Category Archives: Other

100 Years of Indian Cinema – The Creative Roots

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Advertisement of First indian movie, 'Raja Harishchandra', appeared in Bombay Chronicle on 3rd May, 1913.

Advertisement of First Indian movie, ‘Raja Harishchandra’, appeared in Bombay Chronicle on 3rd May, 1913.

Precisely 100 years ago an unabashed dreamer – a crazy genius, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke released a silent movie, “Raja Harishchandra” at the Coronation Cinema, Mumbai. Many great institutions start with a dream. Quite often a shameless – fearless dream and an equally fearless dreamer. Dhundiraj, better known as Dadasaheb was one such dreamer. The story of his travails and troubles have been very beautifully captured in Marathi movie ‘Harishchandrachi Factory‘, released in 2009.

Dadasaheb Phalke had to beat several odds. There was very little that could be called resources. He didn’t have properly trained talented actors. But above everything else, performing arts in general, had very little social approval. Also, whenever a new medium or a new technology emerges, society always resists to accept it. Dadasaheb was intelligent enough to understand these issues. But, he was crazy enough to ignore them and that’s what made him brave enough to go ahead with his project.

Dadasaheb Phalke - Working

Dadasaheb Phalke – Working

Interestingly, Dadasaheb was the first Indian who made an entire feature with an all-Indian crew. He was neither the first maker nor the first exhibitor. A year before the release of Raja Harishchandra, another movie maker Dadasaheb Torne had made a movie called ‘Pundalik’ with the help of British cinematographers though. Dadasaheb Phalke got inspired to make movies when he went to a screening of a silent movie titled, “Life of Christ”.

If movies were already shown in India, what made Dadasaheb so special? Well, precisely what made many of his successors like Raj Kapoor, Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy, B. R. Chopra, Yash Chopra or even Manmohan Desai, successful and special. Understanding Indian audiences and its sensibilities. When Dadasaheb Phalke saw “Life of Christ”, he immediately imagined a film with Hindu deities and characters from Indian mythology. Because somewhere deep down he knew that  it would work. Most of Dadasaheb’s movies were about Hindu deities. In his movies when Lord Krishna or Rama would appear on the screen, people would stand up or bow down in front of the screen. Interestingly, the foreign movies continued to be exhibited in India. But Dadasaheb always thought that despite them being interesting enough, those movies could never strike a bond with Indian audiences. His movies created a national frenzy. When ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ was released in Chennai (erstwhile Madras) there were traffic jams. His movies, ‘Lanka Dahan‘ and ‘Krishna Janma‘ were in circulation for almost a decade. In fact, he understood the economics of Indian movies very quickly. He realized that there is one class of audience that would never like his work and he never bothered to cater to them. He hardly ever advertised in English newspapers. He always tried to appeal his audiences through vernacular media. In the movie ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’, he is even shown coming up with promotional schemes like free pair of clothes with the movie ticket. All this made the movie a commercial success. Raja Harishchandra’s success allowed Dadasaheb to keep making films and probably that’s what planted firm roots of our Film industry.

Sources:

1. Indian Film, by Erik Barnouw and S.Krishnaswamy. Columbia University Press, 1963

2. Raja Harishchandra

3. Dadasaheb Phalke – Wikipedia

Motivation of Eternal Strugglers – Stories of Rubén Castro, Sitanshu Kotak and many others

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Ruben castroAt some point during the year 2013, Rubén Castro, a striker who plays for the Sevilla based football club Real Betis, is likely to get a call to represent Spain in an international football game. I heard this on a Radio while commuting to work during the week. I wasn’t surprised! Every professional sports team looks for young blood to rejuvenate the winning spirit and for infusion of new skills. However I was indeed surprised when I discovered that Rubén was already 32. An age where a professional footballer starts planning for his retirement. The same age when Maradona’s career started to decline. The same age when Spanish legend Raúl was shown the exit from the national team, Rubén Castro will be rewarded for his hard work and consistency in his performances. Rubén started at the age of 19 in the club of his hometown Las Palmas. He was signed by Deportivo la Coruña at the age of 23. Later in six different seasons he was loaned out to six different clubs before he settled down finally at the age of 30 at Real Betis. Such a career trajectory is enough to demotivate any player. But Rubén not only stayed motivated, he actually flourished.

