karanluganiCome EID & the Bollywood churns out a Tsunami of fresh, sharp, assertive attributes of a design, term, symbol, sign, name— a BRAND, an ICON called BHAI (SALMAN KHAN). After the roaring success of Wanted, Dabang, Ready, 15 August 2012 brought the roar of the tiger with Ek tha Tiger movie.
Another landmark from the BRAND, “SALMAN BHAI”.
Before we disect the movie & analyze the ingredients, the BRAND Salman Khan has to be introspected.
As in branding for a commodity (here Salmann Khan) the classification is for the target market (the movie goers audience) to choose the product over competition (The Shah Rukhs /Amirs/Akshays ), or the brand is perceived (mass hysteria of Salman Khan on his audience ) as the only solution to the problem (the mass entertainment quotient of the movie ).
Salman Khan has given a battery of back to back hits, starting from Wanted, Dabang, Ready,Bodyguard, so the expectation from Ek tha Tiger movie was huge & the hype created by the marketing for the product (ETT) was well organized. The TV shows, media & Point of purchase (the theatre posters ) were well synchronized with the tag line “THIS EID”.
The ticket windows in B towns were flooded with consumers, purchasing, demanding tickets not for ETT but using the generic name (Chaar BHAI ki picture ke tickets dena).
Come 15 August & the product ETT is launched, the consumers (spectators) leave the theatre with positive comments for the movie.
THE MOVIE ETT :-
The banner Yash Raj films acts as the packing material for the product (ETT) & the ingredients SALMAN-KATRINA-MUSIC-DIRECTOR -LOCATIONS make sure the product is well accepted by the AUDIENCES.
The story of two potential secret agency enemies of 65 years, the RAW & ISI, the locations of world’s unexplored sites at Turkey, Cuba, the stunts performed by Katrina takes the audience to new razor edge excitement, the way she climbs, kicks, fights, drives the airplane & above all the dance number “Mashallah” is alluring & rhythmic with the oriental lyrics & the music is pleasant to the ear though with high decibel. The fresh, assertive & sharp act and look of Katrina is not overshadowed by the brand SALMAN Khan the way other heroines are in his last blockbusters and the depth of love for Salman in Katrina’s eyes is more than what was in their last venture together “ YUVRAAJ”. The movie is balanced more towards Katrina than Salman (she is on a package deal with the banner for one or two more movies in the pipeline).
Come Salman’s performance & he is at his best with jokes, pranks & above all the stunts. His macho man image is intact with the dare devil fights, chase sequence & the dance in Mashallah shows his histrionics to glue the audience on the seat when half of the hall is about to leave .
Cash windows registering/breaking records is sure to happen & audiences getting ready to accept a new improvised, refined, modified, upgraded, product (next new movie from the brand SALMAN BHAI ). Till then keep enjoying Ek the Tiger movie, and do leave your common sense at home, for who needs it when Salman Bhai and his aura are infront!
Tanya Sachdev
