After sartorial fashions, we were subjected to a different kind of fashion. It was not associated with clothes, but with physical appearance. People were subjected to the magazines ads of bullworker where skinny 95 pound kids were shown getting transformed into a clone of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 14 days, else your money back. And at Rs 273/- for one bullworker set ( including VPP charges), it was lots of money those days.
But I do not think bullworker ever refunded any money. In case someone asked for their money back, they would point out fine print which the user did not follow which prevented them from bulking up, hence no refunding the amount.
Then there were ads to increase one's height. Lesser the price of the product, higher the result promised. For instance, for Rs 85/-, you could increase your height by 15 cm, where as Rs 300/- for another product increased your height only by 5 cms. Ads showed the heights of the leading film actors- Amitabbh Bachchan 188 cms, Vinod Khanna 185 cms and Dharmendra as 185 cms. Now I agree to the heights of Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna, but I cannot accept that Dharmendra was 185 cm. He looked much shorter than Vinod Khanna in the movies in which they acted together.
I wonder what has happened to those height increasing ads now a days? Instead of the average height of the leading heroes increasing, now a days, we have the leading heroes half a foot shorter than the heroes of 1970s.
Now a days those ad givers have a much easier job, if they decide to mention the height of the leading heroes of today- something like Aamir Khan 167 cm, SRK 168 cm, salman Khan 166.37 cm, etc. But considering that most leading ladies are taller than the leading heroes, there may not be too many takers for these ads now a days, what with even Rajpal Yadav becoming a celebrity that would make Mukri green with envy.
These days, we have teleshop marketing on TV, in which foreigners tell us, in dubbed Hindi, how they were losers in their lives and how buying the teleshop product made them winners.
I think I have digressed a great deal. It was like going from Bombay to Goa and landing at Kashmir. There was actually a bollywood movie in which it happens.
What I wanted to say was that all these improve your height or get bulky ads required you to sweat out a lot, in addition to parting with your hard earned money. And we Indians being the way we are, we want things for free without sweating it out in the process, and we want results instantly. And "martial arts" offered exactly that. It promised people that they need not improve their height or physique, but they could still thrash big built people by making use of martial arts.
Mainstream audience would not go for "English movies", unless it promised some eye candy. And in case of desi movies, they would keep away from "art" movie. So it was a big paradigm shift for people when they began to throng for movies that were in "English" and moreover they were called art movies- viz "Martial art" movies.
It was the first time in India when tickets of a non desi movie were actually sold on black even in smaller cities, like the one where I was growing up in those days. These movies, called "Enter the dragon", followed by "Return of the dragon" had a skinny hero called Bruce Lee, who was regarded as the best martial art expert in the world. Of course, he was already dead by that time, and that helped add to his legend. Indians could for the first time identify themselves with a hero who was of similar built as compared to most movie goers, and that must have enabled the audience to feel a rapport with him, which they never felt with big built Western actors. Chinky looks suddenly became fashionable.
And believe it or not, people who earlier used to adopt boxing pose while in a street brawl, began to adopt "martial arts" pose while fghting. And in absence of background "dishum dhishum" noise, they would make this noise themselves, accompanied by the yelling, which every self respecting martial artist was required to use as part of his arsenal. No, I am not making this up. I have actually seen people fight in a "martial art" or in more simple terms- "judo Karate" method.
Bollywood too tried to jump into the bandwagon. The resident chinky Danny was roped into a few movies. One new chinky looking actor, Ardhendu Bose, who also had the formidable credentials of being the nephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, was signed in a movie. But all these ventures failed.
There was a vacuum in Bollywood movies.Bollywood badly needed a desi Bruce Lee.
In came Mithun da. He proved a package deal. Front stallers could readily identify with him as he looked like one of their own. And he was supposedly trained in martial arts, and looked more convincing in fight scenes than say Rajesh Khanna, Sanjeev Kumar and Dev Saab. And that was enough of a credential for Mithun da to become public's desi Bruce Lee.
In addition, Mithun Da, in between his fights, would also dance ( pronounced as "dense" by him) gyrating around his pelvis. So he got the additional sobriquet of desi John Travolta as well.
Not content with that, his film makers would cast him as top secret agent too. His designation with the word "TOP SECRET AGENT" would be written in big bold letters on his car. In short, Mithun da was Bruce Lee, John Travolta and James Bond, all rolled into one. What more do you want ? His fans simply loved him. The less charitable fans and critics called him poor man's Amitabh Bachchan.
So that sums up my discussion for the day. I will be back for more, obviously.