10783999.cmsAnother example that came to my attention in a very interesting article in Cricinfo is that of Sitanshu Kotak. Sitanshu Kotak is going to play his first Ranji trophy final (Premier Indian Domestic Cricket Competition) in a week. Sitanshu Kotak is playing his twentieth season. He is 40. Most of his teammates from his junior cricket team today would be either cricket administrators, coaches or would be doing something completely unrelated to Cricket. Sitanshu was a promising batsman. But he never got a chance to play for the country. When he was at his peak, the selectors denied him an opportunity saying “he was over 30″, while he actually was still 28. Many sports professionals hang up their boots once they know that they will not get a chance to play at the highest level. They lose their motivation.

Then what motivates people like Sitanshu Kotak and Rubén Castro? Maybe, the sheer joy of game. However it’s not just fun. There’s something more than that. Teresa Amabile, Harvard Professor in one of her earlier studies had shown that intrinsic motivation is based on intrinsic value that one attaches to work. In colloquial parlance often intrinsic motivation is misunderstood as fun and enjoyment one derives from an activity. Intrinsic value is not just fun though. In the article mentioned above Sitanshu Kotak says one important thing about his motivation, “My only motivation after 2005 was to play, perform and trouble the opponent. And if the [opposition] had senior or international players, I wanted to make them understand: even if he has never played for India, he is a player of our standard.” This tells us a lot about intrinsic motivation. It’s not just fun but it’s about proving one’s worth. Sitanshu says that he will play as long as he feels good. One plays as long as one feels that one can prove himself through the sports. This motivation of doing well. The motivation of proving one’s worth. Motivation of doing the best that one can do. That’s what keeps players like Rubén Castro and Sitanshu Kotak going.

At times, lady luck smiles at them. I read a wonderful piece about Bryce McGain. The player who was an ordinary club cricketer but was rewarded with a call up to the Australian test side. Unfortunately he registered one of the worst debuts ever in the history of Cricket and was discarded after a solitary game. No matter what, he kept on working hard and trying hard. It’s players like them who keep the spirit of any sports alive. Because its sports which keeps their spirits alive…

Reference
Motivation and creativity: Effects of motivational orientation on creative writers.
Amabile, Teresa M.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 48(2), Feb 1985, 393-399. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.48.2.393

ResearchBlogging.orgAmabile, T. (1985). Motivation and creativity: Effects of motivational orientation on creative writers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48 (2), 393-397 DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.48.2.393

What made Sachin God!!

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344204969Finally Sachin retires from one-day cricket. Young cricket lovers who are still in their early twenties would probably never have watched an Indian team without Sachin. Purely from a statistical perspective, Sachin is indeed the most prolific and the most successful batsman of all time. However, numbers and records neither tell the entire story of Sachin’s influence nor they do justice with his impact over Indian cricket and Indian psyche.

Sachin revolutionized the way India played, the way India thought and the way India approached her cricket. When Sachin arrived on the national scene India was not a strong team. It was 1989. Sunil Gavaskar, the highest run-scorer in test cricket then, had retired only a couple of years ago. Main batsmen in Indian team were Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, Srikkanth etc. Most of them believed in ‘save your wicket and leave anything outside off’ approach. Technique was revered and aggression was ridiculed. Kids wanted to emulate Gavaskar and Vengsarkar. Scoring big and staying on crease was the mantra. Some notable exceptions to the rule were Srikkanth and Kapil Dev. While Srikkanth was generally laughed at, Kapil Dev was criticized and was called irresponsible for his aggression. The only player who stood out was Azharuddin. But Azhar’s super-flexible wrists made his batting look so exotic, nobody dared to emulate him. Apart from being defensive in batting, India was at times psychologically weak as well. Matches against Pakistan were the most glaring examples of problems with Indian mindset. India generally lost to Pakistan even before taking the field. Akram and Imran always looked unplayable. Abdul Qadir looked like taking wicket with every ball he bowled at us. And Miandad! Images of him, running amok on the ground after hitting Chetan Sharma for a six on the last ball left us depressed for ages.

