Thursday, January 24, 2008
Toba Tek Singh & Sinisa Mihailovich..
As anyone who has played the game will tell you, there are only a few things more pleasurable than kicking a football. Far easier than fighting your way to the batting crease esp. when the bat is not yours, or wresting a racquet from an obstinate peer and as I say, more fun. Of course one only gets to play most of the time with peers only slightly gifted than you are, one-trick ponies with an occasional sleight-of-foot or a clever step-over or the rather more common powerful kick ( Ed-a.k.a a Thood !!) but rarely does one glimpse the shooting prowess of a lad seen in a recent telecom commercial.
Two lads face off on opposite sides of what appears to be a national border between two warring nations, one accidentally kicks his football over to the other’s territory and implores him to return it. ( They speak, or rather one speaks ( pertinently the one who wants the ball back !) Tachelhit, a form of French spoken in Morocco where this ad was shot ) . And now the Pato in the making surfaces, silent and strong…
The potential ball-stealer marks a Roberto Carlos run-up , kicks away impeding pebbles and kicks hard. The camera captures the ball-owner sprinting to his left as fast as he can. And the shot pans to a front-on picture of the b.o. finally moving……right to catch the ball safely unlike a Paul Robinson. Incredible, if we had a kid who make the ball swerve that much, I am sure the Real Madrids of the world would be queuing up to snag the prodigy !! Or is it a mere editing jerk ?
PS—What goes Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce on the first and Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce-Bounce- Bounce-Bounce on the second ?
Novak Djokovic in his pre-serve motion.
Poor Maria who saw the humour at the US Open now threatens to imitate him, and I think she’s right—it is quite a boring service action !!
