When Rabindranath Tagore wrote the song Ami chini go chini tomare, ogo bideshini (I know who you are, faraway woman), little did he know how literally his lyrics would have been taken by the state government many decades later.

The new ad to attract tourists in West Bengal actually features a foreign travelling through the state, replete with picture-perfect sequences starring all the expected sights: crossing Howrah Bridge in an Ambassador taxi, a meal of steamed mustard fish, the pleasures of Darjeeling tea, and a dreamlike climax with the state’s glamorous brand ambassador in a seemingly empty Kolkata tram.

Not surprisingly, there are both bouquets and brickbats on social media.