Update:
After posting this on Twitter, I have been asked a few things repeatedly. So, let me take the opportunity to share my thoughts on the most asked question – why this Kola…sorry, got carried away. The question was, why this cynicism?
I’m not a cynic, actually. I was the one who wrote about Twitter saving lives a few weeks back when more people alleged that the parties involved in that episode had staged the entire thing! In any case, I was merely sharing my personal views about this flash mob. It may be that I haven’t been exposed to such non-branded flash mobs so I found it hard to believe this was done entirely with no intention or larger purpose and just like that, considering the amount of effort and time required, not to mention money. The comments from some of the participants, in the comments section below killed the cynic in me and I love the fact that there are people left with such Gandhigirian ideas!
The other persistent question I got – why didn’t I ask the participants or organizer for details to clarify the intent and then write about it here? Why portray myself as a cynic first and them change my mind? Good question, but this is a blog, not a news media. I write based on who I am and what I feel. Questioning the intent behind this flash mob is the real me. As real as coming to know the truth from a few participants and changing my mind – that’s me too. I love the fact that this blog is considered important enough for some people to respond to my questions and I learn in the process about the real intent and join hordes of others to love this wonderful effort.
Finally, I really wish our mainstream media would give this flash mob more prime time than Kolaveri – the latter was done to promote a film, this…was done by the country’s youth (mostly) with no support – an entirely self-driven initiative to bring some cheer in people’s faces at CST and now the whole country, via the video. It’s a pity though that the message – that the flash mob was intended to just make people happy – did not come through the official video. Considering that not many people do such things in present times, a note to that effect would have been immensely useful!
Kudos to Shonan Kothari for pulling off this incredible effort!
***Original post***
To start with, I love this well produced flash mob (both the mob and the video) at CST, Mumbai.
The leaked, grainy video went viral yesterday. The official video went live today and it looks like a very good piece of work – in terms of production and the sheer effort that has gone into making the whole flash mob happen.
I have a few questions, however.
1. Namrata Balwani tells me she heard the person behind the flash mob say on radio that she did it just for kicks! Just ‘kicks’?
2. Organizing a flash mob of the size you see here – see the number of participants listed in the end of the video – takes a lot of time, effort and coordination…not to forget practice! Does ‘kicks’ work to collectively motivate people to spend all that time in practicing the moves? They did dance mighty well, I should add.
3. The cost part! The official video indicates good video equipment and decent editing skills. Editing can be done on PCs these days and not necessarily in professional editing studios. But someone hired video equipment just for kicks? A rich patron behind the effort that I’m not aware of?
4. A minor question on the nomenclature, as Namrata Joshi asks – if it is a coordinated effort that is a result of significant practice before going live, could this still be called a flash mob? Or, are such spontaneous acts of coordinated movements are restricted only to films?
5. Most importantly, what is it trying to convey – the dancing to ‘Rang De Basanti’ part? Considering the attention it is has been gaining since yesterday, I’d have assumed that it said something. I posed this question on Twitter and people implied a lot of meaning – to mark 26/11 memory and show Indians as one, proud happy family was the one guess I really liked. But the predominant answer was ‘to make people happy’ – and that is a wonderful thing to happen, to be honest.
Another tweet response – from Sumant Srinivasan was more pragmatic and made sense to me – collective art. Yes, I quite buy the ‘collective art’ argument. It’s just that I’m not exposed to such philanthropic collective art to make people happy in India besides Lok Sabha TV that shows parliamentarians behave like kids.
So, yes – it is a wonderful precedent that there are people like this in India who spend so much time, effort and money in creating collective art to make other people happy with only YouTube views as return on time/money invested. To be clear, I’m not deriding this effort – it is a damn good effort and the final video to communicate the effort is superbly produced and edited – lot of little nuances like people’s surprised expressions have been captured beautifully! I’m only left wondering why someone would go to this length to create and put together this effort.