Posting about posters

One of the things I noticed in India when I came here briefly in 2002 was the posters advertising films. They are almost exclusively devoted to the locally made films, the Indian film industry is more prolific than any other, and they are absolutely everywhere. You can barely drive two minutes in the countryside without seeing at least one poster on someone's wall and I doubt I have ever been in any town or city here where I couldn't see a movie poster at all times.
Indian public advertising in general leaves is Australian namesake in the shade for invasivness and ubiquity, private residences are frequently painted (hopefully with the consent and remuneration of the owners) with the logos, slogans and corporate colours of mobile phone companies, paint vendors, silk emporia and cement manufacturers, all vieing for your attention with their dazzling marketing splendor. As if their wasn't enough to make you eyes pop in the country.

But the movie posters in particular caught my eye. Most are not very large, maybe A3 size of so, but the combination of colour, odd looking text and occasional Indlish phrases hooked me. Some of them had large numbers on them as well, which I discovered latter was the amount of time in days of weeks that the movie had been running in theatres. Usually you could tell from the number which is was, but I figured out that movies made in the local industry, usually had text exclusively in Malayalam and counted in days, films from other states often had english text and usually used weeks.



How can you not love a poster that asks, no implores, you to 'Feel the Army'? Given the trouble the Australian Army is having getting new recruits, perhaps they should try this as a slogan. Hmmm, maybe not. This film is apparently a true story based on the life of a real Indian military hero who fought in the Kashmir region and was awarded the highest military decoration in India, their equivalent to the VC.

Check these three out:





You could be forgiven for thinking that the is an actor in Kerala with an extraordinarily prolific career. As one guy from our team here put it, they all seem to star the same round-faced, moustached and slightly over weight bloke. They are, in fact, different actors; but it's another way to tell the local movies from the out-of-state ones, if this guy or one of his octuplets is the lead, its probably a Malaylee film.

And just to give you an idea of what they look like in their natural habitat, here's a corner shop wall in the nearest large town, Kollam:



More in the usual place.

In other news, today was Indian Independence Day. Lots of celebrations, no work and an impromptu night visit from the constabulary. Last night I respond to a knock at the door to find six Indian policemen at my threshold. After a second of 'Shit, what local custom have I inadvertently broken', the police asked if they could come in and the manager appeared from nowhere and mentioned the following day's festivities. All became clear. Anti-terrorist sweeps of the hotel rooms of foreign nationals. Given the recent English arrests, Mumbai bombing, fighting in Sri Lanka and ongoing unrest between India and Pakistan, it seemed like they weren't taking any chances. They looked around, without touching anything, asked me some questions about where I was from and when I was returning home. In retrospect, my reply: 'I'm leaving on Friday', probably wasn't the best for instilling confidence, but they seemed unperturbed, shook my hand, thanked me and left. Not sure they even checked the bathroom.