Read more on this article...
Showing posts with label India in the past decades. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India in the past decades. Show all posts
Friday, August 22, 2008
Mad ads and fads in India in 1960s and 70s- part I
When I was a young kid a few years old in mid to late 1960s, I noticed that "twist" was a craze among the happening crowd. People would wear tight pants and swivel over the front of their left toe, as if crushing a cigarette butt with their toes, their hands hanging behind their back. This was how one twisted. Bollywood movies those days had a dance scene showing a twist, which was like an item song. One popular "twist" song sung by Manna Dey was "aao twist karen".
People, both men and women, at least in movies, wore very tight dresses. Just look at the Salwar Kurta that bollywood actresses wore those days. To this day I have not yet understood how they managed to get inside such dresses, and once inside, how did the blood circulation fare in their bodies. My admiration for actresses like Mumtaz goes sky high, when I see her dancing and singing with abandon in such tight outfits, and even seen enjoying them.
And as "Om Shanti Om" has shown, the fashion for women those days consisted of hairdo that now appears like Khosla ka ghosla. The women in their 20s looked like Behenjis. Look at Vijayanti Mala in 1950s or Hema Malini in 1970s, for instance.
Just as 1960s was giving way to 1970s, Hippy craze hit India, and the person who capitalised on it was Dev Anand, with his "Hare Rama Hare Krishna". People would keep long hairs and that was called hippy cut.
On the other end of the spectrum was Rajesh Khanna. Though his pants were tight, he would wear Kurta ( or shirt that looked like Kurta to me), and would remain untucked. It was called Baba kurta, I have no idea why this name was given to this dress. But he was the superstar, and his mannerisms and dress had millions of adherents.
When Rajesh Khanna was upstaged by Amitabh Bachchan, we suddenly saw the hair style of people changing. Everyone would instruct the barber to cut his hair in Amitabh style, even though Mukri style may have suited them better. When emergency came, Hippy style (mentioned earlier) became untenable. One of the emergency excesses was on Hippy cut hairs. policemen would round up hippy cut youths and have their hair cut short. I feel that their orders must have been to round up eve teasers, and they decided that eve teasers were those who wore hippy cut, so all people with hippy cut hairs had to pay the price.
Not just fans, even other leading actors like Shashi Kapoor etc started sporting Amitabh Bachchan's hair style. In case Amitabh Bachchan had to be shown growing up as a child, that child too would sport the same Amitabh Bachchan hairstyle- for instance, look at Muqaddar ka Sikandar, where master Mayur, playing young Amitabh has the same hairstyle. I suggest that we should make a movie with Amitabh in lead role called Muqaddar ke Sikandar ka Shahanshah, and in this the kid playing childhood role of Amitabh should sport the same hair style, and in addition, he should sport a while goatee as well, lest viewer are left in any doubt.
There were people, especially in small towns ( farmaish sending towns), who would model themselves on their favourite actors. Filmy magazines often published pictures of people who resembled their idols the most. I recall a filmy magazine publishing the picture of such people, and that included one "Gondia ka Amitabh"
Stars and super stars were not the only ones who had fan following. Small budget movies,e.g. Rajshri Production movies, or those made by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Bhattachharya, Basu Chatterji ( frankly I cannot tell one Basu from the other) had their own following. Amol Palekar, who played the roles of friendly next door neighbourhood youngster, was forever getting outsmarted by a street smart Asrani (Bhondu is the Hindi word that comes to my mind), like in the cartoon serial road runner show. These movies tended to have nice music and it was this which may have saved the day for these movies.
Bell bottoms also came into vogue those days. Look at the movies, and one can find actors and actresses looking ridiculous ( with hindsight), but I, who call this ridiculous now, too wore bellbottoms those days. And naturally I too looked just as ridiculous.
The fashion of bell bottoms which raged like wildfire vanished one fine day, and people no longer wanted to be seen wearing them. What is this fashion, where people suddenly start avoiding to wear that they wore proudly till the other day ? It can only be herd mentality, I am sure.
Fashion for narrow pants was there for a couple of years and then a milder form of bell bottom threatenred to make a comeback, and it did for some time.
And during those days, some other types of fashion were also emerging that would soon take the nation by storm.
Read more on this article...
People, both men and women, at least in movies, wore very tight dresses. Just look at the Salwar Kurta that bollywood actresses wore those days. To this day I have not yet understood how they managed to get inside such dresses, and once inside, how did the blood circulation fare in their bodies. My admiration for actresses like Mumtaz goes sky high, when I see her dancing and singing with abandon in such tight outfits, and even seen enjoying them.
