D OO W IAL LLY EC BO SP
WEEKLY MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 14, WEEKLY MAGAZINE, CEMBER JUNE 22, 4, 2014 201 Free with your copy off Hindustan Times
h o ras ing t d c o a ten che o d er lis sear nny t d ft e fu o nte du a ou’v pna ow t d, a u w Ur , y a A t h an p Yo e in bhie Apn earn tzerl se u l a urs K az d wi the co abhi “And ” an in S add ... K or nes girl ... us f ce a yle ell s oo -st d t w LJ an DD
Bahut saare. We sif ted through them all, to bring you the most memorab le ones. It’s almost like wa tching the films again!
ESSAYS/INTERVIEWS: SALIM KHAN, GULZAR, RAJKUMAR SANTOSHI, ABBAS TYREWALA, RAJAT ARORAA, SHAGUFTA RAFIQUE Use the hashtag #dialoguebaazi on Twitter to share your favourite dialogues with @HTBrunch, and why you think they’re the best!
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BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
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The Front Row
by Asad Ali & Saudamini Jain
Our Favourite Bollywood Cliches This week’s issue is all about #Dialoguebaazi. We’ll get into the specifics in a bit, but here’s a teaser “Bhagwan tera lakh-lakh shukr hai”
But nobody ever explained what a duwa is. Is it ‘get well soon’ or more like, ‘rest in peace’?
Not lakh, not crore. It’s always lakh-lakh
“Rakesh, main tumhare bacchhe ki maa banne wali hoon”
We’d rather say, in a chirpy Sadhna voice, ‘Rakesh, tum deddy banne waale ho’ “Meri beti toh laakhon mein ek hai”
Because you know, she can cook and sing and dance and play badminton
“Apne aap ko police ke hawaale kardo”
Too late for it, though. You’re busted, mister “Bhagwan, maine aaj tak tumse kuch nahi maanga”
‘Magar aaj tumse zindagi maang rahi hoon’
“Ek baar mujhe maa kahkar pukaro, beta”
Not creepy at all. #OedipusComplex
We need to bring this one back
“Beti toh paraya dhan hoti hai”
Sure, so long as no other dhan is transferred for her byaah “Police ne tumhe chaaron taraf se gher liya hai”
“Main kahan hoon?”
Hospital, genius. White aluminium beds, bandages, fussy nurses and the smell of disinfectant. Doesn’t look like Hawaii, does it?
But you will still escape, you smarty whatnot
“Kya isi din ke liye tujhe paal pos kar bada kiya tha?”
“Maine injection laga diya hai, kuch der mein hosh aa jayega”
This dialogue is precisely why we’re nervous around real docs. We need some of that warm reassurance from an old gentleman in a white coat in real life too
This is used for a variety of offences ranging from murder to something as heinous as, you know, falling in love “Qanoon ke haath bahut lambe hotey hain”
“Hum kisi ko munh dikhane ke kaabil nahi rahe”
At least five sets of parents are probably uttering these words right now “Operation karna hoga, 25 hazar rupaye lagenge”
The amount keeps changing. But why does nobody ever have any medical insurance?
“Maa ka doodh piya hai toh...”
Toh samajh lo gym ki bhi zaroorat nahi padti, na? “Tazeerat-e-hind, dafa 302 ke tahat, mulzim ko maut ki saza sunai jaati hai”
Itne lambe, that they take all of three hours to finally get justice done
Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK, THINKSTOCK
“Inhe dawaaon ki nahi, duwaayon ki zarurat hai”
“Main tumhara ehsaan zindagi bhar nahi bhoolungi”
Always followed by some woman screaming, “Naaahhiiiii...”
Brunch Opinions
“Agar kisi ne hilne ki koshish ki to bhoon ke rakh doonga”
T
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On The Brunch Radar
by Saudamini Jain
LOVE IT
n When people say ‘the Brunch’* n The ‘safety is more important n A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces, than feminism’ argument n That if you’re a girl walking in an anthology of short fiction Hauz Khas Village, at least three edited by David Davidar. It’s a boys will ask you to get them gorgeous book you must own “entry into Sosal (Social)” n HipChat n The word, ‘Bae’ n The everlasting Arjun Kapoor n Canvas Selfie. Micromax’s and Ranveer Singh bromance sexist new phone for women n Christmassy movies n Book Riot. Look it up online – *as requested by the editor and also follow it on Instagram!
