Things that Give You a Kick in 'Kick'

Kick has quite some kick. I mean, come on, if you don't like Salman Khan, you just wouldn't read this review. But if you like his movies even a little, then yes, the movie gives some kick. There are a few low spots in the movie, but most of time it gives you something awesome. Be it the action, dialogs, small subplots, hero or villain.

Here is some of what works with Kick and what not.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Yes, this guy may be picking up filmfare and IIFA and all those awards that come for the best villain for his huge sinister laugh alone. He does it repeatedly, and yet you never think it's too much. The only scene where Salman looked a little low in the entire movie is where he tries to copy Nawaz's laugh. Nawaz is that good.

Na Bolun Main to Kaleja Phoonke, Jo Bol doon to Zabaan Jale Hai..

The master of words is here again. He keeps writing as such, but somehow for Vishal Bhardwaj's movies, it gets special. Though in the last year he's written only for Vishal's movies. Directed by him, or at least produced by him. Anyway, this was not about whose-movie-is-it. This is about the song, that I love, and probably you do too.

First off, yes, the song does remind you of Dil to Bachcha Hai ji, because of some clear similarities. The song is sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, the words are utterly simple, though the meaning conveyed is deep, and most importantly, the music is quite minimalist.

***** mein Dum Hai to Band Karwa Lo

[Disclaimer: The article is a discussion on usage of some slang words in a song, and hence contains some bad words.]

Yep. That's like an open invitation now. We're singing like that. That's the quality of our lyrics now. If you have it in you, stop us.

My first thought on the line was, 'Have I heard it right?'

And then I heard it again, and a few more times, and I knew it WAS indeed what Honey Singh was singing. Some comments on my blog tried to convince me it was 'Kaan' and not 'Gaand'. I don't know where the assumption came from. Whether it was people who read the lyrics on music channels [which pick many of their lyrics from popular lyrics websites many times, at times with mistakes, though in this case many websites have written clearly Gaand and one, a really popular one, says it's Kaan, but marks it with a star] or people who still had so much belief in our censor boards that they think the word cannot be Gaand and didn't believe their Kaans.

The Story Behind 'Jo Bhi Main Kehna Chahoon'

I was always, always mystified by those nine words.

"Jo bhi main kehna chaahoon, barbaad karein alfaaz mere."

"जो भी मैं कहना चाहूं, बर्बाद करें अल्फ़ाज़ मेरे।"

I always wanted to know where the words came from, what was the inspiration, what made a writer write those words that undermine the value of words themselves, and with such a simplicity, in such an admission, that it sounds like a very simple truth.

गुलज़ार - एक इंटरव्यू [Gulzar - An Interview]

इन्सानी दिमाग भी अजीब चीज़ होती है। इन्सान कभी पहाड़ चाहता तो कभी समन्दर, कभी धूप चाहिए तो कभी छाँव। और कभी कभी धूप से छाँव में आकर भी चाहता है कि अब बारिश ही हो जाये। मुख़्तसर सी बात ये है कि हमारी इच्छाएं कभी ख़त्म नहीं होतीं। शायद यही वजह है कि जहाँ गुलज़ार साहब को मंच पर इंटरव्यू देखते वक़्त जहां हम बल्लियों उछल रहे थे, कुछ वक़्त गुजरने के बाद दिल में कुछ शिकायतें ठहर गयी थीं। अब वो कितनी जायज़ हैं और कितनी नहीं ये आप हिसाब कीजिये, लेकिन पहले गुलज़ार साहब के उस गीतमय इंटरव्यू की कुछ झलकियां आपके लिए।

इंटरव्यू की शुरुआत में एक चीज़ जिस की ओर भावना जी ने ध्यान दिलाया वो ये कि गुलज़ार साहब ने पिछले दशक में तकरीबन बत्तीस फिल्मों के लिए गीत लिखे जो उनके पिछले दशक के काम से भी कहीं ज़्यादा है। इस दशक में भी वो करीब सोलह फिल्मों के लिए गीत लिख चुके हैं।

खैर, आज के कार्यक्रम का ढांचा कुछ इस तरह से था कि कुछ गीत बजाये गए और गुलज़ार साहब ने ये बताया कि उस गीत का जन्म किस तरह से हुआ। कई जगहों पर गीत के बनने की कहानियाँ मिलीं तो कहीं कहीं गीतों से जुड़े लोग और यादें।

पहला गीत था गुलज़ार साहब का पहला गीत, मोरा गोरा अंग लई ले। इस गीत से जुड़ी कई सारी कहानियां थीं। पहली कहानी - गुलज़ार साहब को ये गीत कैसे मिला।

Taakeedein Does Not Really Mean Warning

Well, I was searching if anyone really had given the meaning of taakeedein on the web and was disappointed to see that it was there, but it wasn't the right meaning.