And as "Om Shanti Om" has shown, the fashion for women those days consisted of hairdo that now appears like Khosla ka ghosla. The women in their 20s looked like Behenjis. Look at Vijayanti Mala in 1950s or Hema Malini in 1970s, for instance.
Just as 1960s was giving way to 1970s, Hippy craze hit India, and the person who capitalised on it was Dev Anand, with his "Hare Rama Hare Krishna". People would keep long hairs and that was called hippy cut.
On the other end of the spectrum was Rajesh Khanna. Though his pants were tight, he would wear Kurta ( or shirt that looked like Kurta to me), and would remain untucked. It was called Baba kurta, I have no idea why this name was given to this dress. But he was the superstar, and his mannerisms and dress had millions of adherents.
When Rajesh Khanna was upstaged by Amitabh Bachchan, we suddenly saw the hair style of people changing. Everyone would instruct the barber to cut his hair in Amitabh style, even though Mukri style may have suited them better. When emergency came, Hippy style (mentioned earlier) became untenable. One of the emergency excesses was on Hippy cut hairs. policemen would round up hippy cut youths and have their hair cut short. I feel that their orders must have been to round up eve teasers, and they decided that eve teasers were those who wore hippy cut, so all people with hippy cut hairs had to pay the price.
Not just fans, even other leading actors like Shashi Kapoor etc started sporting Amitabh Bachchan's hair style. In case Amitabh Bachchan had to be shown growing up as a child, that child too would sport the same Amitabh Bachchan hairstyle- for instance, look at Muqaddar ka Sikandar, where master Mayur, playing young Amitabh has the same hairstyle. I suggest that we should make a movie with Amitabh in lead role called Muqaddar ke Sikandar ka Shahanshah, and in this the kid playing childhood role of Amitabh should sport the same hair style, and in addition, he should sport a while goatee as well, lest viewer are left in any doubt.
There were people, especially in small towns ( farmaish sending towns), who would model themselves on their favourite actors. Filmy magazines often published pictures of people who resembled their idols the most. I recall a filmy magazine publishing the picture of such people, and that included one "Gondia ka Amitabh"
Stars and super stars were not the only ones who had fan following. Small budget movies,e.g. Rajshri Production movies, or those made by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Bhattachharya, Basu Chatterji ( frankly I cannot tell one Basu from the other) had their own following. Amol Palekar, who played the roles of friendly next door neighbourhood youngster, was forever getting outsmarted by a street smart Asrani (Bhondu is the Hindi word that comes to my mind), like in the cartoon serial road runner show. These movies tended to have nice music and it was this which may have saved the day for these movies.
Bell bottoms also came into vogue those days. Look at the movies, and one can find actors and actresses looking ridiculous ( with hindsight), but I, who call this ridiculous now, too wore bellbottoms those days. And naturally I too looked just as ridiculous.
The fashion of bell bottoms which raged like wildfire vanished one fine day, and people no longer wanted to be seen wearing them. What is this fashion, where people suddenly start avoiding to wear that they wore proudly till the other day ? It can only be herd mentality, I am sure.
Fashion for narrow pants was there for a couple of years and then a milder form of bell bottom threatenred to make a comeback, and it did for some time.
And during those days, some other types of fashion were also emerging that would soon take the nation by storm.
Read more on this article...
Friday, July 11, 2008
Garibi Hatao (Remove poverty)
Twentyfive years into independence, the initial euphoria of gaining independence was wearing off. The ruling Congress party was facing threats from other parties. The party needed a new plank to rally its workers.
Mrs Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister, came up with the slogan- "Garibi Hatao"( Remove Poverty).
The instructions were cyclostyled ( cyclostyling was the grandpa of photostating or Xeroxing) and sent to all ministeries.
Finance minister looked at the instruction and thought- "I will do a Robinhood and snatch money from the rich and distribute them to the poor." So, privy purse of rulers who had agreed to merge their territories into Indian union were abolished, dishounouring the agreement that Government of India had entered with them 20 years ago. The 14 biggest private sector banks were nationalised.
Health Minister received the instruction. The cyclostyled copy was not very clear and he could make out the words as " Garib Hatao" ( Remove poor). So he gave the instructions that Garibs should be hataoed. His minions tried to do it through various means- forced sterialisations, uprooting slums,depriving them of healthcare etc., but the efforts were only partially successful.
Railway minister looked at the instruction and ordered the Chairman, Railway Board-" Look, we have to Remove Poverty. Make sure that no poverty is seen in Indian Railways trains".
