The True 'Lier' of Pop Culture: Vennu Mallesh

Every other day there's a new brand, a new product, or a new star, vying for our attention. Marketers try to come up with new catch-phrases, 'revolutionary' ideas and campaigns to stand out from the crowd, but continue to add to the clutter. While everyone is trying to the best, there are a handful of geniuses who believe in creating something so bad, that it's good. And there you have it, the genesis of 'Very Good Bad'.

It must suck to be Vennu Mallesh. Or so we think. If you don't know who Vennu is, I seriously don't know which planet you are living in. If you still don't know, Vennu Mallesh is the genius behind probably the greatest song ever composed about life, 'It's my life what ever I wanna do.' Vennu became an overnight sensation with his profound video crossing over 3 million views on YouTube. You've really seen nothing until you see this:

Shot in the same style as Dhanush's 'Why this Kolaveri Di', this song changed the lives of millions of people all over the world, with its heartfelt lyics such as 'I always search good in bad...I also search bad in good' having a much deeper meaning than 90% of song lyrics these days.

On the surface of it all, there are about a 1435672 grammatical errors, sentence formation errors and spelling mistakes. Above all, the song doesn't make any sense. But wait, neither did 2001: A Space Odyssey or any of David Lynch's movies. However, both of the aforementioned works have a very niche audience who appreciate experimental and symbolic film-making. The rest never gave a fuck. So how exactly did Vennu manage to go viral and get the entire world to sing his song?

Yeah. That happened.

To explain the Vennu phenomenon, you must understand the concept of marketing and the 'culture code'. The concept of a 'culture code' was devised by Clotaire Rapaille, one of the world's most renowned marketing specialists. He is known for advising the world's biggest politicians, advertisers and brands on how to influence people's unconscious decision making.

Rapaille, based on his highly secret methods of consumer research, comes up with a 'code', maybe a word or set of words that have the power to subconsciously influence people's decisions. Instead of asking  what people want, he focuses on the why. He identifies a 'collective cultural unconscious' that consists of unstated needs and wants of people in a certain culture, and provides the code that will sub-consciously force the consumer to desire and want the particular product or service that the code is meant for.

Trying to follow Rapaille's footsteps, most advertisers and marketers have fallen flat on their faces with dismal failures. However, there are a very few set of people who have been successful. Vennu Mallesh is one of them. Hell, he's probably the most successful of them all.

While Rapaille comes up with one 'code word' in order to lure potential consumers, Vennu's sensational single has code words in almost every sentence of the lyrics. What might appear as ridiculous is sub-consciously striking a chord with our Reptilian Brain, the home of all of our intrinsic instincts. Take the following excerpt of the lyrics for example:

'My teacher scolds me that I neglect education,

She don't know I collect real education.'

Each and every one of us has always felt like 'another brick in the wall' because of high school education, or even college for that instance. The society, including our teachers, relatives and above all our own parents for that matter continue to drill it into our system that a traditional education is mandatory to be successful. But how does that explain the fact that most successful people are school dropouts? Vennu says it as it is, with pathetic yet honest choice of words. But that's exactly the point, the poor English is another sub-conscious effort to attack your Reptilian Brain. And admit it, it's worked like a charm. Every. Single. Word.

Or sample the penultimate verse, with profoundness in every single word:

I always search Good in Bad...
I also search Bad in Good.....

I have no words. How can two simple sentences with incorrect English have so much depth in them?

Much like his legendary predecessors such as Sam Anderson and T.Rajendar, Vennu is often misjudged and mistaken to be retarded. But go through his Facebook posts, and you'll know that he's a highly intelligent, culturally aware, no-nonsense individual with influences deeply rooted in pop culture.

Do the words seem familiar? They're a rehashed version of the tagline of 'Social Network'.

If this man writes his own copy, Ogilvy should hire him like right now. And it's an honor to know that he is inspired by one of the greatest TV shows ever made, Breaking Bad. Or should I say, #BreakingGoodBad.

And the world goes crazy:

Sometimes, it is difficult to explain these intangible forces that surround us, influencing us every now and then without us even knowing that the forces exist. We might make fun of Vennu, call him an inbred or a retard, a mutation, but we're the ones getting fooled. It's like he's The Dark Knight, inflicting pain upon himself, sacrificing everything for the sake of a greater good. You can love him, you can hate him, but you can never ignore him. 