A little more search told me that it was not just Miss Malini who went wrong, even the producer Anubhav Sinha went on to say that Taaqeed meant Warning and worse, warning in Urdu was taakeed. My guess is this is yet another case of falling in love with a fancy sounding Urdu word without knowing its exact meaning.

[The last such case I remember was dabangg, which arbaaz said meant fearless, though it's not the exact meaning of Dabangg. However, fearless was not too far from Dabangg. Also, dabangg is a Hindi word.]

No, there is absolutely nothing that Urdu could do about it. It's a beautiful language with words that sound just fascinating. But it's people who need to know what the word really means before using them at such big level.

Let me put my case forward.

First of all, I had an idea of what taaqeed/ taakeed means. But to avoid any doubt, I opened my dictionary [Oxford, Hindi-English] which had the word since it used to be kind of common. I remember hearing the word and some of its forms from my grandmother. Anyway, the dictionary says:

1. strict instruction; demand, request.
2. compulsion, coercion

taakeed karna: To enjoin, to instruct, to caution.

[Yep, finally the last one gets close.]

The second one, an Urdu Hindi dictionary says:

ताक़ीद - कोई बात ज़ोर देकर कहना, हठ, किसी बात का हुक्म देना।

i.e., Taaqeed - To say something with an emphasize, persistence/obstinacy, to order something.

And if that was not enough, checking with Google Translate [which is not a very reliable resource for tough words], Emphasis, force, stress when you try Urdu-English, and 'reminder' when you try Hindi-English.

As I said in the Explanation for Taaqeed, if you have to pay someone and he comes and asks you for the money repeatedly, he's doing taakeedein. To me, it's more of demand, less of warning. If he gets a gun, it'd be a different case though. ;)

If you still are confused about the word, you can search more, or simpler, go on to believe it means warning, but we've warned you, it does not.

Positive and Negative: Translating Bollywood Songs

Translating Bollywood songs is a tough thing. To be more general, translating any kind of poetry is a tough thing. But when it comes to poetry (or lyrics) that millions of people already have etched in their memories, it becomes even tougher.

I have been translating Hindi songs to English for more than three years now. And while I get a lot of appreciation from almost all those who cannot understand those songs (whether they know Hindi or not), it's a common complaint that the translations get very literal, and the beauty of poetry is lost.

Well, that's what is called 'Lost in Translation.'

When I translate a song, the thing I worry the most about is not the 'beauty' of the song, but the meaning of words and sentences, and at the same time the essence of the song. I know many times the translations look funny, but that is natural when you try to put the idioms, phrases and poetry of one language in another where not just the language but the culture is entirely different.

Also, when one reads the translation of lyrics with the purpose of understanding the original lyrics, one cannot expect me to write poetry myself, because the purpose here isn't to be poetic, but to be explanatory.

What people don't seem to notice today, on the other hand, is the hopeless lyrics that are put into songs these days, something that used to happen earlier as well, but with less frequency, I believe. However, when the same song is translated, the hopeless lyrics make hopeless translations and while people were busy listening to the music of the actual song, it gets noticed in the translation.

I remember, one of the popular songs last year was chikni kamar pe teri mera dil phisal gaya, strongly ye jaadu tera mujh pe chal gaya, which didn't take me even ten minutes to translate, because there was no poetry in the song.

In the same year, I tried a translation of O Ri Duniya by Piyush Mishra, and it took me more than an hour and a half to do that.

For both the songs, translations are available most probably on BollyMeaning alone, and it's sad to see that Chikni kamar has more than triple the number of hits compared to O ri Duniya. However, one stat to consider is that O ri duniya is three year old now, so it's probably not that bad either.

It's good to see that there are more people trying to write translations of songs today, but most of them still lack a depth. For example, I read a translation recently where 'khoya khoya chaand, khula aasmaan' was translated to 'the lost lost moon, the wide open sky'. Leave that bad a translation, but still, most would translate it to 'the moon is lost', which would give you an idea of the thing, but still a non-native would not understand the significance of 'khoya khoya' as compared to just 'khoya'. That's something that comes after some serious thought is put into translation, and mostly requires some experience. [incidentally, the song is not translated on BollyMeaning till writing of this post.]

Either way, personally, the good thing about BollyMeaning is that I get to explore a lot of good music in some real depth. While I may waste ten minute intervals translating things like 'Strongly ye jaadu' for people, those same people make sure I don't miss a single good song. Plus, many times there are lines which we just hear, like, and repeat, without giving them much thought. With translations at hand, that simply doesn't happen. I get to, have to, go deep into every single line and that is a pleasure you don't always find by just listening to the songs casually.

As they say, jin dhoondha tin paayiyaan, gehre paani paith. That is, the one who goes into deep waters to search, finds. And I find some really good meanings of lyrics, poetry and life with BollyMeaning.