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Cover illustrations:
JAYANTO Cover design: MONICA GUPTA
EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Rachel Lopez, Aastha Atray Banan, Veenu Singh, Satarupa Paul, Saudamini Jain, Asad Ali, Nihit Bhave, Atisha Jain
DECEMBER 14, 2014
Illu str ati on :J AY AN TO
his is what I’ve been doing for the last few weeks: surfing the Internet, reading dialogues and watching films. All the while calling it a productive day at work. What will you find inside: Machismo-laden dialogues of an angry young man, the melancholy of Anand and everything awesome. It will feel like a déjà vu of old film frames in your head. You may not find your favourite quote – because how can we accomodate the best lines from 100 years of cinema in one issue? It will need a library. King Khan ke shabdon mein, “Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost”. Who is the hero of this issue: Apart from me, that is. TV producer Yasser Usman collaborated with us. An avid film buff, his LinkedIn profile discloses that he “remembers more films & songs than classroom theories.” He was the default yeh-line-kismovie-se-tha answering machine and supplied a steady stream of less-known film facts. Quick acknowledgement: A thank you to Diptakirti Chaudhuri for sharing some great anecdotes. Read his new book about film trivia, Bollybook: The Big Book of Hindi Movie Trivia - Asad Ali (Follow @AsadAli1989 on Twitter)
Stuff You Said Last Sunday ay
t is said that voices never die. But they forever echo in space. The voices of every film I have watched (since I was a child) have remained in my head. Yes, I would always talk in filmi dialogues. So much so that my parents took me to the doc who said, “Inhe dawaon ki nahi duaon ki zaroorat hai.” And so, the Brunch team found me in one filmi ward and devised a brilliant treatment. They gave me an outlet and introduced me to fellow filmi keedas. This week’s edition of Brunch was made over steaming cups of coffee, hot samosas and zabardast dialogues bouncing off the walls. The room was small but hearts were large. And the heart is all over this issue. I am not only proud of the Brunch team but also honoured to be part of it for an issue. Like my favourite Doctor Dang would say... Inn dialogues ki goonj sunni tumne?? Suno… dialogues ki goonj - Yasser Usman (Follow @Yasser_aks on Twitter) Yasser is a TV journalist and the author of the recently published Rajesh Khanna – The Untold Story of India’s First Superstar
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Dear Rachel, LOVE IT: HT Bru Nice article. Wish on Sundays. SHOVE Dear Asad, I want w to elope with I knew about this IT: HT Brunch only my boyfriend. Could you give me place 30 years s some legal guidance, please? on Sunday bacckk when I could – (Name withheld) – @Inspirashun have utilised Asad: Good luck! Sawantwadi’s y, ckilily, facilties. (Luuck Sunday means getting Sunda etting up late and grabbing gr Brunch things worked out as soon as out of the bed ;-) fine for me in the – @Rute12345 end, thank you.) Find Hindustan Times Brunch on Facebook or - Devang Chhaya tweet to @HTBrunch or
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BOLLYWOOD SPECIAL
If you’ve grown up on a staple diet of Hindi cinema, chances are that a lot of subconscious and refuse to fade away. In this special issue, get an insight from on the art of dialogue writing. Also, revisit some iconic lines, from yeste by Asad Ali & Yasser Usman
“Today, long dialogues don’t work, but punchlines do!” By Rajat Aroraa, dialogue writer
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storyteller writes a story. One story. So as a screenplay writer, I write one story. But dialogue writing is different. I write several stories at once. Each character has her or his own story to tell. And the way s/he can tell that story is by saying something, through dialogues – through me. I feel so powerful while writing dialogues, unlike writing screenplays, when I am very vulnerable. Language is any dialogue writer’s best friend. So keeping pace with its evolution is important; in fact, it’s mandatory for survival. The words, the tone, the syntax, have all transformed significantly over the years. If we as a society have evolved, our relationships have as well, and it’s only natural that our films and their dialogues reflect that evolution. There are many purists who object to the use of slang in films. They want the Hindi to be chaste. Many miss the liberal use of Urdu, not just in the
lyrics but also in the dialogues. I personally think Urdu is a beautiful language. It makes saying the most mundane everyday thing seem lyrical and poetic, full of emotion. But this doesn’t mean we can abuse the language in films either. Imagine this for a moment: if Basanti were to talk like Umrao Jaan. That would have been a disaster, wouldn’t it? She would still have been memorable, but possibly for all the wrong reasons. Force fitting words in a character’s mouth, just because it sounds smart or shows your command over the language, is the biggest mistake a dialogue writer can make. Every language, every dialect, every bit of slang, every import of a foreign word can hit the bullseye if used well. If misused, even the most poetic words can stick out like a sore thumb. Also, how boring would it be if film after film, year after year, our characters spoke the same way? As Jonathan Lethem said, “It’s certain that this world’s large enough and interesting enough to take a different approach each time you sit down to write about it.” I try and let my characters enjoy this diversity. In the same vein, I take utmost care to ensure that I don’t sound repetitive, that my
DECEMBER 14, 2014
characters don’t start talking like each other. So I let them take the lead. I let them decide how they choose to speak. In The Dirty Picture, Silk can be loud and boastful and say, Filmen sirf teen cheezon se chalti hain – entertainment, entertainment, entertainment and get away with it. A Sultan Mirza in Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai just needs to say Dua mein yaad rakhna to make the necessary impact. The mentor-protégé pair of Bluffmaster was very contemporary in their choice of idioms and metaphors because they were also grooving to rap music. On the other hand, the mentor-protégé pair of Once upon a Time in Mumbaai was very stylised and dramatic in keeping with their background and the backdrop. Back in the day, the audience had different tastes, different hobbies, different requirements for entertainment, different attention spans. They remembered things differently. A shot was held long enough for our hero to have a long exchange with his lady love, pause, get a reaction from her, then give a reaction to that, and then pause again, before the shot was cut. The audience loved it. But times have changed. I can’t say for better or for worse.
But they have. So, instead of being judgmental about it, we should accept that audience taste has evolved. Or changed, at the very least! Today if you use the same principles of filmmaking that existed in the old days, you are sure to fail. Devdas is a great example of how successful filmmakers have catered to the audience’s changing tastes. KL Saigal speaks significantly differently as Devdas from the way Dilip Kumar did in another decade. Shah Rukh Khan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas did not resemble either of them. But all three films had a loyal audience, reflecting the times in which they were made. In the present age of simultaneous browsing on various platforms, multitasking even on social networks, a writer has very little time to say what he wants to and still be remembered. Long drawn dialogues can’t do that, punchlines do. I never let myself forget that we live in the age of Twitter. I have to connect with my audience, make them cry, laugh, seduce them, all in 140 characters or less! Rajat Aroraa is the dialogue writer for films such as The Dirty Picture, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai and Kick
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Imageing: MONICA GUPTA
Here are lines that truly stuck – for generations. These are ‘hero-type’ dialogues that are crafted for maximum impact and most seetis in the hall... Ye police station hai, tumhare baap ka ghar nahi Zanjeer (1973), dialogues by Salim Khan-Javed Akhtar
The script was rejected by Raj Kumar and Dev Anand. Raj Kumar even told director Prakash Mehra that he didn’t like the smell of his hair oil so he could not sign the film. Dev Anand said it was too serious and there were no romantic songs.