However it all started to change on 16th December, 1989. India was going to play Pakistan at Peshawar. We switched our TV sets on in the morning. The match was cancelled due to bad light. The match was called off but not to disappoint spectators at the ground, a 20-over exhibition game was organized. By the time we switched the TV on again Pakistan was butchering our bowlers. So routine! TV switched off again! And then India played usual subdued game. It didn’t surprise us anymore! And Sachin arrived at the crease. All we remember now is, Sachin marching forward and hitting Qadir and Mushtaq for consecutive sixes. He was hitting a Pakistani bowler in Pakistan. That was the first big blow to the diffident mindset we were trapped in. The first proper victory of India over Pakistan that my generation saw over television was the one achieved in Sharjah in 1991. In that game, Sachin played a brisk 42 in 30 deliveries in final overs to help India set a competitive target. Defeating Pakistan in Sharjah was a tremendous boost to India’s confidence. A few months later at Sydney in the world cup game once again India defeated Pakistan. This time Sachin was man of the match. During those years Sachin not only established himself as the best batsman in the squad but he also became the psychological support for Indian fans. As long as he would be out there, our hopes of a victory would be kept alive. I remember the first game of Benson & Hedges series played at Perth against West Indies in December, 1991. India had been bowled out for 126. In reply Indian seam quartet of Prabhakar, Srinath, Banerjee and Kapil Dev bowled beautifully and brought India to the brink of victory. However all of them had bowled out their overs by 40 overs and West Indies scored 120 for 9. Debutant Anderson Cummins was playing a surprising cameo and had brought West Indies on the brink of victory. India didn’t have any regular bowler left to bowl 41st over. Everybody thought the experienced Ravi Shastri would bowl the over, but no! Sachin was given the ball and he managed to take the last wicket on the last ball of his over with scores tied. Two years later in the semi final of the hero cup, once again Sachin was asked to bowl the last over and here he managed to grab a victory from the jaws of defeat. Sachin was India’s talisman.

Sachin’s Over in the Tied One-day

Sachin became a run-machine much later. I remember that after he scored two consecutive centuries in Sharjah against Australia, Doordarshan had telecast a program titled, ‘Legend at 25′. Yes! Sachin was a legend by the time he was 25. The only dark spot in his entire career would be his failure as a captain. However, during Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy Sachin got a much needed support and stability. Sachin concentrated much better on his game during Ganguly’s captaincy. In fact his batting average improved a lot during those years.

Sachin had many contemporary batsmen with whom he has been compared. For many bowlers Brian Lara was a more dangerous batsman than Sachin. For many Ricky Ponting had been a better batsman because for most part of his career he also had to burden the responsibility of leading his side. For some Jacques Kallis is a more complete cricketer because he is also a very good bowler. But no player has had such transformational impact on the mindset of an entire nation like Sachin Tendulkar had. It’s not his runs or his centuries that made Sachin so special. He provided India with something India was desperately lacking, Inspiration! That made him God.

Sachin’s best shot

Aakash Chopra in his book, ‘Beyond the Blues’ mentions that the way a player approaches his game also tells you a lot about the way the person is. I would like to extend this argument by adding, that by molding the way an individual approaches the game, one can mould his personality as well. Sachin changed the way India approached its game. That changed our mindset, our attitude and our body language. One example is Virender Sehwag. Without Sachin it would have been impossible to get a batsman like Sehwag. Sehwag openly admits that his role-model was Sachin. Had Sachin not changed the way we looked at our game, Sehwag would still be an underrated struggler shuttling in and out of Delhi’s Ranji trophy side.

It has been only two games that India has played since Sachin’s retirement. His absence is already felt. Not just in performance but in the way Indian team has approached the game. Once again, India’s nemesis has been Pakistan!

