By Anil Thakraney

An okayish commercial, but one that leaves you sniggering. Not at the situation, at the careless direction and post-prod.

So there’s this nervous international traveller at the immigration desk. The clerk begins by talking tough with him but later goes all lovey-dovey when he discovers the chap originates from the same gaon, rather has a family connection out there. He prescribes regular calls to family back home, the clerk even guides the traveller to the Matrix phone card counter.

It’s not a bad idea though they could have had so much fun with it. The conversation might interest you on the first exposure, after that it becomes a drag. The Youtube version has scored a decent number of hits, so perhaps a section of the junta likes this stuff. However, there are two howlers, and the director of this commercial should be given a rap on the knuckles. One, the chroma key job is spectacularly sloppy, the background looks like a joke. Perhaps there were budget issues, but this is unforgivable, ask any post production exec. Two, notice the direction in which the immigration clerk points to indicate the location of the Matrix counter, and then check the direction in which our traveller stares in response. They are exact opposite of each other! Funny that no one, not even the ad agency personnel, noticed this glaring goof up.

Poor Matrix. Guess they operate on very low profit margins. Which explains why they had to hire amateurs to produce their ad.

Rating: (On a scale of 1-5): 1. Mediocre script, clumsy treatment.