Wednesday, September 15, 2004

US-unfriendly titles from Bollywood

When I mean US, I mean people for whom Hindi is a foreign language (sadly that includes a lot of ABCDs -- no fault of theirs -- and a few wretched desis, who probably had fundamental issues with the language even before they migrated).

* Lakshya: Now from an ITrans POV, the English spelling of the title is correct. Pronouncing it correctly is admittedly tricky (especially given the jo.D at the end). But lakshay (The French Akshay?), the most popular adulteration[sic] , ain't getting any points. And the playful ghaaTii version (not counted of course, since it's intended only in fun) is lakshyaa. All in all, Farhan Akhtar's film got tongues all screwed up.

* Baghban: For a movie that scored big business (especially abroad, where a whole slew of expats went gaga over its clichéd family values[sic]), this one found no takers in the correct pronunciation department, despite a title song!! The erroneous version? baagh ban (A new type of ban waDaa? wild bread?). Yeargh!

* Sssshhh!: This one, to be fair, stumps every human being on earth. How on earth would you ask for this at your favourite video store? Prepare for a host of people going ROTFLMAO ...

Elsewhere on this blog, an old draft finally makes it to being an official post {being a collection of notes on the final Harry Palmer film and Mani Rathnam's second Hindi film}. Incidentally, another post makes it out of the trenches above -- reactions to In the Cut and Lakshya.

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