Thank You Rahul

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It was 15th January of 1999 and we were celebrating ‘Vasi-Uttarayan’ at Chintan’s Nani’s place.  India had just finished a three-test series against New Zealand and Rahul Dravid, was the best batsman for India. He had scored two wonderful centuries at Hamilton in the last test and saved the test for India. Something he repeated on numerous occasions for the next 13 years. Salil, my friend and an underrated cricket talent himself was telling me, “Rahul Dravid is the find of the tour” but soon we started talking about Sourav Ganguly’s flamboyant century in the same Hamilton test. That was the summary of Dravid’s career till 2001. He was the most reliable and the most consistent batsman of the side but was always overshadowed by Tendulkar’s legendary status and by Ganguly’s glamour.

Rahul Dravid is the second highest run scorer in the test history. According to many he is the second best batsman of the modern era after Sachin Tendulkar, and that has been his fate always, or definitely was so for the first half of his career. He was always the second best. Even when he was the best, he was the second best. It started with his debut. He played a gem of an innings at Lords and missed a century by five runs and followed it with a flawless eighty at Old Trafford. But another Test Debutant Sourav Ganguly scored two centuries in the same consecutive tests and Rahul was the second best. Dravid was a master of defence. He valued his wicket. Unfortunately that led to him being tagged, quite unjustifiably, as slow or a ‘test’ batsman. Had Sourav Ganguly not insisted on him using as Wicket Keeper, he might even have lost his place in the one-day squad.

But Rahul Dravid never complained. He symbolized grit and determination. He just hung on. He kept playing beautiful match saving silent knocks in every condition. If there was one game which served as tipping point that made converted India from a decent side to a champion side it was Kolkata test, 2001. After following on India were still trailng by 44 runs and had already lost 4 wickets. And Rahul Dravid went out to bat at no.6. He had to vacate his favourite no.3 position for in-form batsman VVS Laxman. Dravid joined Laxman in the middle and what followed is history. Dravid made an impeccable 180. Once again he was overshadowed by 281 by VVS Laxman – One of the greatest innings in the history of the game. After this series Dravid established himself as the most reliable batsman of the squad and the year 2003/04 placed him among the greatest batsmen of Indian cricket. In the successful tours to Australia and Pakistan (where he even captained the side in two tests) Dravid played a big role. In fact his innings of 233 at Adelaide not only proved to be match winning but sowed seeds of confidence and courage that later Indian sides showed overseas.

He had all the qualities to be a great leader. He was well respected, he was a fantastic performer and he had a deep understanding of the game. Unfortunately his tenure as captain coincided with one of the controversial coaches that India had had, Greg Chappel. But even during such a tumultuous period he didn’t allow his batting to suffer. In fact his two half centuries at Sabina Park Kingston not only got India a victory but inspired Brian Lara to remark that it was the finest piece of test batting that he had seen.

Rahul Dravid has been so consistent over years that it’s difficult to remember a lean patch of his. His brilliance lies in the fact that he always looked comfortable while batting. He succeeded where everybody else failed. His posture and stance with eyes oozing determination and the left elbow with an outward kink were a symbol of graft. His technique was so sound that even when he faced the first delivery of the innings it looked as if he had been there for hours. In the age of shortening attention spans and increasing influence of T20 cricket, he protected value of grit and technique.

Long back Kapil Dev used to present a series called ‘Different Strokes’ where he interviewed a young Rahul Dravid. By the end of the interview Kapil Dev asked him, “You were a good student in school. You were the best in cricket. You were a nice kid at home. How is it possible? How can anyone be perfect in everything?” Rahul Dravid had just smiled in response. But that’s what Rahul Dravid has been for all of us all these years. A great batsman, a gentleman cricketer, a fantastic team player and a humble individual. We may get better batsmen than him in future, but will there be another gentleman like him?

Thank you Rahul. Thanks a lot!

Can you solve a problem by making it fun to deal with? – DDB’s Funtheory campaign for Volkswagen

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DDB‘s Funtheory campaign for Volkswagen has bagged Cyber Grand Prix at the 57th International Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Cyber Grand Prix is probably the most prestigious award in internet advertising. Fun Theory campaign is an example of generating creativity at different levels.