Haar kar jeetne waaley ko baazigar kehte hain
Baazigar (1993), dialogues by Robin Bhatt, Akash Khurana, Javed Siddiqui
‘filmi dialogues’ have stuck in your some of Bollywood’s biggest names ryear movies to present times Kutte, kameene, main tera khoon pee jaoonga
Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), dialogues by Nasir Hussain
Far removed from the mush-dripping romantic hero, Shah Rukh Khan played the ruthless, vengeanceseeking character of Ajay Sharma in Baazigar. And this particular dialogue sums up the riveting plot of the film.
This line has come to represent what ‘Garam Dharam’ is all about in his action films! Oft repeated for effect in other movies, this was probably the first time the line was used.
Icon (noun): A person or thing regarded as a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement Let’s be honest and get one thing straight. Ramesh Sippy’s magnum opus Sholay (1975), with dialogues by Salim-Javed, is an iconic (refer above) work that stands like a colossus, even among other great works of Hindi cinema. We remember the dialogues and have our personal favourites. Most scenes are etched in our collective unconscious by now. Whether it’s a sloshed Veeru atop a tank complaining about mausi or Jai asking Tumhara naam kya hai Basanti? or Kaaliya swearing loyalty by mumbling Sardaar…maine aapka namak khaya hai or… well, the list is endless. In fact, the dialogues packed so much punch that Sholay was one of the first films to have an LP just containing memorable lines from the movie! It was also one of those rare films where even minor characters ended up with classic dialogues (Hum Angrezo ke zamaane ke jailor hain! by Asrani or Itna sannata kyon hai bhai? by AK Hangal who played Rahim Chacha). That’s why, in this special Brunch issue on Bollywood dialogues, we have avoided including Sholay. We were afraid that the entire issue might have ended up being dedicated to the sheer brilliance of the film and its power-packed lines! – Asad Ali (Read Salim Khan’s interview on the next page)
Mumbai ka king kaun? Bhiku Mhatre
Satya (1998), dialogues by Saurabh Shukla, Anurag Kashyap
Anurag Kashyap was about 25 when he met Ram Gopal Varma who asked him to write a script based on a one-line idea: “Let’s put Howard Roark of The Fountainhead in the Mumbai underworld.” Kashyap began writing but RGV brought in Saurabh Shukla because he felt someone more mature should be involved. They went to RGV’s farmhouse in Hyderabad and wrote the first draft in a week. When they were discussing what to name the characters – who had to look and sound real – the office boy entered and RGV said, “Bhiku, teen coffee lana...”
Khamoshhh
Badla (1974), dialogues by Jagdish Kanwal This is like Shatrughan Sinha’s middle name!
Jab yeh dhaai kilo ka haath kisi pe padta hai, toh aadmi uthta nahi, uth jaata hai
Rishtey mein toh hum tumhare baap hotey hain, naam hai Shahenshah
Damini (1993), dialogues by Rajkumar Santoshi, Sutanu Gupta
Shahenshah (1988), dialogues by Inder Raj Anand
Sunny Deol’s dhaai kilo ka haath made its presence strongly felt with this movie. So impactful was his portrayal of an angry stud (he plays a lawyer) spewing masculinity and a sense of justice, that the image spilled over to his later roles. Be it Ghatak, Border or Gadar where he famously uproots a handpump, Deol’s image as the powerful action hero lives on even now.
When he was working on Shahenshah, Amitabh Bachchan was suffering from a muscular condition and the weight of the steel arm alone in that famous costume was 18 kg!
DECEMBER 14, 2014
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BOLLYWOOD SPECIAL Hum jahan khade ho jaate hain, line wahin se shuru hoti hai Kaalia (1981), dialogues by Inder Raj Anand
Babumoshai hum to rangmanch ki kathputliyan hain jiski dor us upar wale ke haathon main hai
The dialogues were written by actor-director Tinu Anand’s father, Inder Raj Anand. Tinu had been chasing Amitabh Bachchan for a year to narrate his script, but Bachchan’s busy schedule got in the way. Finally Tinu cornered the actor and narrated his script. When he finished, Big B was silent. Tinu said, “You don’t have to tell me you liked my script. I know you did.” “How do you know that?” asked Bachchan. Tinu replied, “People told me that if Amitabh is hearing a script and he looks at the sky and starts stroking his hair, it means the script is rejected. I’m glad you did neither.” Bachchan liked Tinu’s confidence and signed the film.
Anand (1971), dialogues by Gulzar
Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost
This is probably Rajesh Khanna’s most famous line. More philosophical than hero-type, but it’s unforgettable. In the film, this dialogue is first delivered by Johnny Walker who played the role of a theatre actor Eesabhai Suratwala. Anand (Rajesh Khanna) learns the dialogue from Eesabhai, then goes to Babumoshai’s (Amitabh Bachchan) house and records the line on a spool tape, punctuated by hearty laughter towards the end.
This has become SRK’s signature phrase and he uses it in almost every interview and film (Chennai Express and his latest hit Happy New Year). When director Rohit Shetty called Mayur Puri to work with him on his next film, Mayur answered, “First pay me for my line you used in Chennai Express.” A film was even named after the dialogue, starring Suniel Shetty (2012). It flopped, proving it was SRK’s magic more than the line.
Om Shanti Om (2007), dialogues by Mayur Puri
Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai
Don (1978), dialogues by Salim Khan-Javed Akhtar Salim-Javed were unable to sell the script for a long time, until director Chandra Barot and producer Nariman Irani bought it. It was rejected by Dev Anand, Prakash Mehra, Jeetendra. When Irani approached Salim, he said, “Humare paas ek breakfast script padi hai.” Nariman said “Chalega.” That’s how Don was made.
