MUMBAI: Mudra Communications has won critical acclaim for its anti-smoking commercial Godfather.

London's popular show Tarrant On TV has decided to telecast the commercial, 'as it is a very good example of the power of advertising to highlight serious issues'. Tarrant on TV from the ITV Network in the UK celebrates the best of humorous commercials from around the world.

An official release says that the creative brains behind the commercial are the two Creative Directors of Mudra, Mumbai, Anup Chitnis and Rensil D'Silva who have previously worked on Channel [V]'s 'Gheun Taak'.

Godfather centres around a hit man who enters a restaurant to kill a mafia don called Frankie The Fist. Frankie who has an unlit cigarette in his mouth, refuses to die no matter how many times he is shot. The point of the commercial is that by not lighting up a cigarette, a person can add valuable minutes to his or her life.

This is the first of a two-commercial campaign, says the release. The second spot is a Bollywood take-off featuring look-alikes of Rajesh Khanna and Shetty the villain, both of whom are in the middle of a fight. Rajesh decides that a cigarette would be more useful than a gun in killing Shetty.

Both these spots are Mudra's in-house productions - written, directed and produced for Mudra by Anup and Rensil. The production design has been handled by UTV. The spots ran on music channel MTV as part of a public service campaign duringApril and May .

Tarrant on TV conducted by popular TV and radio host Chris Tarrant, celebrates the style and wit of advertising and looks at trends and idiosyncrasies of worldwide television. This is the programme's 17th year on British TV.

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