Fun Theory campaign was all about motivating people to come up with creative solutions to mundane issues. However, the idea was, how can a social/behavioral problem be solved by making it fun to deal with? For example, we all know that people should obey speed limits on city streets as well as on highways, but still many don’t obey speed limits. Can we make more people obey speed limits by making it fun to do? We all are advised by doctors, friends and colleagues that we should use stairs instead of escalators or elevators, still we don’t. Can we make more people take stairs by making it fun to do so? Can we make more kids clean up their rooms by making it fun to do so?

Volkswagen’s Fun Theory campaign got many interesting viral video entries in response to this.  This entire campaign has touched on two important aspects of creativity. First, the assumption that fun or enjoyment is an integral part of creative behavior. In my Creativity workshops or Negotiation classes, I have observed a ‘circular’ relationship between fun and creativity. In other words, when a participant seeks joy, he starts getting ideas that are out of the box. On the other hand, at times, even though seeking joy might not be the main objective, when participants are able to come up with very creative solutions, they always qualify their experience as ‘fun’.

But why did DDB take up the theme of Fun for a Volkswagen theme? Volkswagen had introduced Bluemotion technology in 2006 and wanted to generate widespread interest around that. Bluemotion technology’s theme was that of reducing environmental impact without compromising the joy of driving. Volkswagen asked DDB to design a campaign around a theme. DDB saw that Volkswagen was actually solving a problem, by making it more fun to do. DDB decided to carry out experiments in different spheres of our lives where a problem was solved by making it fun to deal with. DDB’s decision to deal with actual ‘Fun’ videos and not going for traditional advertising paid off. It generated massive interest and in the end DDB rightfully grabbed the Cyber Grand Prix.

Another insight that can be drawn here is the effective use of media in making use of, what can be termed as, ‘social creativity’.  This campaign does show the possibility of using creativity of people in solving a common problem, by being able to create the appropriate platform.

One of the most popular Fun theory experiments is the one, now known as, ‘Piano Stairs’. Here is the video, look at it and enjoy.

Football in Legovision – Fabian Moritz’ Creative Simulations

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Fabian Moritz is a 19 year old Soccer-&-Lego enthusiast from Laatzen in Niedersachsen. In last one week he has suddenly become an internet celebrity thanks to his own creativity and Lego bricks.

It’s impressive that he, without losing patience and perseverance, worked for more than 10 years to construct an entire stadium, players and spectators. He has shown greater patience in filming these very neatly and meticulously designed animations. He was first discovered by bild.de and then by Guardian. England goalie Robert Green provided him the material for the moment of genius. Look at the video attached below and please wait till the Robert Green howler. It’s truly priceless! (Those who understand German, can listen to Moritz himself in an interview..click here).

Video courtsey – www. guardian.co.uk & http://www.legofussball.eu

Boteco Olé – World cup Rivalry encashed for Marketing creatively

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I Don't Cry for You, Argentina

Tremendous rivalry between Latin American neighbors, Brazil and Argentina is providing inspiration to some businessmen for coming up with new creative marketing schemes.

Boteco Olé, a bar well recommended to the Cariocas to go and watch world cup soccer games, has an interesting marketing gimic. It offers free beer shots to all those who are present, when Brazil scores. Understood! So what? Well, they also have a special offer for games played by Argentina. They offer free Beer shots (or chopes as they call it), for every Goal scored against Argentina. So far rivals of Argentina have troubled the bartender just once (S.Korea Vs. Argentina)  though.   The title of this scheme is…’não choro por ti, Argentina‘ (I don’t cry for you, Argentina).   An interesting twist on Evita!

Intel’s Larrabee – Another Innovation Abandoned

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Larrabee is dead! Intel has announced one of the most ambitious graphics ventures’ demise on a blog post by Bill Kircos, Intel’s Director of product and technology . Intel didn’t announce it explicitly though, but fFortunately, Ryan Smith at Anandtech has deciphered it for us.