“Anyone can play with words, but it’s the situation in the story – that is where a strong dialogue comes in and makes maximum impact”— Salim Khan
S
ometime back I had gone to interview scriptwriter Salim Khan in his plush Bandra apartment. He began by reflecting on the state of film writers. He counted the number of blockbusters he had written in partnership with Javed Akhtar and said, “Gyarah filmein lagatar hit di thi humnein. Agar Hollywood mein hotey to apna island hota, flat mein na rah rahe hotey.” It was said in good humour, but it conveyed the message that in this star-crazy industry, writers are yet to get their due. This time he spoke about the possible reasons why writers of this generation are losing their grip. Some dialogues attain iconic stature and are handed down generations through their use in daily conversations. You (and Javed Akhtar) have written many of them. What makes a dialogue memorable? The ‘situation’ is the most important aspect. Anyone can play with words but it’s the situation in the story – when the characters are on the edge or a confrontation is going on – where a strong dialogue comes in and makes maximum impact. People watched silent films initially which means that dialogues alone cannot make or break a film. As screenwriters we (Javed Akhtar and I) always focused on strong storylines and dramatic scenes. But strong dialogues took the scenes to another level. Like the line Main aaj bhi phenke hue
paise nahi uthata (Deewar). Some line that was! It’s said that you and Javed saab brought in the concept of punchlines. Sholay had punchlines even for minor characters like Kaalia and Sambha. Was that planned? It’s unbelievable! People tell me Salim saab, kya dialogue likha hai aapne! Holi kab hai? Or Poore pachas hajaar! I laugh at them. Do you really think these are exceptional dialogues? We actually wrote wonderful dialogues in Sholay like Jaante ho duniya ka sabse bada bojh kya hota hai? Boodhe baap ke kandhe pe jawan bete ka janaza. But people praise us for Kitne aadmi the? And Chal Dhanno, aaj Basanti ki izzat ka sawal hai. (Laughs) Aaj bhi meri samajh mei nahi aati ye baat… Which was the first film you wrote dialogues for? Do Bhai (1965) directed by Brij Sadanah and a film called Adhikar around the same time. In fact, in Adhikar, Pran played the role of Banney Khan Bhopali. Later in Sholay we wrote a similar role for Jagdeep as Soorma Bhopali. Sholay worked and everyone remembers Soorma Bhopali but Pran’s role was forgotten. Your last film with Javed Akhtar was Mr India. You wrote some interesting films after that too. But the trademark dialogues were missing… The times were changing. But do you remember Naam? It was a very successful film, in fact it reestablished Sanjay Dutt. There was
DECEMBER 14, 2014
another film I wrote called Falaq; it was a sensitive film and had beautiful dialogues. But it didn’t work so people don’t remember it. I wrote Akayla for Amitabh Bachchan but at that time his downfall as a lead protagonist had started. But when I saw Aamir Khan’s Dhoom 3, I noticed that the entire twist of two identical brothers was taken directly from Akayla. Then, the dialogues of Kabzaa were very strong. I wrote Patthar ke Phool for my son Salman. But like I said, powerful dialogues alone cannot make a film memorable. There are too many other aspects. You started writing in the late ’60s and continued till the ’90s. Cinema and its language had changed by then. How did it affect your writing? In that era (the ’50s and ’60s), people accepted theatrical dia-
logues. Loud dialogues were the norm. We tried to change it in the ’70s. Then later, that changed too. Double-meaning dialogues came, dialogues mei gaaliyaan tak dene lage and they justified it by saying that this is what happens in real life. I ask them, there are so many things that happen in real life, toh kya sab screen par dikha dein? As screenwriters, we should draw a line. In my entire career I’ve never written a scene or dialogue that you can’t watch with your family. You seem angry with the quality of screenwriting these days... Earlier the focus was mainly on literature. That has totally gone from our films now. I think it’s because most writers don’t read these days. The content mostly comes from Western cinema. In our time, writers used to read a lot. They would exchange books. I was a regular at Victoria Library in Mahim (Mumbai) and loved reading. It reflected in our writing. It’s said that Salman Khan brought back the old trend of punchlines in dialogues. Do you help in writing dialogues for him? Yes, he calls me sometimes from his shoots and asks if I can suggest some good lines. In fact, I’ve written a few dialogues for him in a few films, including Dabangg. He is conscious of the fact that people expect good dialogues from him and he has a keen eye for dialogues. Usse pata hai ki woh kis mahaul mei paida hua hai. – Yasser Usman
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BOLLYWOOD SPECIAL
Dialogues and screenplay: Separated at birth by Abbas Tyrewala, screenplay & dialogue writer
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ndia is the only country in the world where writing dialogue is a stand-alone craft. Nowhere else is the function of writing screenplay separated into (literally) ‘Screenplay’, ie the visual occurrence of events on screen, and ‘Dialogue’, the spoken word. In this piece, I briefly explore the possible causes of how we landed up here, rather than commenting upon its merits, demerits, advantages, efficacy or limitations. Further, I speak not with any smug authority, but inviting involvement in the thought process. Interestingly, one cannot imagine a similar segregation in a play or a book. It seems self-evident that if you choose a medium to narrate your story, you better be able to deliver that story in that medium in its entirety. So why does no one raise an eyebrow (screenplay) and say, “But why is this so?” (dialogue). To some extent, it’s because the function of screenplay has never been fully understood by most Indian writers. A screenplay is ALL the events that occur on the screen and on the ‘speakers’. When cinema first started captivating the world, the only Indians who had the combination of exposure to it, the education required to acquire the technical knowledge, and the money to invest in this new and relatively expensive medium were those whose families had recourse to a Western education. Speaking English well was the hallmark of a good upbringing. When these people took to cinema, they had everything except an easy command over the language in which talkies would need to occur to be accessible to the Indian audience. Speaking a mother tongue well wasn’t enough either. You had to reach a country of a thousand tongues and dialects. So you had to communicate in a ‘universal’ language that didn’t leave anyone feeling alienated. The only such available language was Hindustani, that wonderful combination of Hindi with Urdu and Farsi. Not everyone from such families spoke it well. So how could a Bengali filmmaker tell a story for his country that did not only reach a Bengali-speaking audience? How would a Maharashtrian director do so? So perhaps early dialogue writers were simply technicians to compensate for this minor lacuna. Much like a filmmaker not
INDIAN FILMMAKERS ACTUALLY NEED TO ‘SEE’ A STORY (IN THEIR MIND’S EYE OR WITH KOREAN SUBTITLES) BEFORE THEY HAVE IT WRITTEN OUT
Love is at the heart of Hindi films. When love happens to the hero/heroine, the romantic dialogues that follow can, if nothing else, make you want to fall in love...
