A video that claims to advertise Bengal, an ex-illustrious state of India, as a "melting pot" where "diversity" reigns.
I caught a fleeting, almost ephemeral glimpse of a few Chinese faces. That's "diversity" Indian style.
If this is the "new" Bengal, I want to know what's so new about seeing the same old fat faces who have been strutting the cultural landscape of Kolkata? Ranjit Mullick? Rudraprashad Sengupta? Soumitra Chatterjee? New? Young? Fresh?
And the music: It's abysmal. To be honest, the video doesn't reflect a dynamic or modern Bengal, but the timeless chimera that Tagore created in his fiction--the "Bangala'r Maati and Bangla'r Jol" province that served the poet's imagination well.
The real Bengal, where is it? The mall's? The metro? Where's the business sector? Any new music in the offing? Where's the global Kolkata we so hear of? The sushi dens and the Pizza Huts? They too are legitimate nodes of the Bangla geography aren't they?
I disagree, sort of. If West Bengal rebrands itself as the new hub of glitzy malls and sushi bars and tattoo parlors, then, to me, it’d be tantamount to diluting its brand. Then, Kolkata would become the next Delhi, the next Bangalore, the next Mumbai. Do we want to bling it up?
ReplyDeletePrecisely my point: Kolkata/Calcutta has been charmingly setting itself apart as un brandable. But the video shows an effort to brand itself, and "blinging" it up. All Indian metros are "branding" themselves to attract investment of all kinds, so Calcutta doesn't want to be left behind. My question is--is this effective branding? I believe not; it's a shoddy effort.
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