DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

From the Cola Ad War involving Bollywood bigwigs such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor to Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai and Akshay Kumar; a some-what similar trend has now been embraced by leading Cell Phone brands.

Couple of months back Abhishek Bachchan was seen on the tele-box trying to impress the opposite sex with his charm but instead they were more impressed with his stylish MotoSlvr. The MotoSlvr ad was mainly focused on Abhishek’s starry attitude and unconventional looks with a little bit of humor throw in.

And then we had the MotoRokr commercial. Unlike the previous commercials this one is out-n-out hilarious. Since MotoRokr main feature is its superior music quality, the Rokr ad shows Abhishek swinging his head from one side to another, singing a rap song, wacky dance moves (all side-effects of using MotoRokr) even when at film shoots and thereby causing nuisance to his director and fellow artistes. Bachchan Jr. and Motorola enjoyed full attention with these publicity stunts without much effort, considering the absence of star-power association with competing mobile brands.

However today, Abhishek has one of the most popular Bollywood star pitching against him and his brand – Hrithik Roshan backed up by Sony Ericsson W200i.

Now if you look at it from Abhishek’s point of view, competition with someone like Hrithik Roshan ain’t a stroll in the park. Especially when the rival whopped his butt (in all departments, shall I say) in this year’s blockbuster release Dhoom 2. I remember watching this film in one of those (now ancient) single screen theatres and every time Abhishek and Hrithik shared the same screen space, the guy behind us would yell “Abey koi es watchman ko hataoo Hero ke samane se”, not a nice compliment by any standards.

So yeah, it’s definitely not a pleasant sight watching Roshan baba doing what he does best and that’s dancing to thumping beats and showing off his toned body muscles, promoting Sony Ericsson – atleast not for the Motorola folks.

But when you compare the two commercials i.e. MotoRokr and W200i, I personally find Abhishek’s comedy jig far more entertaining and eye-friendly than Hrithik’s dancing skills. And I have my reasons.

Firstly, Hrithik is barely present in the ad (just a few seconds in the beginning and the last few at the end). Secondly the ad feel and look seems to be a poor imitation of Nike’s fantastic cricket commercial (Indian roads, buses, stopped traffic). Thirdly, his dancing action appears to be more gym workout oriented than anything else. And lastly, the attitude with which Hrithik says “The Thump is here” just sounds to prudish rather than cool.

On the other hand, we have Abhishek breaking down to a song during the filming of important scenes, wearing get-ups of popular Hindi film characters and the classic death scene at end. In simple words, the MotoRokr ad gives a total fun and jhakass image to its product and is quite innovative in its concept.

So even though Hrithik totally overshadowed Bachchan Jr. in their last (and mostly only) film together and even though I find Sony phones far more superior than the ones manufactured by Motorola but in battle of the cell phone ads, Abhishek along with MotoRokr completely outclasses Hrithik’s effort.

MotoRokr featuring Abby Baby

Sony Ericsson W200i featuring thumping Kkrish

Which one do you prefer?