knowing how to compose music, but knowing exactly what kind of song he wants and what it was doing in the story. But what began as a necessity soon became a luxury and an imperative. Filmmakers started feeling more secure with someone skilled in bombast and rhetoric, the staples of Indian film cuisine. The Indian audience’s visceral reaction to dialogues didn’t hurt any; around the time the “Odessa Steps” sequence in The Untouchables (originally in Battleship Potemkin) was gaining cult status, we Indians were in a state of uproarious delight over Mogambo khush hua! Further, because the country wasn’t exactly teeming with people who grasped the medium and its possibilities straightaway, Indian filmmakers took to the ‘auteur’ mode early on. So only one person needed to have the vision for how various crafts would come together to tell one cohesive story. Everyone else could do what they did best without fully understanding its function in a broader context. So even if someone else had a story to narrate, they could in effect write it as a ‘play’ and leave the ‘screen’ to someone who got it. This has also resulted in a culture where Indian filmmakers are virtually incapable of directing a story that has not come from within them. They actually need to ‘see’ a story (whether in their mind’s eye or with Korean subtitles) before they have it written. How many films of any scale have we seen where the director’s name features nowhere in the writing credits (especially ‘Story’)? As a result, even today, many writers can (and typically do) write words without completely understanding their function in the broader act of telling a story on screen. They leave the visualisation (what ‘screenplay’ has come to mean here at home) to the director (and her/his ‘screenplay writer’ – essentially someone who spares the director the trouble of actually writing anything), and simply tell the story through entries, exits, macro phenomena like ‘slap’, ‘fight’ and ‘song sequence’. And of course, dialogues. – Abbas Tyrewala has written films like Maqbool, Main Hoon Na and Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
DECEMBER 14, 2014
Dosti kee hai, nibhani to padegi hee / Dosti mein no sorry, no thank you
Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), dialogues by Sooraj Barjatya Salman’s dialogue as well as the accessories in that scene – his jacket, the famous ‘Friend’ cap – became a rage. Director Sooraj Barjatya was fascinated by the film Top Gun, so he designed the jacket based on it. The ‘Friend’ cap was also his idea – perhaps to underline the connect (read friendship) between the boy and the girl.
Tum nahi samjhoge Rahul... kuch kuch hota hai Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), dialogues by Karan Johar
Karan Johar asked Javed Akhtar to write the lyrics of this film but he turned him down, saying he felt the title was vulgar. He later said, “Now I feel stupid about it. I’d be lying if I said I don’t regret turning it down. It was a sweet film.”
Main aur meri tanhai aksar ye baatein karte hain, tum hoti toh aisa hota, tum hoti toh waisa hota Silsila (1981), dialogues by Romesh Sharma
In an interview to BBC, director Yash Chopra said, “I was always scared [during Silsila]... Jaya is his wife and Rekha is his girlfriend – the same story is going on [in real life]. Anything could have happened because they are working together.”
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Koi baat nahi senorita, bade bade shehron main aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hai
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), dialogues by Javed Siddiqui Shah Rukh’s charm in ths film sent girls into a trance and made each one of them feel like a senorita! And the dialogues by Javed Siddiqui won him a Best Dialogue Award.
Pyar soch samajh kar nahin kiya jaata... bas ho jaata hai
Dil Chahta Hai (2001), dialogues by Farhan Akhtar
Aapke paon dekhey...bahut haseen hain, inhen zameen par mat utariyega, maile ho jayengey
Farhan Akhtar says, “I didn’t want any of the characters to speak a language I was not familiar with. So I wrote it in the Hindi I know, which has a lot of English.”
Pakeezah (1972), dialogues by Kamal Amrohi
Ironically, as a courtesan, Sahibjaan had to put those same feet on the floor and soil them by dancing mujras to entice men. The note that Raj Kumar left for Sahibjaan gave her hope even as she avoided unwelcome attention from her patrons.
Kaanton ko murjhane ka khauf nahin. Phool to murjhha jaate hain, lekin kaante daaman thhaam lete hain Mughal-e-Azam (1960), dialogues by Amanullah Khan, Kamal Amrohi, Ehsan Rizvi, Wajahat Mirza
Director K Asif (Karimuddin Asif) recruited four Urdu writers to develop the screenplay and dialogue: Aman (Zeenat Aman’s father, also known as Amanullah Khan), Wajahat Mirza, Kamaal Amrohi, and Ehsan Rizvi. It is said that for the climax of the film K Asif asked all the writers to write their own drafts. They were then put together and the best lines were taken.
