Mayank Shekhar: Bole mere lips, I love Uncle Chipps!

Mantra records a time thats exponentially turning into ancient Indian history alreadyYes as George Bush Sr put it in the late 80s Read my lips Or as the popular ad translated that in the mid 90s Bole mere lips I love Uncle Chipps Really do The last time I found this nearly extinct specimen it was casually tucked away between several snazzier looking bags of similar chips brands at Dukes a sasta eatery next to my place on Bandras Chapel Road That sudden sighting instantly warmed the cockles of my heart This new Uncle Chipps to be fair was very slickly packaged too and easier to rip into But the taste was a bit fraudulent if you mayWhich isnt to suggest that any fancy bag of branded chips 80 per cent full of air hosting severely rationed superslim fried slices that cost a 1000 per cent more than one potato is anything but a fraud product to start with But that blandly salty chomp of Uncle Chipps like the masala flavour in the soggy Flips and Crax and the crackling crunch in the homefried Fryums still lingers in my mouth What to doI feel the same level of disappointment heading into Nirulas in Delhiordering the childhood favourites cheese capsicum onion pizza or the tandoori sampler to realise its not the same anymore Nirulas a local desi chain once owned by one Mr Narula got passed on to a Malaysian corporation and is now if Im not mistaken owned by a relatively faceless NYbased private equity firmSure nostalgia is an exaggeration But 90s as you may have noticed is the new retro More about independent India and its pop culture changed in that decade than all the others before it combined And food equals memories What specifically changed with the 90s and the opening up of Indian economyMy understanding of business is as dodgy as the confounded journalists grasp of the goingson in Indian politics at this point But Uncle Chipps if you take a cursory glance owned by the Indian company Amrit Agro launched in 1992 held over 70 per cent of the chips market in 1998 This dropped to around 30 per cent by 2000 It finally got sold to Pepsico that makes the international LaysFor the lead character KK Rajat Kapoor in Nicholas Kharkongors smartly scripted almost melancholic debut Mantra which releases in theatres this Friday this tragedy around the loss of the homegrown Uncle Chipps is far more personal than an average consumers KK owns Kings Chips For 12 years it has been the crowned leader in the organised wafers market One morning KK walks into his local kirana store to find it altogether littered with Kipper Chips owned by the multinational Kipper Cola that incidentally is headed by one Indira Puri Hes managed stave off a buyout from Kipper Cola for around five years alreadyIts slightly unclear when exactly this film is set But the Akai music system at homes and second generation cellphones in everyones hands is a giveaway It would be the late 90s to early 2000s around the time I was once bitching about the fakeness of Campa Cola they even mimicked the Coca Cola font at a party to a collegemate JJ whose family I realised later owned Campa Cola I dont know what his family does now I guess hotel Le Meridien in Delhi is still theirsThe movie Mantra impressively enough also touches upon the collusion among socialist cronies that had fashioned an economy gamed against any external competition perpetuating a politicsbusinessbroker network that forced you to suck up to the system to survive Among KKs best buddies one is a central minister the other Dan Hussain spot on is a typical Delhi broker type Although ostensibly selfmade and belonging to the educated elite KKs married to influence His fatherinlaw is a GovernorThe title Mantra by the way refers to a hospitality chain startup restaurantnightclub that KKs son has founded without his dads help using private equity investment The location is used perfectly to show the rise of the closeminded cultural rightwing which ironically arose at the same time as the opening up of the Indian economyNow Im not getting into the specifics of the film There are quite a few issues And some fine stuff including long steady visual passages which indicate both maturity and confidence on the part of its firsttime filmmaker Actor Naseeruddin Shah once defined a significant film to me as one which acts as a record of its times Naseer according to me has worked on two of the best movies accurately mirroring upperclass India Masoom and Monsoon Wedding Both like Mantra were set in DelhiBy his definition Mantra would be a very significant film if not rare recording a time thats exponentially turning into ancient Indian history already This is not a review Important disclaimer The film has been directed by a friend I cant trust my own judgment on my friends works We love what they do Thats why theyre friends And yes I still love Uncle Chipps Or maybe its just the memory Like all memories it will just stay forever As should the movieMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He 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