Short Cuts

Just before the commercial,made for an adhesive brand,went on air,one could spot advertisements on paper heralding the release of India’s shortest short film. Moochwali,in its 1 minute 24 seconds duration takes you down the life of a girl,who has to live with a pair of false moustaches all her life after it’s stuck on her during a junior school play with the particular brand of adhesive. In its minute-long duration,the film with crackling humor traces the life of the woman who is unable to peel the moustache off her face. If you didn’t see the logo of the adhesive brand,you could have easily mistaken it for a funny short. “Just after we finished shooting the film,scripted by Abhijit Awasthy,and showed it to people around everybody agreed that it was as good as a short film,” says Prasoon Pandey,who directed Moochwaali. The advertisements in the paper not only acted as teasers for the TV commercial to come,but also resulted in the idea of screening the film sans the brand logo. “The brand is not just Ogilvy’s client,over the years,they have become our creative partner too. I don’t think they object if we wanted to screen the film as a short,without the brand logo,” says Pandey. They seem to be looking forward to screening Moochwaali as an independent short,given there’s a space and occasion that suits it. “I was told by someone recently that when Moochwaali was being aired on the TV at Mumbai airport,people actually stopped and crowded around the TV to see what it was. They dispersed soon after the commercial got over. I presume they were watching the TV for it,” laughs Pandey. This goes on to prove that plans of screening commercials as films are not without a basis.

Prakash Verma,the man behind the Zoo Zoos that make an appearance for Vodafone ads,agrees that if a concept if long enough to last for more than a minute,there are good reasons why ad filmmakers should look forward to screening their works as independent shorts. “But then again for something like Zoo Zoo,an idea which holds your attention for not more than 30 seconds,it doesn’t work. The idea has to lend itself to at least a minute’s time and also have a context outside the brand,” says Verma.