Mujhse dosti karoge? Bobby (1973), dialogues by Jainendra Jain
In November 1973, almost eight months after her wedding, Dimple’s first film Bobby was released. Since she’d got married during the shooting, the mehndi on her hands can be seen in the song Mujhe kuch kehna hai. Riding on Laxmikant–Pyarelal chartbusters and a fresh lead pair, Bobby gave new style and a new language to Hindi cinema. It was a trendsetter in more ways than one. Like Shah Rukh Khan said in one of his interviews, “Before Bobby, Indian cinema was about men and women, but after Bobby, it became about boys and girls.” The dialogues and songs of Bobby became so popular that later, some films took their titles from Bobby’s dialogues and songs. For example, Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai and Mujhse Dosti Karoge. (Interestingly, both films had a Kapoor connection – they starred Kareena Kapoor). DECEMBER 14, 2014
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BOLLYWOOD SPECIAL
Dialogue, tu ek kavita hai! Gulzar is as fine a dialogue writer as he is a lyricist
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eing an alchemist of verse, his introduction is always as a poet-lyricist. But what about the poetry in his dialogues? Gulzar the dialogue-writer has been criminally overshadowed by Gulzar the songwriter. We remember dialogues from Anand (1971) like Babumoshai, zindagi aur maut uparwale ke haath mein hai… but sometimes forget that they were written by none other than Gulzar. He first used this line in the film to make his audiences laugh and later to make them weep. We are about to mourn the death of the lively Anand, when the recorder plays these lines, highlighting the transient nature of life. Amitabh Bachchan summarises the character with Gulzar’s immortal lines: Anand mara nahi, Anand marte nahi. From a mere character, Anand became a philosophy of life. Unlike Salim-Javed’s style where the focus was more on creating high-voltage drama and punchlines, Gulzar’s dialogues seem simple on the surface but are profound and reflective, even poetic. Like the conversation between the estranged couple Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen in Aandhi (1975): SS: Ye chand to roz nikalta hoga?
SK: Haan, lekin kabhi kabhi amaavas aa jaati hai. Waise toh amaavas 15 dinon ke baad aati hai, lekin is baar bahut lambi thi. SS: Nau baras lambi thi na... Simple lines that convey the pain of separation without melodrama. Few writers could match Gulzar’s mastery in writing about complex relationships with simplicity and finesse. When required, Gulzar also entertained audiences with humour-laced dialogues in films like Angoor or the classic comedy Chupke Chupke, where Dharmendra questions the logic of the Queen’s language. He asks Usha Kiron, Aap hi bataiye memsaab T-O ‘to’ hota hai, D-O ‘do’ hota hai, toh G-O ‘goo’ kyun nahin hota? While it is true that the most oft-repeated Bollywood dialogues from the ’70s belong to SalimJaved (Sholay, Deewar, Don etc), Gulzar wrote great dialogues in the same era. His fans argue that the Salim-Javed style of dialogue writing was for the masses while Gulzar’s was for the classes. He worked extensively with Hrishikesh Mukherjee in the ’70s, whose most popular films like Anand, Namak Haraam, Chupke Chupke, Bawarchi or Khoobsurat all have Gulzar’s sparkling dialogues. Other Mukherjee films like Mili, Golmaal, Jurmana, Bemisaal, Aalap had dialogues by another great writer, Dr Rahi Masoom Raza. In fact, Mili was planned as the female version of Anand, but it could not recreate the magic of Anand’s dialogues. Gulzar’s magic lay in knowing the pulse of human emotions along with a superb command over poetry. Lines like, Jeene ki arzoo mein mare jaa rahe hain log, marne ki arzoo mein jeeye jaa raha hoon main (Namak Haraam) and Maut! Tu ek kavita hai (Anand) go to the extent of romanticising death. A famous Urdu critic’s advice to writers was Dus kilo padhiye aur dus gram likhiye. Perhaps it is his vast reading of quality literature that differentiates Gulzar’s superlative work from the current crop of dialogue writers. – Yasser Usman
DECEMBER 14, 2014
Classic dialogues from the men who terrorised the behens/mashookas of the male leads and exploited society/gaon (as applicable!) Prem naam hai mera, Prem Chopra Bobby (1973), dialogues by Jainendra Jain
“Prem naam hai mera, Prem Chopra.” This was Chopra’s first shot for the film Bobby, and he admits being nervous when he heard his opening line. “That’s how James Bond introduced himself, ‘My name is Bond, James Bond.’ Rajji (Raj Kapoor) wanted me to do something similar. Would I be able to pull it off with the same panache?” As it turns out, he did!
Mogambo kush hua!
Mr India (1987), dialogues by Salim KhanJaved Akhtar Although they’d split in the early ’80s, Salim-Javed were seen as a duo one last time in the credits of Mr India (it was a film they had written much earlier, keeping Amitabh Bachchan in mind for the lead role).
Sara sheher mujhe LOIN ke naam se jaanta hai
Kalicharan (1976), dialogues by Jainendra Jain
It is interesting that in a film named after the hero, it was actually the villain Lion (pronounced ‘Loin’ by Ajit) who was the central character and provided an important plot twist in the film. The punchline came from the debutant writerdirector Subhash Ghai. The letters of ‘LION’ read backwards and upside-down spelt No 17 – it was an important clue in the story of Kalicharan.
Thappad ki goonj suni tumne
Karma (1986), dialogues by Kader Khan Subhash Ghai’s original choice for the villain’s role (Dr Dang) was Amrish Puri. But there was the feeling that Amrish has been killed so many times on screen that people wouldn’t be interested in watching him getting killed yet again. So Ghai looked for another actor to play Dr Dang. The story goes that he went to a party and saw Anupam Kher. Something clicked. He asked Kher to come to his office the next day. When they met, Ghai said, “You are doing the main villain in my film.” Anupam was surprised. He said he’d never played such a character before. Ghai answered, “I saw you walk and I want my villain to walk like that!” Simple!
Iss jism ke bazaar ka maharaja, aur naam Maharani
Sadak (1991), dialogues by Robin Bhatt
This line was spoken by actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar, who played the evil Maharani, the eunuch who ran a brothel. It was a risk to play such a character but Amrapurkar did a first-rate job. It’s counted as one of his best performances.
Bad man! Ram Lakhan (1989), dialogues by Anwar Khan
At one of the premieres for Ram Lakhan, Ghai asked his stars to park their cars and instead leave together in a bus that he had booked so that they’d arrive at all the theatres together. Grover wasn’t a star yet, and was relegated to the back seat. But as soon as they arrived at the very first theatre, the audience chanted, “Bad man! Bad man!” It was a big high for Grover, who recalls, “This happened at every stop and on the return journey I found myself seated with all the A-listers!”
