amitabh bachchan – Anshuman Rawat

ayurvedic-accumass-weight-gainer-in-india — Advertisement of an Ayurvedic Weight Gaining Product

A cursory study of health communication would reveal that when it comes to catching eyeballs, the catchy promotions of, for example, private label herbal supplements beat hollow the rather ritualistic promotions of healthcare initiatives by our government. While the difference in the target audience indeed contributes to the difference, the key, I’m afraid, remains the incentive for the campaigns.

It is very easy in our current world to get very passionate about a project that offers instant riches as a ready incentive. Given the demands of the modern life, there’s absolutely nothing acutely immoral in that, I guess.

fssai — A Food Safety in India Advertisement by FSSAI

Given the background, however, how does one attract the best talent for the production of public health communication campaigns – irrespective of the media platform?

Isn’t that an urgent issue in a country like India, where healthcare continues to be one of the biggest ‘enemies of the state’?

It wouldn’t be anyone’s argument that the mighty government bodies do not have funds to be able to afford an accomplished ‘mainstream’ talent. The operative word being ‘mainstream’, denoting not someone who caters to the lowest common denominator but a maker of communication campaigns that work with the widest possible range of the target audience.

For example, many might dislike a popular Hindi film actor but would still not only be exposed to his ‘messages’ – mostly commercial advertisements but also public policy or program endorsement – across mass media platforms.

And we do have a stirring example of that: Endorsement of the Government of India’s Pulse Polio program by Amitabh Bachchan, who, I believe, is the biggest star-actor in the history of Hindi cinema. During the run of the campaign, India reported an exhilarating decrease in the number of polio cases – from 741 cases in 2008, to 42 in 2010 and just one case of polio in 2011. The program was such a superlative success that it was acknowledged by UNICEF.

Another good current example of ‘mainstreaming’ of public health message is the ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ – a Government of India program about national sanitation. The campaign makes great use of a widely recognisable Hindi film actress Vidya Balan to stress home the urgent need to have toilets at home. In fact, it manages to be provocative enough to pass on the message – aimed largely at semi-urban and rural households – of sanitation being more important than socio-cultural rituals like women covering their face in front of elderly male in-laws of the family.

This is a great example of public health communication that pushes the envelope while, ostensibly, talking only of a single issue in an easy to understand language.

If you were to do a popular pole of public health communication campaigns that most people are aware of the Vidya Balan ‘build toilets’ campaign would feature well in a list that is still bound to be headed by Bachchan’s pulse polio program.

Simply because both the communications bring the campaign right to the dining table – via people who most would love to invite home for dinner.

But these are just two of the handful of successful public health communication by government agencies. The rest are either not produced well or not delivered well. In most cases, it is the combination of the two. Money, of course, is spent on them anyway.

As with any war, the idea of the government of the day should be to ‘choose the battles wisely’ and go all out with making the message as much part of the daily life of society as much possible, using as much recognisable messengers (not just film actors, of course) as possible, in as much understandable and repeatable manner as possible.

Neither being too clever (by being too ‘cutting edge’) nor being too arrogant (by ‘obliging’ the masses with stale messages) is going to work.

Film Review: SHAMITABH

Excerpt: Shamitabh is built upon a novel idea and gifted shoulders of its two principal actors. But soon after enamouring us with an electric start, it begins to overindulge, overreach and meander before eventually falling much short of its promise.

Review: [Spoiler Alert: Some details revealed in the description of basic plot]

A ‘mixture’ (word explained in the film) of an earnest facade and a hidden someone ruling – and fooling – the film industry is quite a tantalising premise. Unfortunately, the narrative doesn’t quite walk as well.

Shamitabh_actors Daanish (Dhanush) is a dumb (गूंगा) boy from rural Maharashtra, who was born to be a star. Lack of voice never hampered his dreams, till he finally reaches Mumbai. Hounded out by all studios, he meets a young, modern day assistant director Akshara (Akshara Haasan) who (for some reason) pours her life’s quota of compassion on Daanish – going even to the extent of taking Daanish to Finland to get him operated for his vocal chords.

As modern day European technology would have it, the Finnish voice experts enable Daanish to mouth out the voice of any person who is connected with him via a Bluetooth type of gadget! Once back in Mumbai, all that the duo needs is a good voice that can come out of Daanish’s mouth.

Enter old, dilapidated and angry Amitabh Sinha (well…), who lives in a graveyard after having failed in his attempt at making it big in the Hindi film industry. Together as (Daani)shAMITABH, the voice and the man hit gold at the box office. The purple patch gets shredded when the two can’t decide who has a bigger role to play in the success.

Clearly, real life possibilities are not the biggest concerns while putting together the basic idea. The whole point of the farcical writing seems to somehow make the idea happen – somehow, anyhow. And it begins with the very first step that the protagonist takes towards the idea.

And when the writer (R Balki) is also the director, it should barely be surprising that the film as a whole represents a meandering journey.

From the initial frame of reference, it seemed that the film could be about human spirit overcoming all odds. Later, it gives an impression that it is all about human ego coming in the way of acknowledging and accommodating human limitations. And then there are instances of it being a statement on Hindi film industry’s vacuous identity and productions, a linguistic political comment, comedy, satire and the all encompassing tribute to the maker’s favourite actor and his voice.

Eventually, it ends up being all of that together – or nothing in particular. Consequently, while you admire the premise and the attempt, you feel the film getting dragged, especially after the first hour.

Amitabh Bachchan is very good. He looks every bit his part. Remove him from the film and the film would lose, well, its raison d’être. But for how many more times would directors give him forced soliloquies – like the one he has with Mrs. Gomes in the film? Those are neither novel anymore nor add too much to films. At worst, today’s youth lose attention during such sequences.

Dhanush is extremely good and though the plot in the larger public imagination gets buried under the ‘Bachchan baritone’ conversations, the fact of the matter is that Dhanush matches Bachchan for most part. His pre-Mumbai sequences and the farcical first film visuals are a riot. He looks a complete natural and is an asset to the industry.

It is difficult to judge the acting abilities of Akshara from this film. Constrained within a rather implausible scenario, she more or less looks having been herself in the film.

Cinematographer P. C. Sreeram again looks in fine form. He lights up the various moods of the contrived narrative well and makes the film visually quite attractive. Editor Hemanti Sarkar shines with jump cuts and transitions.

This is Ilayaraja‘s 1000th film and he comes up with a score that goes well with the film. The songs might not be hummed for long but they – along with the background score – do the job expected of them. The title song and Pidley are two of the more noteworthy compositions.

Verdict: Shamitabh is quite different from a regular Hindi film. And for that reason (alone) you may want to watch it once.