Four years ago rumours surfaced that ‘a shadowy organization called Larrabee Development Group‘ had launched itself to do the unthinkable in the High-end graphics chip industry. It had decided to take head on the two big crocodiles of the pond, namely NVidia and AMD. However, Job vacancy postings on Intel’s website did little to hide that Larrabee was an Intel venture. After a few months Intel proudly announced launch of Larrabee, a multi-core processor design which was supposed to compete with other GPGPU based (General Purpose Graphic Processing Unit) future products from competitors NVIDIA and AMD. Larrabee was supposed to be something like a combination of GPU/CPU. A chip that would have a full programmability of a CPU and throughput computing feature of a GPU. (see image below)

However, Intel’s foray into producing a Multi-core GPGPU Chip didn’t bother Nvidia and AMD much. On the contrary their strategies were not at all affected by Intel’s apparent plans. Both of them rather steadily went ahead with their strategy of Integrated Graphics.

After missing their initial product launch deadlines, last December Intel delayed the Graphic Processor launch and decided to downsize Larrabee to Software Development Platform. The product was now slated to arrive sometime in 2010. However Bill Kircos in his blog at Intel’s website has discretely written, “We will not bring a discrete graphics product to market, at least in the short-term.”

This means, Larrabee – the product is not coming to shelf. This case brings us back to the issue of abandoning innovation that was discussed here at Creatologue in the light of Microsoft’s abandonment of Courier. However, Larrabee’s case is quite peculiar. Larrabee, if it would have been launched would have been quite a radically innovative product. As is shown in the  image below.

What Intel has done by abandoning Larrabee is effectively imitating its competitors by focusing on Integrated Graphics rather than thinking about a CPU/GPU hybrid.

It would really be interesting to explore when a company might abandon a radical innovation project? One obvious reason was that it wasn’t giving expected results. But then, in an uncharted technology category, it will always be difficult to estimate performance. On the other hand, while its competitors in the graphics processing segment, have a strong presence, especially NVIDIA being stronger in gaming segment, overall Intel is incomparably bigger than these competitors. Given it’s size Intel shouldn’t worry about economies of scale or scope. The only other probable expectation is shift in strategic importance of the innovation (Agarwal, Barry and Tripsas, 2005). Why such a touted innovation lost its importance before it could see the light of the day, only time will tell.

Reference

Agarwal, Rajshree; Bayus, Berry & Tripsas, Mary. 2005. ‘Abandoning Innovation in an Emerging Industry. ‘ Working Paper.


“Crazier you (or your family) are, more creative you are likely to be”

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Do you (and some your like-minded neighbors) think that some of your family members are crazy? Well, if your answer is yes, researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden have good news for you. Greater the degree of lunacy in your family (including yourself…), greater the chances of you, being creative. The new research conducted mentions, “High creative skills have been shown to be somewhat more common in people who have mental illness in the family.”

The study also mentions that creative people share certain psychological traits (e.g. ability to make bizarre associations) with schizophrenics due to Dopamine D2 receptor genes. Dr. Frederik Ullén and his research team basically studied the brain and the Dopamine D2 receptors. Dopamine receptor genes are linked to the ability for divergent thought. In the mentioned study, people who showed higher levels of creativity (divergent thinking) also showed a lower density of Dopamine D2 receptors in thalamus, which is also a trait commonly found among the schizophrenic. Thalamus (see the image) is that part of brain which filters and relays information before it reaches cortex, where cognition and reasoning take place. Lower density of D2 receptors means less filterning and a greater flow of information, which in turn increases the possibility of more bizarre associations and imaginations.

So if you’re crazy, you might be creative; and vice-versa!!! or in the words of Dr. Frederik Ullén, “Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box”.

Reference

ResearchBlogging.org

de Manzano O, Cervenka S, Karabanov A, Farde L, & Ullén F (2010). Thinking outside a less intact box: thalamic dopamine D2 receptor densities are negatively related to psychometric creativity in healthy individuals. PloS one, 5 (5) PMID: 20498850

Brief Introduction to Tabla and Ghatam – Indian Percussion Instruments

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Last year at Civic Centre of Carmel in Barcelona and earlier at KulturMusik, Centro aragonés de Etnomusicología (Aragonese Centre of Ethnomusicology) I had been invited to give a talk on Indian Music and evolution of film music as a genre. Several participants asked for a separate presentation on Indian musical instruments. Today, accidently I found this interesting video on Shakira’s Youtube Channel, where two percussionists of Indian origin are talking about Tabla and Ghatam. Hope you like it!