“Oops it 6.15… the movie was to start at 6…”
“Shucks! We’ll be missing the start.”
Running inside we settled quickly in our seats. Popcorn tub in the hands, we started concentrating on the movie.
“AnishthaDevta, mai khud Harry Potter ko maarna chahungi.”
“Nahi, Bellatrix, use mai hi khatam karunga.”
“Yaha humare beech aaj ek mehmaan hai jinka naam hai Charity Burbage. Ye Hogwarts ki teacher reh chuki hai.”
“Mujhe ek chhadi ki jarurat hai.. Lucius tumhari chhadi.”
And the end
“TAKSHAM BHARSHANAM”
Popcorn spilled down! Watching “Harry Potter aur Maut ke Tohfe.”
It felt as though the spell was actually casted on us. The die-hard Harry Potter fans that we are couldn’t digest the ‘Hindi’ “Avada Kedavra”. What an idiotic dubbing of these real standard movies. Sad part is… in my city, most of the English movies are shown Hindi dubbed. But for that reason, you cannot leave the chance of watching a mega movie on the silverscreen.
Fast Five… the latest in the Fast and the Furious series was showcased in Hindi here. We friends planned to watch this action-packed thriller still. The locales, the cast all just awesome. The action was adrenaline pumping enough. With an acceleration of every speed demon, the adrenaline surged up. And then came up the super-macho Vin Diesel saying in not-so-his-kind-of- voice, “Kya mujhe achcha lagta hai ki meri behen yaha BANJARO ki Zindagi jee rahi hai?”
Thud was the sound of the break applied to the Adrenaline drive and came out the laughter we couldn’t hide. Man! The dialogue just seemed awful. But somehow we all had a gala time watching the movie just to mock off almost every word they uttered. “Mai Chacha ban-ne waala hu” “Apun to bhai ekdum theek hai” Pathetic.
The worst of dubbing I have heard till date is that of the whole Harry Potter series. The spells, the chants… Baaaap re! They get onto nerves with it. Bhangam… Bhrashtam…Piditam… and the funniest… Pitrudev Sanrakshanam…
I just sometimes feel like meeting the great gurus who help dub the movies. Ask them, “itni shudhdha hindi aap khud prayog mei laate hai kya har din?” Even the people who haven’t studied much of English come up with simple words in the routine talks. We ourselves talk more of Hinglish these days . Plus even if we use hindi that’s not so complicated as we get to listen in these English movies. The God is called Bhagwaan or at the most Devta conventionally. They make use of ‘Ishwar’. Arey even we’ll take a long pause if we wish to utter that.
Potholes of this dubbing -
1. The kind of language they use is not one we use of a daily basis.
2. The voice over given NEVER suits character.
3. Trying to use the tapori language to show the bad guys. Can they ever use it?
4. Would do if the typical words are just kept the same. Don’t have to say ‘Prayog’ for ‘use’. Rarely people will say that.
5. If at all dubbing in local vernacular language increases the audience, it hardly does. People those who have a fantasy for Hollywood will be the only janta watching.
Hindi is still national. A dub in local language results in “You bastard!” turning to “Haramkhora!” Marathi dubbed Cliff Hanger… one hell an experience.
May be a hindi dubbed movie appeals the audience who don’t understand English that pretty well. But it disheartens the frenzy crowds who would love to watch it as they are. Only few times can it be tolerated just to mock off the fun lingo.
Still the trend continues. And we’ll get to listen more of
‘Dainik Jaadugar’
‘Tisri shatabdi ka trishul’
‘Mayajal’
And many more…
