Everyday Musings > What's your trailer?

The Kid and I met for coffee recently and among other things, we got talking movies. He spoke of Jumbo and why he thought it didn't do that well. The trailers. They were all about Akshay Kumar and when the audience went to the theatre, they saw a Bangkok borrowed-dubbed in Hindi-animated film, and no Akshay. Dissonance and thus the audiences left disproportionately dissatisfied, and the movie slipped into oblivion.

The Kid talked of how when movie makers are honest with their trailers and promos, the film stands a better chance of doing well, because audiences get a feel of the subject. But when trailers are slick and work to trick the audiences into believing there's more than there is actually in the story, it always backfires, and the film flops in the burden of expectations it's created for itself. The same applies for movies where the trailers don't do justice to the film, and people who walk in with low expectations are disproportionately satisfied when they see a half decent flick and heartily recommend it to everyone as being brilliant.

We're all walking trailers of ourselves. Showing thirty-second promos to all who meet us. Which is probably why they say first impressions count. People make judgments based on the trailers we shoot and edit of us. So the more connected our trailers are with our reality, the more likely we are of receiving aligned feedback. The more our trailers vary, the more unsure people get of who you are and what you stand for. And for those shy, inhibited ones among us who have 'don't pay attention to me' trailers sometimes bloom only when the really curious stumble upon them.

A friend and I recently had a conversation where she was sad about something and said that all her friends give her advice, but no one appreciates what she's achieved. But the reality was that all her friends, including me had only heard sad stories of what was wrong with her life, and that's the trailer that played for us. It was only when she started talking of what she accomplished that the appreciation angle to the story came in, and I was charmed by what she'd been up to.

Actress Rita Hayworth once said that 'Men go to bed with Gilda and wake up with me'. Gilda being a famous character she played. Public Figures usually adopt their image and that becomes their trailer. And that's probably why they're insecure, but sometimes that image is not them at all. And it's edited to suit the junta's choices. I marvel at how Rajnikant can be balding, dark skinned, unshaven, unkempt, regular Joe in real life, and then transform into his larger than life characters on screen. He plays out two distinct trailers and they both do justice to his story.

Brands and countries also have trailers. A great trailer for a sub-optimum brand makes it fail faster. Noodles that look better in the commercials than they taste, or service that's promised that doesn't deliver. As for Countries, they are so careful of the trailers they play that they have diplomatic experts editing and filming it to precision.

Maybe it is time we looked at the trailers we play of ourselves. Maybe we'd realize it's the wrong reel that's been playing all this time, or that the editing is not crisp enough, or a background score would add some fun, or it was time to turn a romantic trailer to an adventurous one or vice versa. Or maybe, just maybe, we'd sit back and realise that our life is actually a blockbuster.