REEL CRICKET

With scores of fan-edited videos emerging after every IPL game, Gomesh S tries to understand how the content creators conceptualise, the underlying factors, and more...

SHORTLY after Chennai Super Kings beat Rajasthan Royals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday evening to keep their play-off hopes alive, a 20-second reel was posted on "Zero Level Creativity', an Instagram handle. In that video, Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Virat Kohli could be seen talking to someone on the phone, with the background dialogue, 'enna da nadakuthu anga? Oruthanum phone eduka matreenga.. Ulla vanthavana mudichingala, ilaya? (What is happening there? No one is picking calls...

AIRWAYS 7 HONI eter has captured the streets, all you have to do is go to YouTube and check for edits. If there are videos of their batting/bowling with mass songs/bgms or narration of a movie storyline that suits their career arc, then you know they have arrived.

The fascinating aspect about it is how quickly the creators come up with ideas, pop culture references and put their content out. Most of the short clips have to be put out an hour or so after the match while they take time to create long conceptualised edits. For Dhasvanth, a 19-year-old engineering student from Nadid you guys finish off the guy who came in?)’makkal, it has completely changed the way he from the teaser of the latest Rajinikanth-starrer Coolie. The dialogue runs with clippings of Rajasthan batters getting out of the game, followed by a momentary silence.

Then comes the voice of Rajinikanth, saying, "Mudichudlama? (Finish once and for all?)," with the visual of CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad standing at the crease. It all happens in the first five seconds of the reel. For the remaining part, it is just clippings of Chennai batters hitting fours and sixes and the points table where Chennai went back to third place with Anirudh Ravichander's mass number from Coolie teaser running in the background.