Is Arjun coming round next time I drink some ginger ale?



"What did you expect?" A plot, maybe, not just some Raj-y styled mystical eastern carbonated wisdom? This reminds me of the cringingly bad bits of the song in Lagaan that I call "Memsaab's Love Theme" (properly, the English parts of "O Rey Chhori," sung by my beloved Vasundhara Das) gone horribly, horribly wrong (-er).

Comments

Anonymous said…
What a godawful ad! Why make such a bad ad with big stars and director? Waste of money.
May 11, 2009 5:47 PM
Thalia said…
There is something really, I almost want to say offensive about that. Oh, white lady, you are so special and white! We native children will adore you and lead you to mate with our men!

Maybe if the lady in question were someone less WHITE than Nicole Kidman, it wouldn't hit me that way.
May 11, 2009 6:46 PM
Anonymous said…
I think the little girl is Rubina Ali from Slumdog...
May 11, 2009 7:28 PM
JJC said…
the beginning looked so good and then the ending ..totally sucked.
May 11, 2009 8:16 PM
Unknown said…
Go ahead, Thalia say it. It IS offensive. AND a crap ad that makes no sense.
May 11, 2009 9:26 PM
Beth Loves Bollywood said…
anon - Agreed!

Thalia - That's pretty much what I thought too. It made me shudder all over. I really dislike Nicole Kidman anyway, but I don't think someone with better acting skills could have done anything more with this. The setup is ridiculous and offensive and stupid.

anon - Yep!

JJC - Yeah! At first I thought "Hmm, what's this?" and by the end just "Yech."

jensc00t - Huzzah!
May 11, 2009 9:50 PM
Anonymous said…
The background music is good and Rubina Ali is charming and beautiful as always. Otherwise agree stupid ad deserves a total 0. Thalia - very apt comment!
May 11, 2009 10:21 PM
Temple said…
As a white freckly Australian, I have to say I too found the role Nicole Kidman plays in this ad really offensive. Had she done something other than flounce around being almost bioluminescent white maybe it would not have been so bad - But there was no attempt to show the western woman as having any appreciation for or recognition of India or her lovely friends, it was just about her being adored. And I have no idea why anyone would be midway through tearing their own dress off and walking towards Arjun Rampal and stop for a fizzy drink. In a bathroom.
Just so stupid and annoying and offensive. I hope Arjun and Rubina made some serious money out of it.
May 12, 2009 3:07 AM
Beth Loves Bollywood said…
anon - Rubina is adorable :)

Temple - though I too am white and freckly, I think we could find her role offensive simply as humans. GAH. I am no fan of Arjun, but SRSLY?!?

It's almost enough to make me stop buying Schweppes ginger ale, to which I am thoroughly addicted.

Almost.
May 12, 2009 9:28 AM
Shellie said…
I don't have much else to add that wouldn't be redundant, except...

UGH! What a load of crap! I'm going to go watch a pepsi commercial now.
May 12, 2009 9:37 AM
memsaab said…
I hope by "Memsaab's Love Theme" you meant some OTHER Memsahib :-P

This is even worse than that Lagaan song, which I completely agree was the nadir of that film!...Ugh.
May 12, 2009 11:57 AM
Pessimisissimo said…
Mind-bogglingly bad. It tries to mock Orientalist cliches, but just winds up reinforcing them.
May 13, 2009 6:16 PM
Beth Loves Bollywood said…
shell - Say it anyway! Good idea re: palette cleanser. I should go watch Abhishek in the motorola ads.

memsaab - OF COURSE. Your theme is BRILLIANT! And yes, this is definitely worse than Lagaan's horrible musical moments.

Pessimisissimo - Glad to hear you say that - I too wondered if it was trying to be tongue-in-cheek - something, ANYTHING, other than as stupid as it was - but it was just so vague and silly that it could have succeeded at such a goal. Or any goal.

BLEH.
May 13, 2009 6:27 PM
Shweta Mehrotra Gahlawat said…
THAT was the ad that was so talked about?????????? omg! this is horrible.

btw- hema's inscribed cap is brilliant- ramp worthy!
May 14, 2009 1:24 AM
iz said…
But we're so proud! Imagine! Nicole Auntie in India! Almost as good as winning the Slumdog Oscars. Both times, we had really nothing to do with it!
May 14, 2009 1:07 PM
Impressionist said…
Shekar Kapur seem to have lost his touch. What an awful ad!!
May 17, 2009 2:25 AM
Daddy's Girl said…
Oh my gosh... absolutely appalling and ridiculous ad... what were they thinking?
May 17, 2009 12:07 PM
yves said…
Hi people,
Come off it! It's just an advert!! AND don't we all agree that Bollywood often stoops to that advert-like level?
Maybe I say that because I like Nicole Kidman (and Schweppes!), but...
love NEway
May 20, 2009 6:16 AM
desipolitan said…
It just didn't make sense to me. At the end of the ad when Nicole breaks the fourth wall - all I could think was "huh?".

The Lake Palace is a gorgeous setting. At least Shekhar Kapur got that right. But I could use more camera time for Arjun ... def thought that was lacking.
May 22, 2009 3:13 PM
c said…
@impressionist I have no idea how much role Shekhar Kapur had in this disaster of an ad... could be a bad script from the copywriter or a bad product brief by schweppes'
June 11, 2009 1:16 AM
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