Soap-y Deepawali

The Story begins:

Jayam Ravi is beaten up with repeated blows to his head, by some villains who are so scary-looking, that the very sight of them could necessitate a booking at the GH. In spite of about a dozen hits with a pole on his head, Ravi still staggers and manages to retain most of his brain inside his head, the queer way that Tamil heroes are capable of doing. The villains decide that they’ve had enough of playing Gilli danda with the hero’s head, and decide that they should probably try to kill him some nobler way. So, they drag into the middle of NH-4 and put him right in the path of oncoming traffic. Suddenly, a lorry obliges everybody; the driver puts his pedal to the metal, and manages to crash into pur hero and knock him off, not quite so gracefully, into the bushes nearby.

And then, in yet another miraculous tribute to the saga that is Kollywood, our hero lets out a puff of breath and he’s alive again. Hooray! Someone start the flashback sequence please!

A nail biting, hair raising, spine tingling, popcorn stuffing beginning to the movie Deepawali starring Jayam Ravi and Bhavana. The movie was so good that I managed to stay awake for most of the first part. The second half was better and the director managed to avoid some worn down clichés, the avoidance of the biggest one at the end turning out to be the movie’s coup de grâce.


Anyone who saw this movie would surely remember a couple of things other than the main plot. One of these things is Godrej No.1. It’s there almost everywhere in the movie. I decided to clap every time I saw it. I counted up to 8 times. It’s very visible in some scenes, for example there is a scene when both of them celebrate Holi (that’s right Holi, not Diwali). There’s a poster behind them that one can see for quite a long time (poster supply: courtesy Chennai depot).

The placement in the movie was very good. A shop had been put up that was full of Godrej No.1 merchandise and was in a place where most of the drama was unfolding.

There were posters around the set where the film was shot. Our man in the media had done a wonderful job in getting all the spots that we had asked for. Maybe, in future movies, we could ask him to ensure that there is better focus and the camera does not swivel past our hoardings. Also the huge Godrej No.1 hoarding did not come into to the frame clearly for most part of the movie.

The other company in the movie whom I really appreciated was Avitaa Masala. They had more placements and were more visible than we were.

The best scene for us in the movie was incidentally a big joke for the Chennai team as well.

In the movie was a scene where Bhavana goes into Ravi’s bathroom and picks up his soap – hold your breath, Godrej No.1 Lavender!
She takes bath with it, when she comes out of her shower, Ravi is waiting for her. He smells her and asks,

Ravi : “Mmmm, yen soap pootu kullichiya?” “Mmmm (smells good), did you use my soap?”

To which our distributor Ganesh, who was in the audience, gets up and shouts

Ganesh: “Adhu avan soapu illay ma, yen soapu, yen soapu” “That’s not his soap. The soap’s mine. The soap’s mine”

Yep, he’s the guy who supplied the stock for the movie.
Ravi got Bhavana. Ganesh is wondering when he’ll get his money. Till then, he promises to keep watching the movie over and over again.