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“Things will improve only when female writers come up with dialogues for women” Film writer Shagufta Rafique says men still get the best lines
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ecause most writers have been men, the men on screen have always had the last word! In fact, most of the lines written for women were quite silly. They hardly talked on screen, they didn’t have a sense of humour. They were submissive. And those were the only female characters we had. Even today, there aren’t many dialogues for women that stand out. When was the last time a line was written for a woman that was powerful? There is the odd film like Damini but even there, the taali-waale dialogues were given to men. In recent times, I can only remember Vidya Balan’s dialogues from The Dirty Picture which were strongly female-oriented. Otherwise, it’s always been the hero who walks away with the last line, or the villain, or the father. The daughter, the wife, the neighbour’s wife are without a voice. Things can only improve when female writers come up with dialogues for women that are more in line with proper commercial cinema. The women characters with decent dialogues are more common in the arty space. In the past few years, women writers have come a long way. Zoya Akhtar, for example, is a very good writer. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was a hit, and Zoya did a great job, but would it have been as successful if it didn’t have Hrithik in it? It’s only when there is a script with rank newcomers, that a writer’s true merit can be assessed. And I think I am the only person who has made male-oriented films with newcomers who were in shaky stages of their careers. For example, Emraan Hashmi was going through a low career phase when I wrote Murder 2. Even Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy
THE HERO ALWAYS WALKS AWAY WITH THE LAST LINE, OR THE VILLAIN, OR THE FATHER. THE DAUGHTER, THE WIFE ARE WITHOUT A VOICE DECEMBER 14, 2014
Kapur had flops in their suitcases when I wrote movies for them. I have never written for stars but my films have been successful. So personally I would say a writer is good when the person manages to write for actors who are either new or relatively less known. Come to think of it, I have been like a male member in my family! In any case, there were more men in my family growing up, so when there is a strong male presence around you, you imbibe a lot of male attributes. This kind of background helped me become stronger. And perhaps that’s why I find it easier to write for men. However, the women in my films aren’t dumb. Shraddha had an equally important role in Aashiqui 2, as did Bipasha Basu in Raaz 3. In Murder 2, Jaqueline wasn’t just a pretty face. In fact, Jaqueline has a line, Mujhe samajh mein nahin aata ke main tumhari mohabbat hun ya aadat. That sticks with the audience. Basically, even if the female characters in my film have 25 per cent screentime, I ensure they have something meaningful to say. The trend where a woman character is all about a shy lover lowering her eyes has to change. This situation can change only when more writers fight for scripts which are headed by women. Ultimately the responsibility lies with writers to stand their ground and demand scripts which will give scope for women-oriented dialogues. – As told to Asad Ali
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BOLLYWOOD SPECIAL
“I don’t like playing to the gallery” Filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi says writing comedy doesn’t mean you should be crass or resort to vulgarity
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here are different kinds of comedy. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is quite different from Andaz Apna Apna, which in turn is quite different from Chupke Chupke. When writing any comedy script, the writer first needs to be honest to that particular genre and form. However, whatever the form, it’s equally important to keep the writing simple. There shouldn’t be any complication in writing comedy. So, if it’s a romantic comedy, there should definitely be some naughtiness in the dialogues but it shouldn’t be vulgar. It’s true that certain films do have humour that is rather crass but then, everyone has different tastes, and sometimes writers feel that a particular kind of comedy will work for the masses. They end up writing films that can make you cringe. What they don’t understand is that these kind of films may work in the short term, but in the long run people will forget about them. Besides, it’s not always about ‘educating the masses,’ it’s more about being a responsible writer. If you have the talent to write funny lines, then there’s also some responsibility that comes with it. One shouldn’t look back and regret the kind of work one has done. If you can’t watch a film with your family, then what’s the point? I understand that people do all kinds of things to earn their bread but still, some degree of responsibility should be there. I also think that we can’t laugh at ourselves much as a nation. RK Laxman’s cartoons which took potshots at the government were an exception. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron also made fun of the society of its time. But despite such precedents in cinema, I don’t think there are many people who can laugh at themselves, or at realistic situations.
ANDAZ APNA APNA MIGHT SEEM SPONTANEOUS, BUT IT WAS ALL THERE IN THE SCRIPT. EVERYTHING WAS PLANNED
Personally speaking, as far as comedies are concerned I like and appreciate Raju Hirani’s work. He doesn’t need to resort to needless vulgar content to make people laugh and that’s commendable. Of course, stalwarts like Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar and Basu Chatterjee have done amazing work when it comes to dialogue writing overall. As far as I am concerned, whatever I am today as a filmmaker, it’s because of Govind Nihalani. I learnt the grammar and entire craft of filmmaking from him, but it’s like learning a language, say English. Once you’ve learnt it, what you do with it is entirely upto you. Nihalani never approached the comedy genre as such, but if he did, I’m sure he would’ve been amazing there too.