I believe Steve Jobs said the following words just to describe Vennu Mallesh:

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

PS: Don't believe me. I'm a true liar.

I am the Pseudo-Middle Class.

I was never poor. Neither was I ever rich.

I am a child of the working class. I am the one with a childhood spent on convincing my Father to buy me a tennis ball. I am the one who failed most of the times due to unsatisfactory persuasion skills.

I am the one who grew up listening to The Backstreet Boys, then Blue, then Linkin Park and Eminem and delved into Metallica, Eagles, Cream, Led Zeppelin and saw the rich kids listening to lyric-less Disco music. I am the one who watched them buy the iPod, when I had saved enough to buy a cassette-playing Walkman.

I am the one who wasn't allowed to go for movies with my rich friends till the 10th grade. I am the one who had to lie in order to do the same. I am the one who got caught, and slapped across the face for aspiring.

I am the one who watched a rich friend of mine gifted a cell phone in 2000 when I thought it was only for aristocrats who attend weekly business meetings overseas. I was the one who asked my parents for a cell phone 5 years later and got laughed at. And then glared at.

I am the one who could not study what I wanted to. I am the one who fell into the engineering trap, like so many of my brothers. I am the one who stuck through it all and spent years trying to fix those years of obsoletion. I am the one who watched scores of others who were rich enough to study what I wanted to. I am the one who watched them flush double the amount of educational funds down the drain where my dreams went downstream.

I am the one who watched peers who hardly passed any of the college courses, who knew hardly any English, go on to study further in London, Manchester, Rochester, San Francisco, Austin, New York, Los Angeles and even Miami. I am the one who asked the same people the capital of The United States and watched most of them answer incorrectly. I am the one who still can't really afford to study abroad. I am the one who watches pictures of distant friends on Facebook going to Mardi Gras without being able to pronounce it.

I am the one who tries saving up for NH7 Weekender and fails, and the one who watches people flock to a Deadmau5 concert, pronouncing it as 'Dead Maw 5'.

I am the one who tries to peer through dark tinted windows of the Jaguars and the Audis and the BMWs while sitting on my 125cc motorbike, being punished by the Sun for not being rich.

I am the one who marvels at brilliantly made iPhone commercials on Youtube through the cracked screen of my Micromax that has a mind of its own. I am the one who tries to place the charging point of the phone in a particular 33-degree angle, because it won't charge otherwise. I am the one who can't afford to buy a phone at the moment.

I am the one who is awestruck watching continuous episodes of Mad Men, in the hopes of becoming a tenth of the person Don Draper is. I am the one who tries to crack the code in advertising to make someone else rich. I am the one who makes just enough to make ends meet, and I never do. I am the one who gets stuck with 400 bucks for the last ten days of the month. I am the one who tries to crack a marketing campaign based on my situation, again to make someone else rich.

I am the one who buys the cheap whiskey. I am the one who can't afford a drink inside a club on a regular basis. I am the one who wants to lose weight but can't afford Subway more than once or twice a week. I am the one who cannot afford a decent gym membership.

I am the one who is directly affected by the price rise. I am the one who cries over paying 12 bucks for a 10 buck-Coke, because I want to enjoy it cold.

I am the one who looks down upon the poor, but become one of them by the 25th of every month.

I am the one who wishes for more hours a day to do something productive. I am the one who watches others while away their days in lounges and bars and video game parlours or under a tree getting stoned throughout the day.

I am the one who watches the rich pay dowry equal to the combined net worth of five of my lifetimes. I am the one who watches the rich fight in bars. I am the one who watches the obese kids order a Happy Meal with a frown on their face.

I am the one who watches old classmates celebrate their birthdays in yachts in Bombay and on cruises in Bangkok. I am the one who saves up for 2 months to backpack across one of the poorest countries in the world.

I am the one with the dreams. I am the ones with the aspirations. I am the one who wants to be. I am the one who wants to do.

I am the Pseudo-Middle Class. The Working Class Hero.

And I might be able to become like you. But you'll never become me.