The chairman thought and hit upon an idea. Suddenly it was found that there was no poverty in the trains of Indian Railways. No one was travelling in third class any longer.Everyone travelled second class and above.
Everyone was mightily impressed, except me. I was sceptical. I tried to investigate the matter. I wanted to travel by third class, but I could not because there were no third class coaches to be found on any trains.
I asked a railway employee- "Where can I find a third class coach?".
"There are no third class coaches left" was the reply.
"But why?"
"We were asked to withdraw all third class coaches from service."
"Then what happened to those who travelled by third class ?"
"They now travel by second class."
"What happened to third class coaches?"
"Withdrawn from service".
"Where are they kept".
"No comment".
"How did you get so many additional second class coaches to cater to the erstwhile third class travellers?"
"No comment".
I looked this way and that,found that the coast was clear and slipped a one rupee note into the palm of the Railway employee. Looking at the note, he suddenly turned friendly and took me to a corner.
" I am telling this to you in strict confidence. Make sure that this stays between you and me."
"Yes, sure ,sure", I assured him.
" We have withdrawn third class coaches and we have replaced them by same numer of second class coaches".
"But where are the withdrawn third class coaches?How did you get so many additional second class coaches so fast".
"You are more intelligent than your age suggests," he remarked," A Railway dibba is not like a Machis ka dibba that you can buy 12 of them for five paise. Each new coach costs several lakhs of Rupees and only 600 of them can be manufactured per year. Here we are talking of replacing thirty thousand coaches.".
"So what did you do?"
" We converted the third class coaches into second class coaches."
"You did that? Good idea. That would certainly be cheaper than scrapping third class coaches and manufacturing second class coaches. How much did it cost you to convert them?"
" Make your guess, I will allow you four guesses"
" umm Rs one thousands per coach?"
"No",
"Rs two thousands?",
"No".
Rs three thousands?",
" No,"
"Rs five thosands?",
"No".
Exasperated, I asked, "O.K, now tell me how much it cost you to convert one third class coach into a second class coach?" "OK, kid, I will tell you, it cost two rupees".
"Two rupees" I was aghast,"are you sure?"
"Yes, I am sure".
"But how?"
He took me to a second class coach.
"see, this is a second class coach".
" Yes, I see".
"Now go inside".
I went inside and exclaimed, " but this is a third class coach".
" No it is a second class coach".
"What is the difference between this and the old third class coaches?"
"Look", he showed me the marking outside the coach," Earlier there used to be III painted over the coach to indicate that it is a third class coach. Now we have erased I to make it II. So now it is a second class coach."
Is that all?"
" Yes, that is all the difference between erstwhile third class and the modified second class coaches".
" So you are taking the public for a ride, calling this a second class coach."
"Do not feel bad, lad, the ticket for these coaches is same as that for the erstwhile third class coaches. To differentiate these from the existing second class coaches, we call these new coaches unreserved second class coaches. The existing second class coaches are called reserved second class coaches. Everyone, the public, the Railway employees, the Government- is happy with the arrangement. So cheer up, boy."
So,I learnt that there could be more than one method of Hataoing Garibi. Later, I found that this kind of thinking is called "lateral thinking" or "thinking out of the box."
P.S.
In Calcutta, the top brass of Hindustan Motors were called for a meeting. Sethji said-" Look, we have been selling our Ambassador car for last 15 years at a fixed price. Now we have to increase the price."
Munimji- " But how can we increase the price?"
Sethji-" By telling people that we have improved the car."
Munimji-"But improving the car will cost money."
Sethji-" Do not be silly."
Munimji- " Then what do we do?"
Sethji- "Simple, our existing model is called Ambassador mark I. Let us add another I to it. Let us start calling it Ambassador Mark II and tell the public that we have upgraded the car involving considerable Research & Development at great cost."
That is how Hindustan Motors hit upon the idea of upgrading their car by just changing the numeral by I. They took their cue from Indian Railways. Indian Railways removed I to show progress. Hindustan Motors added I to show progress. It was that simple. Read more on this article...
Mrs Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister, came up with the slogan- "Garibi Hatao"( Remove Poverty).
The instructions were cyclostyled ( cyclostyling was the grandpa of photostating or Xeroxing) and sent to all ministeries.
Finance minister looked at the instruction and thought- "I will do a Robinhood and snatch money from the rich and distribute them to the poor." So, privy purse of rulers who had agreed to merge their territories into Indian union were abolished, dishounouring the agreement that Government of India had entered with them 20 years ago. The 14 biggest private sector banks were nationalised.
