An old Punjabi man named Baldev tells his granddaughter, Suman, about his childhood in Lahore and his best friend Yusuf. The two boys were separated during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, and he has not seen his friend since. Suman decides to find him, using Google Search to find the park, the old gate and the sweet shop that Yusuf now runs.
The story follows her searches, then phone calls and airline tickets, and ends with a surprise reunion timed for her grandfather’s birthday. The film, called “Reunion,” was released by Google India on November 13, 2013, was created by the agency Ogilvy and runs about three and a half minutes.
It did not talk about search features. It showed what a search box can do for a person, and it did so around one of the most sensitive events in South Asian history. The film went viral in both India and Pakistan, and news outlets wrote about it. One report at the time counted more than 1.5 million views.
It also refused to treat the two countries’ hostile past as a given. That choice, more than any product feature, is why it is still remembered.
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