a comment later: The film really touches your soul.
The event was successful in attracting the kind of non-Indian personalities who, by and large, dont frequent Indian functions in London.
There were some former and current footballers, for example Gary Linekar and Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, and their wives.
There was the well known English actor Bill Nighy, and the former Duran Duran band member Simon Le Bon with his ex-model wife, Yasmin.
Rolling Stone Mick Jaggers daughter, Jade, who has visited Kerala on several occasions in the past, described Kerala as very spiritual. It is a very special place in India.
The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Stars come to kerala (in uk)