Health Minister received the instruction. The cyclostyled copy was not very clear and he could make out the words as " Garib Hatao" ( Remove poor). So he gave the instructions that Garibs should be hataoed. His minions tried to do it through various means- forced sterialisations, uprooting slums,depriving them of healthcare etc., but the efforts were only partially successful.
Railway minister looked at the instruction and ordered the Chairman, Railway Board-" Look, we have to Remove Poverty. Make sure that no poverty is seen in Indian Railways trains".
The chairman thought and hit upon an idea. Suddenly it was found that there was no poverty in the trains of Indian Railways. No one was travelling in third class any longer.Everyone travelled second class and above.
Everyone was mightily impressed, except me. I was sceptical. I tried to investigate the matter. I wanted to travel by third class, but I could not because there were no third class coaches to be found on any trains.
I asked a railway employee- "Where can I find a third class coach?".
"There are no third class coaches left" was the reply.
"But why?"
"We were asked to withdraw all third class coaches from service."
"Then what happened to those who travelled by third class ?"
"They now travel by second class."
"What happened to third class coaches?"
"Withdrawn from service".
"Where are they kept".
"No comment".
"How did you get so many additional second class coaches to cater to the erstwhile third class travellers?"
"No comment".
I looked this way and that,found that the coast was clear and slipped a one rupee note into the palm of the Railway employee. Looking at the note, he suddenly turned friendly and took me to a corner.
" I am telling this to you in strict confidence. Make sure that this stays between you and me."
"Yes, sure ,sure", I assured him.
" We have withdrawn third class coaches and we have replaced them by same numer of second class coaches".
"But where are the withdrawn third class coaches?How did you get so many additional second class coaches so fast".
"You are more intelligent than your age suggests," he remarked," A Railway dibba is not like a Machis ka dibba that you can buy 12 of them for five paise. Each new coach costs several lakhs of Rupees and only 600 of them can be manufactured per year. Here we are talking of replacing thirty thousand coaches.".
"So what did you do?"
" We converted the third class coaches into second class coaches."
"You did that? Good idea. That would certainly be cheaper than scrapping third class coaches and manufacturing second class coaches. How much did it cost you to convert them?"
" Make your guess, I will allow you four guesses"
" umm Rs one thousands per coach?"
"No",
"Rs two thousands?",
"No".
Rs three thousands?",
" No,"
"Rs five thosands?",
"No".
Exasperated, I asked, "O.K, now tell me how much it cost you to convert one third class coach into a second class coach?" "OK, kid, I will tell you, it cost two rupees".
"Two rupees" I was aghast,"are you sure?"
"Yes, I am sure".
"But how?"
He took me to a second class coach.
"see, this is a second class coach".
" Yes, I see".
"Now go inside".
I went inside and exclaimed, " but this is a third class coach".
" No it is a second class coach".
"What is the difference between this and the old third class coaches?"
"Look", he showed me the marking outside the coach," Earlier there used to be III painted over the coach to indicate that it is a third class coach. Now we have erased I to make it II. So now it is a second class coach."
Is that all?"
" Yes, that is all the difference between erstwhile third class and the modified second class coaches".
" So you are taking the public for a ride, calling this a second class coach."
"Do not feel bad, lad, the ticket for these coaches is same as that for the erstwhile third class coaches. To differentiate these from the existing second class coaches, we call these new coaches unreserved second class coaches. The existing second class coaches are called reserved second class coaches. Everyone, the public, the Railway employees, the Government- is happy with the arrangement. So cheer up, boy."
So,I learnt that there could be more than one method of Hataoing Garibi. Later, I found that this kind of thinking is called "lateral thinking" or "thinking out of the box."
P.S.
In Calcutta, the top brass of Hindustan Motors were called for a meeting. Sethji said-" Look, we have been selling our Ambassador car for last 15 years at a fixed price. Now we have to increase the price."
Munimji- " But how can we increase the price?"
Sethji-" By telling people that we have improved the car."
Munimji-"But improving the car will cost money."
Sethji-" Do not be silly."
Munimji- " Then what do we do?"
Sethji- "Simple, our existing model is called Ambassador mark I. Let us add another I to it. Let us start calling it Ambassador Mark II and tell the public that we have upgraded the car involving considerable Research & Development at great cost."
That is how Hindustan Motors hit upon the idea of upgrading their car by just changing the numeral by I. They took their cue from Indian Railways. Indian Railways removed I to show progress. Hindustan Motors added I to show progress. It was that simple. Read more on this article...
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