Your Moment Is Waiting

October 8, 2013 5:18 PM

Your WTF moment from the Indian State of Kerala's Tourism Board
posted by Short Attention Sp (38 comments total)

It was especially interesting watching this when I accidentally had a video ad for CIBC playing in the background without realizing it was playing.
posted by greatgefilte at 5:23 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Didn't Kerala State have a CFL football team back in the 1990's?
posted by KokuRyu at 5:25 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Sort of a play for the bodhisattva, karma tourism trade?
posted by jim in austin at 5:29 PM on October 8, 2013

That was trippy.
posted by greenhornet at 5:32 PM on October 8, 2013

This is what I imagine schizophrenia feels like.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:35 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

In the very beginning, is that a starving Masai hunter? The hair woman was kinda scary, and the Hindu gods emphatically talking to her later didn't help.

Prize-winning, though.
posted by Houstonian at 5:38 PM on October 8, 2013

It's good to see Lisa Bonet working again.
posted by helmutdog at 5:44 PM on October 8, 2013 [15 favorites]

Will my tourism dollars buy the man in the lake some food? I would like to buy him some food.
posted by maryr at 5:45 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Why is it not in HD? If anything calls out for 4k it's this.
posted by Skorgu at 5:48 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I wanted more girl on girl longing.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:48 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

at least the album should be on iTunes.
posted by TMezz at 5:48 PM on October 8, 2013

That was the Senegalese artist Baaba Maal singing in the background. All the dances are real art forms from Kerala, everything from Kathakali (the elderly gentleman on a verandah) to Theyyam (the folks in orange) to mudiyattam (the lady shaking her hair)

This ad has been about for 4-5 years now, with some controversy as you might expect. I see it as a sort of dismembered Keralite performance art, but falls a bit flat because I don't hear Kerala in there, none of the drums and such that make up an actual Kathakali or a Mohiniattam performance. As much as I love Baaba Maal's rising crescendos, it feels like a badly mixed new-age-y track that doesn't signify anything as such.

The new Incredible India ad is a lot more fun.
posted by the cydonian at 5:49 PM on October 8, 2013 [19 favorites]

Like Salvador Dali dropped acid in Kochi. I don't want to be there to see what happens next. Lacks vagina dentata though.
posted by Cuke at 5:51 PM on October 8, 2013

Kinda has a Twin Peaks feel to it.

I liked it.
posted by klanawa at 5:56 PM on October 8, 2013

This is what I imagine schizophrenia feels like.

Ok, you need to find a pair of Google Glasses and have Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Open play on a permanent loop in the corner but pretend that you're not wearing Google Glasses and expect others to pretend as well. If they do not then THEY ARE IN ON IT. And if they do pretend but it's obvious that they are prentending then THEY ARE IN ON IT.

Also, the movie* is not actually a movie, it's a conversation having itself with you. But be cool.

And that is what schizophrenia feels like.

This is more like what a Duran Duran video feels like.





* The movie could also be the Audible version of the Unabomber Manifesto. That would work.
posted by Mike Mongo at 6:01 PM on October 8, 2013 [5 favorites]

India has a huge middle class that has the disposable income and time to visit other parts of their huge country. I could easily see this appealing to sophisticated young rich types in the various large cities. The music had a bit of an A R Rahman flavour as well I thought.

The new Incredible India ad is a lot more fun.
Looks like some Ladakh towards the beginning :)
posted by carter at 6:08 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I liked it, btw.
posted by carter at 6:12 PM on October 8, 2013

I misread this as being from Indiana State's tourism board. Was doubly confused.
posted by ribbit ribbit at 6:34 PM on October 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Wow, Tarsem Singh's remake of Pather Panchali is terrible.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:42 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I can't tell if this is truly bad or if this is where we make fun of another culture we don't understand.
posted by FreezBoy at 7:18 PM on October 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

I'm not having a WTF moment. What's supposed to do that for this? Seems like a typical come visit this interesting and possibly exotic place commercial.

Would love to see a Tourism USA commercial right now with slow motion Tea Partiers writhing about. That would be a clear WTF moment (or rather moments).
posted by juiceCake at 7:31 PM on October 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

HOLY HELL THAT WAS AWESOME

a+++++++++++ would kerala wtf again
posted by Sebmojo at 7:37 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Does this mean I don't have to watch The Tree of Life?
posted by PHINC at 8:05 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

No! You still have to watch it!

Don't make Terrence Malick come down there!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:24 PM on October 8, 2013

"The most important thing I was really trying to do with the film was not just...uh making it uh... you know look good..uh you gotta have a soul throughout the film."
posted by brookeb at 8:49 PM on October 8, 2013

The woman kind of looked like Beyoncé, so I just watched this as if it were a Beyoncé video and that made it make a lot more sense.
posted by threeants at 8:50 PM on October 8, 2013

The best bit of Kerala for me is the hammer and sickle in the Kochi bus station (the rest is pretty cool too without that bit of tourist-enticement).
posted by anadem at 9:15 PM on October 8, 2013

I thought the dog and the elephant were pretty cool.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 9:28 PM on October 8, 2013

I unironically liked this and now kind of want to go for a visit. 10 minutes ago I had no idea this place existed, so I'd call the ad a success.
posted by seymourScagnetti at 9:45 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

"if this is where we make fun of another culture we don't understand"

Using a Senegalese artist's music behind an Indian tourism video is an odd choice. Like putting b-roll of Mardi Gras in New Orleans over didgeridoo music.

I think it's okay to make fun of a culture we don't understand when that culture is "people who work in advertising." God knows I don't understand that culture, and I used to work in it.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:20 PM on October 8, 2013 [5 favorites]

If mildly erotic elephant snuggling is something that happens in Kerala, well, buy me a ticket, I'm off!
posted by MrVisible at 10:39 PM on October 8, 2013

Kerala is now on my list of places to be sure to go to. vastly more interesting than anything other tourist boreds [sic] put out.
posted by SteveLaudig at 1:52 AM on October 9, 2013

Agree the ad worked. To me, Kerala previously was "one of the less poor Indian states" and had no vision or individuality amongst "India". Now I want to visit.
posted by bystander at 3:25 AM on October 9, 2013

Well, according to one of Tooting's many Indian restaurants, Kerala she is simply beautiful (see lower right window).
posted by Decani at 3:33 AM on October 9, 2013

The problem with the ad is that as an uneducated American, I had NO IDEA where Kerala was by the end of the ad. Africa? India? Australia?
posted by maryr at 7:59 AM on October 9, 2013

So the man at 2:00 with the giant dong on his head and the one with teaspoons for eyes were gods? Was the dog a god too? Episcopalianism has some catching up to do.
posted by Devonian at 8:43 AM on October 9, 2013

I'm not having a WTF moment. What's supposed to do that for this?

I think it's the part where that vulture is attacking the dude's head
posted by thelonius at 8:50 AM on October 9, 2013

For me it's at 2:05-2:06.

as an uneducated American, I had NO IDEA where Kerala was by the end of the ad. Africa? India? Australia?

Only elephants in Australia are in the zoo, maryr. But as Sidhedevi points out, Africa-India confusion may be justified, not just because of the elephant.
posted by Rash at 9:41 AM on October 9, 2013