Chennai Express: The Honey Singh Drama

I was surprised, and not pleasantly, when I heard Yo Yo Honey Singh was singing for Vishal-Shekhar in Chennai Express.

I am not against Honey Singh's rapping style. He's a talented guy who does sing well. But I have never liked the person that Honey Singh is, simply because of the way he deals with and talks about girls. So I was surprised, or say, shocked, when I heard Vishal-Shekhar, who have been known for their character more than their music, with especially Vishal, who is so vocal for social issues, are getting Honey Singh to sing for them. That too, with none other than SPB. Truth be told, I couldn't believe this.

For some time, I was thinking of asking Vishal and Shekhar on Twitter if this was really true, when I found out that the reports about Honey Singh singing for the movie were false, and apparently Shekhar himself made that clear.

That's great. Thanks V-S. Never mind Yo-Yo. I hope you too will leave the days of your bad name behind and be good someday soon.

Update: As you probably know already, Honey Singh is singing Lungi Dance in Chennai Express. In the words of an anonymous commenter, that's a big slap on my face. Not sure, though I hated the song like anything. Still, it's there on BollyMeaning. Btw, it's supposed to be a tribute to Rajinikanth Ji. I wonder if someone has asked the superstar how he liked it.

Update: As expected, this seems to have created an issue between Vishal-Shekhar and Shahrukh Khan, and the duo, originally the judges of Indian Idol Junior, were not present at the show in the episode where Shahrukh Khan came to promote Chennai Express.

Lyrics, Meaning and Singing: Sawaar Loon vs Sanwaar Loon [Critique]

Amit Trivedi, for the first time, has a discredit to his name. I do not know if this has happened before this, but for the first time I feel he has been negligent, and the cost is that one of his songs irritates me, and many more, though not all, not even most.

Reason? One of the best songs of Lootera, at least one of the best could-be songs of Lootera, Sanwaar Loon, is sung with lot of irritating mistakes by Monali Thakur, and it reaches the audience like that. Even the title of the song, which should have been Sanwaar Loon, is Sawaar Loon, the former meaning 'I would decorate/adorn' and the latter meaning 'get a rider', if at all meaning something.

This is not all. Bhanvre are Bhavre, Jhonke are Jhoke, Kyoon is Kyoo, and it goes on, e.g. 'Ye saari koyale bani hai aaj daakiya' almost as if the singer got a bad cold while singing.

It's not like we haven't heard such things in the past, but this seems to have happened for the first time with such a beautiful song, a song that could be heard on loop, and remembered for ages, and that is what makes us sad. As for the blame, I'd blame the music director here, as the singer is a newbie, at least to this kind of song, and doesn't boast of Hindi as her first language. But Amit Trivedi is a music director who seems to take every small thing into account, so how he missed the 'talaffuz' in the only version of the introductory song of an Anurag Kashyap movie, is questionable.

Oh, I have beaten the boy to death. But that's the result of killing a must-have-been-a-favorite song. Hope they take care of this in future. Amitabh Sir, I hope you too are listening.

On the Controversy regarding Dhan te nan

or Mad censorship in India

Once again I was watching TV with a friend and MTV beeped Teli ka tel from Kaminey's Dhan te nan. I don't know what is the political status of the song and if the words are actually supposed to be banned as per the governments. But then here is my take on the words and the 'offensive' nature of theirs.

As per those who have banned the words, I can tell you that their problem is with the Hindi word 'teli' which is, according to them, a caste. As a matter of fact, the word is used for someone who deals in oil. But since India has a caste system that was based on works people did, it is a caste as well. And since it's considered to be a 'lower' caste (which more than anything serves the purpose of politicians who cash this high and low of castes), this has been banned, irrespective of the fact the song and the line has nothing to do with the community.

A similar problem was observed with the lyrics of Aaja Nachle when the line 'kahe mochi bhi khud ko sunaar hai' (even a cobbler call himself a jeweller) was removed from a song. Here again, on the similar grounds, Mochi (cobbler) and Sunaar (goldsmith) were declared castes and the song was called a casteist one.

Interestingly, this may be worth a notice that mochi and sunaar are words of daily use, and as far as I know, at least ninety-nine times out of hundred they are used for the respective professions, especially in case of mochi, which is the keyword here for being the lower one if they are supposed to be castes. AND that there are no alternative words that can be used for these professions, which may not signify castes at all.

So, the case is something like, either the politicians will have to make some changes in the dictionaries and add new, non-casteable words for the professions (consider how it'll make the poetry) or if things keep going like that, there will be a number of words and thoughts our poets will never be able to say out loud. Think of a greater misfortune for a country which is proud of its literature in not one but many languages.

And yes, the politicians do not limit themselves to the poets of today, they have tried editing the best of the best, even the likes of Munshi Premchand, stating such petty reasons. See THIS POST if you're interested in that one.