Made In India: A Titan Story Is A Perfect Spiel Of Bharat’s Aspiration | Part 2

The series continues to surprise you with happiness and joy of being proud of Bharat. The makers have utilised every other character apart from the main leads to weave in sub plots and communicate important narratives through them.

The character arc of Akash, Gaurav and Megha stands as a testament of it. Akash is cautious about his choices, even questioning his friend Xerxes at every step of the way. He acts as a strong support. The spirit of sacrifice of Akash for Titan encapsulates in itself the overall theme of the series which stresses on how well intentioned individuals were able to achieve greatness by making big sacrifices.

Read More: Made In India: A Titan Story Is A Perfect Spiel Of Bharat’s Aspiration | Part 1

The family woes of Akash

as his father suffers from ‘Alzheimer’ depicts the everyday struggle which a human faces even when he is fighting to build something meaningful. The deteriorating state of his father’s memory brings in immense pain to a son even when he has to prioritise other goals. Such sacrifices tell a human tale beyond products and its success. Also, Akash’s genuine anguish on not being made part of critical decisions, depicts the side of human nature that craves to be included in every decision of a venture he has guided since its inception. The characters of Gaurav and Megha depicted the energy of youth.

There is a good blend of innovativeness and learning depicted through these characters. The highlighting of Gaurav’s Tamil knowledge due to his educational background at IIT Madras or him knowing Japanese due to student exchange program, shows how education is always useful throughout life.

Similarly, Gaurav’s problem-solving attitude and the ability to sort issues clearly highlighted the attitude of the youth in that era. Megha as a young educated women employee stood out for her innovativeness. Her character provided the ultimate brand taglines for Titan. At a time when female employees were limited, she supported her mother through her work. The scale of a female thought depicted through Megha can serve as a role model in the present time.

Megha and Gaurav also symbolised fierce loyalty and unwavering faith in the leadership. They never questioned any decision of their bosses, even when the decisions were against them. As in the case when there was a new Marketing Manager appointed to work above Megha in spite of her being a founding team member. Similarly Gaurav passionately defended Akash when his role in Titan was being questioned, Gaurav boldly stated that Akash’s role in the company was synonymous to a mother, mentioning “Maa itna kuch karti hai humare liye lekin hum unka role nahi define kar paate”. He further stated that “is equation se apne Maa ko nikal diya toh parivar toh nahi tik paega”, highlighting the pivotal role of Akash in keeping the Titan family together being one of the founding members. This scene also depicted our work culture where more emphasis is given on impact created rather than being attached to compartments of role definition. The cute love story and the eventual marriage of Gaurav and Megha is a heart melting plot as well.

The series stands out for its treatment of our Samskriti. The nuanced depiction of the Parsi culture through the dresses and dialogues of Xerxes and his wife and also the Marathi culture through Megha and his mother, are the ones to behold. The props are used beautifully to further this depiction. The cooking of ‘Akuri’ by Xerxes for his wife and its taste based on the mood of Xerxes beautifully highlights the Parsi culture. The dish is symbolic of the relationship between a Parsi husband and wife as they go through different phases of life together.

The significance of ladoo in a Marathi household is highlighted very well through Megha and his mother. The offering of ladoo for everything auspicious is beautifully depicted. Be it the good news of a job or a marriage proposal, ladoo finds its celebratory place in multiple scenes. Similarly the use of ladoos to establish connection between individuals in difficult and challenging times is very well depicted.

A scene where a Japanese partner refuses to go ahead with inspection, but when offered a ladoo by Akash as a goodwill gesture even when the deal was not going through helped in breaking the ice and depicted how humans connect and bond over goodness. Ladoo as prop is merged into all important scenes whether it is a celebration of an event or in cases of uncertainty or challenges. Our household middle class Samskriti is also very well depicted through the role of Megha’s mother. Megha’s mother through her tiffin service not only ran the household but also helped someone like Ravindra, who couldn’t find respectable food to eat outside. Even when Megha protested against the tiffin service Megha’s mother continued the kitchen service even allowing Ravindra to eat inside her house. It was eventually Ravindra who helped Megha get a loan through his brother and helped her when nothing was working out as Xerxes along with his team was not able to procure a loan to kickstart the business. The good deeds of a mother helped the daughter at a very critical juncture in her career. This care and belongingness is the DNA of a middle class household.

