By: Taproot India
The second film in the ‘I am Mumbai’ series by Mumbai Mirror depicts four wrongdoers of the city, based on real stories reported by the daily. All four, a molester, a doctor running a kidney transplant racquet, a woman running a sex trade and a corrupt civil contractor narrate their side of the story to the camera as the background score heats up. Toward the end, they are all holed up or chased away by cops, followed by a montage of common citizens mouthing the tagline. The film winds up with a police van roaring away and the copy, ‘Hated by some. Every morning. Thankfully.’
Do we Like?
In 2012, months after this magazine awarded Taproot’s Agnello Dias as Impact Person of the Year, hewent on to win the Best Direction award (Film Craft)at Cannes Lions. Dias, one-time creative partner of Josy Paul at JWT and now among the brightest minds of our industry, is creative director for this film too.
The Times Group’s compact newspaper, Mumbai Mirror, positions itself as an exclusive carrier of uncomfortable, hard-hitting reports and sits on the thin edge of substance and sensationalism every morning. Its first film, as stunningly shot as this one, raised the bar for media advertising by referencing its own stories;sordid reports of gory realities. Two years on, Mumbai is murkier and its Mirror is unabashedly filthier.
Taking the ‘unpleasantness’ further, this film digs up Mirror’s reports of eve-teasers, illegal kidney transplanters, sex traders and civil contractors who had to raise train platforms after its sustained campaign. The narrative is interspersed, unlike the first film, the background score by Ram Sampathinduces goosebumps, like the first film and the black-and-white treatment is retained too. It’s another win for film-makerAbhinayDeo of Delhi Belly fame and his ace editor HuzefaLokhandwala, kings of the underbelly genre.
The real ace, however, is the script. While the first film’s characters mouthed lines by real-life characters, this film’s villains throw punches at you right from the beginning. Their ‘so what’ attitude toward their heinous crimes provokes anger, disgust and eventually pride, as they’re holed up by the cops. The words spare nothing in trying to be real, and this might be the only ad in a long time to have used the ‘m’ cuss word twice!
The ‘hatred’ copy toward the end is more a sweet punch to those who despise the product’s behaviours but cannot ignore it. Mirror’s bravado comes from knowingthat its one million-ishreaders ‘can’t live with or without’ it, and the visual of a burning copy of the newspaperbreaks all rules of conventional advertising.
Mr Dias isn’t on the IPOY nominees this year. Thankfully.
To watch this film, look up youtube.com/MumMirroror
Social Newsfeed
Your regular dose on the shifts in the social media universe
Delhi cops use Whatsapp to peace out Trilokpuri
