In 1988, Spivak had asked of us – ‘Can the subaltern speak?’ By 2019, one can confidently answer that the intersection of Indian market economics and popular culture has made it possible for the subaltern to exhibit swag, smirk and speak for brand marketing too.
Case in point the footwear brand Red Chief campaign with Vicky Kaushal featuring the tagline ‘Khel Gaye Chief’. Kaushal (and the brand’s) ‘chief’ is revealed by the accompanying ad as one who imbibes the spirit of the times—the Renaissance of Chanakya who plans each move well.
The Indian protagonist has journeyed from Nehruvian India to the age of the NRI (whose heart still beats to Ye Mera India)—which is what the perennial NRI Shahrukh’s presentation has been since Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge ‘ He is genius. He is indigenous’. But now the site, language, warp and weft of our interaction with this hero have moved to a Hindi belt state of mind. The zeitgeist is a reading of the Indian heartland where the hero can strategize, is sure footed, and plays (you and) his cards right. Khel Gaye Chief.
Vicky Kaushal introduces the latest avatar of the Red Chief shoe brand as having ‘mass appeal’. The brand itself speaks about its image as ‘rugged, tough and confidently stylish’ with its latest incarnation as that of a ‘distinct unique personality’. The idiosyncratic ‘chief’ is clearly different if one notes the trajectory of how the world view of Red Chief has revealed itself to us.
Virat Kohli’s chief is one who (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_546KQlnjM) is inexperienced to the nomenclature ‘chief’; he smiles hesitantly as the confident young woman greets him in a streetscape that is urban India. The antagonist who has taken a slight to the usurper challenges him. But it is the woman as narrator who briefs us that the chief is in control. Kohli negotiates an Indian city’s downsides—chaos, puddles, doors that open in the street with ne’er a warning, a skyscraper. The protagonist and the rival take the plunge together—but it is left to the chief to land on his feet (and the city) winning his chief’s stripes.
The years have been interspersed by a Caucasian Red Chief (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0dHdF4V3XI), and the ‘Jooton Mein Mard’ where the shoe is the hero knocking down doors and saving the damsel in distress and no one has to fill those shoes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq0JqPdoq5s)
Some years ago, Red Chief’s chief was a Veer. The Veer series were short films shot docudrama style inspired by true stories. The brand showcased ‘untold stories of the selfless heroism of our youth’. Inder Bajwa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlDelwVQlfs) for instance is introduced as a male model who has shun city life and accolades to become the messiah of Punjab, and now saves the young from drugs. The tagline was ‘Jo Lada Vo Veer Hai’. The copy reads “he was charismatic. He was popular. (emphasis mine). In his 10 years in Mumbai, Inder tasted unparalleled success. But then at the peak of his career, he gave up modeling to live a model, modest life in his village. He has dedicated his life to others”.
From accounts of sacrifice and the self-abnegating ‘Jo Lada Vo Veer Hai’ , we move to the arrogance of the self-possessed ‘Shikar Pe Nikle Chief ‘ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwC4XKOqmrE) playing in a landscape where the women stay in the shadows, and the walls bear a self deprecating testament to a P.K Store, and aspirations of coaching centers and earnest faces striding forth. The setting is boisterous, quirky, flamboyant, a hat tip to reel life Dabangg territory with the law (less and keepers) unto them. Albeit the mofussil’s daroga is now a chief—the new jargon for a new India; however, the floral shirts and black net undershirts remain. Kaushal plays the fool who bites his tongue as the fates help him miss a punch but soon we see him cool-headedly luring the unwise to his web. Before the denouement, he negotiates the kitsch, gravel (the chief remains sure footed and does not slip) and sloth of the Indian heartland (a rickshaw driver in perpetual siesta, the rotund and sluggish police underling).
Perhaps the campaign is also a testament to Vicky Kaushal’s own trajectory. While he cut his teeth as an Assistant Director to Anurag Kashyap on the sets of what has ushered in the UP-Bihar aesthetic in popular culture—Gangs of Wasseypur (the experience should hold him in good stead in the life world of Khel Gaye Chief); we first acknowledged him in the gentleness, self-doubt and uncertainty of a Deepak Kumar in Masaan. From that moment to the impetuous but still seeking life’s purpose in Manmarziyaan , Kaushal’s journey has culminated in the confidence and josh of Uri’s Major Vihaan Singh Shergill. It works for Red Chief that Kaushal wears Shergill’s sunglasses well and carries over some of that swagger and determination here too.
Author: Dr Aneela Zeb Babar
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