The series also showcases the theme of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ in our Samskriti wonderfully well. The offering of Idli by the local tamil household woman to Gaurav and the french trainer even without knowing them just because they were hungry showed the beauty of Bharatiya hospitality and Samskriti. The French trainer loved the idli. Even when the French trainer was departing after training the local staff in watch making, the trained girls offered him idli as a sign of reverence for his contribution to their learning. The scene beautifully depicts our regards for our Gurus and makes one teary eyed.

The series also showcases how Titan valued diversity and the inclusion of women in the workforce in the initial days. This is depicted through the scene when there were not many women recruits, the team made additional effort to recruit women. It is shown that in that pursuit, they found women with varied skills which were necessary for being a worker in the factory, for example, a girl separating impurities from rice gets hired as she possessed the steadiness of the hand and the concentration required for a worker.

The company even made efforts to remove every roadblock facing women employees. This was visible in the scene when some random goons harassing women employees were arrested on the complaint of women employees. Speedy action helped women employees continue their jobs. Women workforce being pivotal to the success of Titan is one of the major themes beautifully depicted in the series. The training of the unskilled labour into making the world class product is simply entertaining, satisfying and so logical. Moreover, the series brilliantly showcases the role of bureaucracy and politicians in getting things done. It showcases how a nation can be built successfully if the political system, bureaucracy and the corporate world works in harmony.

All in all ‘Made In India: A Titan Story’, is a must watch. The series showcases the struggles of building a product that we use in our day to day lives very well. Be it the depiction of the struggle of entering the market during the license raj or dealing with smugglers and sales of north-south divide using uniform consumer pricing (UCP), be it the struggle of opening up a factory, or the issue of people preferring to buy their legacy mechanical watches over quartz watches in the early period of Titan, the series depicts the struggles of the founder and his team to impose on the audience the nuances and fundamentals of making a world class product.

The series comes like a breath of fresh air highlighting the unsung heroes of the corporate world who have been pivotal in shaping the destiny of Bharat. The series highlights their courage, will, vision, strength, family support, tenacity, ambitions, wit, leadership and their love for Bharat.

Titan is nostalgic to every Bharatiya but the struggle behind & beyond was never told nor shown, this series brings us the BTS of our pride worn on every wrist. Made in India tales need to be told. We are an aspiring society, our aspirations need that motivation and support. Such content addresses and boosts the genre of filmmaking that is aspirational and suitable to our present times.

Without going into the technical aspect of product making, which the 99% of the audience might not understand, many series can focus on the emotion, struggle, hard work and vision that works. The journey of many brands like HCL, Bajaj Auto, Fevicol, Mahindra and Mahindra, Asian Paints and others can be made to highlight the real life struggle of people who have made products that have made our lives simpler and helped Bharat rise and shine.

Even the story of Vande Bharat, Aadhaar and UPI deserves to be told to highlight the struggles of making something that has totally transformed how Bharatiyas interact with the government and also transact today. It is a shining precedent for the whole world. These stories need to be told with utmost honesty. Such stories will serve as perfect archetypes for motivating current and future generations to be wealth creators by solving real life issues which the country faces. Celebration of wealth creators and problem solvers is a must for a brighter future.

For far too long we have been told that wealth keepers and creators are bad and exploitative. It’s time that society shuns this legacy thought and focuses on creating a future generation of wealth creators. This series does just that through celebration of the Xerxes Desai and JRD Tata, who not only created a watch for the Bharatiyas but also stand today as a symbol of pride, nationalism, hope and world conquerors. Their life and hard work needs to be celebrated and watched by one and all. Lastly but most importantly more power to the Producer of this series for showing courage & commitment to bring such a story on screen & making all of us proud.