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nd yes, I’ve been asked about Andaz Apna Apna sequels a lot! But if I made films keeping just the audience in mind, then I would have made Ghayal 2, 3 and 4 followed by Damini 2, 3 and 4!! When I make a film, I try to be sincere to the character and story. I believe that the audience should share the highs of the main characters. I don’t believe in writing dialogues just to get claps and seetis. Honesty to the script is of utmost importance. When I wrote Damini I kept the characters and the genre in mind. The same logic applies to all my other films. I write as the character would think, not what Rajkumar Santoshi would think. The kind of punchlines that writers come up with these days… sab bakwas hai! The character should come through from the writing. The script should not be about the writer’s efforts to just showcase writing skills. Bombastic dialogues are fine if the script demands it but I don’t like playing to the gallery. There’s no scope for improvisational comedy in my films, it’s always prepared much in advance. I make sure that what I have written is rehearsed ahead of time. And that was the case with Andaz Apna Apna. It might
DECEMBER 14, 2014
Bollywood can tickle your funny bone when it wants to. Here are some memorable lines that made us LOL! Teja main hoon, mark idhar hai
Andaz Apna Apna (1994), dialogues by Rajkumar Santoshi, Dilip Shukla seem spontaneous but it was all there in the script. Take any popular line – Teja mein hoon, mark idhar hai – it was all in place in the script! But a film’s success depends upon the market of the time, and when Andaz Apna Apna released, the marketing bit was done in a hurry. The distributors were new, the lead actors were not in town, and hardly anyone knew what the film was about. Which is why it didn’t do as well immediately after release. The writers in the past had some solid grounding in the arts, be it literature or something else. That reflected in their work. But these days that class is missing from the writing. It’s because people are more interested in copying. They will pick up some Korean film and simply copy the concept. The rights are acquired easily and it requires much less imagination on their part! Some say that writers don’t have enough incentive to write because the stars walk away with all the attention… Woh sab bas bahaana hai! If your writing is appreciated by people, then as a writer it will obviously make you feel good. Besides, these days the audiences are smarter, so they are well aware of who writes the dialogues, the script etc. Lack of incentive is just an excuse. So my advice to aspiring writers would be that before beginning to write, inculcate a habit of watching good films to absorb the art of writing from there, or even from books. Only when you have a strong base can you expect to produce good writing. –As told to Asad Ali
Raveena Tandon recently tweeted: “Unknown facts... Amir played maximum pranks, Salman did awesome scenes also gave many gaalis, Lolo n I sulked! Raj was in love, producer broke. (sic)”
Moochhein hon to Nathhulalji jaisi hon, warna na hon Sharabi (1984), dialogues by Kader Khan
Hilarious take on one of his employees, Nathulal’s (Mukri) moustache by the hero Amitabh Bachchan.
Apna to bad luck hi kharaab hai
Rangeela (1995), dialogues by Neeraj Vohra, Sanjay Chhel After Rangeela, Aamir Khan decided to ditch award functions. According to him, his portrayal of the character Munna in the film was unmatched. But the best actor award that year was given to SRK for DDLJ (obviously!) So, all Aamir could say was Apna toh bad luck hi kharaab hai.
I can talk English, I can walk English because Englis is a very phunny language
Namak Halaal (1982)
Amitabh Bachchan said in an interview that he wrote this particular line on the spur of the moment. The director Prakash Mehra was only too happy to incorporate it.
Main apni favourite hoon
Jab We Met (2007), dialogues by Imtiaz Ali The director’s first choices for the lead roles were Ayesha Takia and Bobby Deol. Other names for the film were Punjab Mail and Ishq Via Bhatinda.
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BOLLYWOOD SPECIAL Filmon mein teen cheezein chalti hain: Entertainment, enterainment, entertainment
The Dirty Picture (2011), dialogues by Rajat Aroraa
The lines that oozed melodrama and left us reciting them at every possible opportunity Jinke apne ghar sheeshe ke hon, woh doosron par pathhar nahin phenka karte Waqt (1965), dialogues by Akhtar-Ul-Iman It is said that before finalising Raj Kumar, producer BR Chopra approached Dharmendra to play the role. Dharmendra refused to play Sunil Dutt’s elder brother’s role as he was younger than him.
Pushpa mujhse ye aansu nahi dekhe jaate. I hate tears Amar Prem (1972), dialogues by Ramesh Pant
Some dialogues in this film bordered on the vulgar, yet the way Vidya Balan delivered them ensured that they didn’t sound so. In an interview, Aroraa said that he wanted the lines to be naughty, not crass. “Audiences found lines like Tere pichkari mein dum nahi hai offensive. What they didn’t see is that she was responding to a lech making a pass at her.”
Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di, uske baad toh main khud ki bhi nahi sunta Wanted (2007), dialogues by Shiraz Ahmed The lines that sealed an already macho image of “bhai,” became hugely popular with audiences. And multiplied Salman Khan’s enormous mass appeal.
Though Ramesh Pant got an award for the best dialogues for Amar Prem, this particular line was taken from the original Bangla film Nishipadma. Director Shakti Samanta asked Aravinda Mukherjee who also wrote Nishipadma’s screenplay, to write a Hindi version along with Ramesh Pant, who was a longtime-collaborator of Samanta’s. In the original film, the famous line, “Pushpa, I hate tears” was merely part of a longer dialogue. But Samanta decided to use it to great effect, accentuated by Rajesh Khanna’s trademark style.
I love you KKKKK ... Kiran
Darr (1995), dialogues by Javed Siddiqui The film’s climax deterred lead actors of the time from playing Rahul, as they didn’t want to get beaten up on screen by another actor. But Shah Rukh Khan went ahead and did the role. Sunny Deol later protested that the Chopras had shortchanged him, and accused SRK of manipulating the story to win viewers’ sympathy. Yash Chopra denied this but Sunny never worked with them again.
Ja Simran ja, jee le apni zindagi
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), dialogues by Javed Siddiqui This dialogue came to define liberation for all young girls in love, scared of their anti-romance / anti-love fathers, for generations!
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Sattar minute hain tumhare paas
Chak De! India (2007), dialogues by Jaideep Sahni When asked by a film critic if the monologue was too melodramatic, writer Jaideep Sahni answered, “We have become too cynical, too corrupt. But in sports, it’s still the same. The ideals, the morals, the sportsmanship. You know, for us, when they play the national anthem in the theatre, we feel least interested but the sports guys, they still get goosebumps. It’s life and death for them.” He said he didn’t know this sports world. So he stayed in the hostels of Sports Authority Of India (SAI), met people from this other world and then put them on paper.
Ek chutki sindoor ki keemat tum kya jaano, Ramesh babu?
A selection of Hindi cinema’s most popular drunken acts that have left us hiccupping with delight!
Thappad se darr nahi lagta saab, pyaar se lagta hai
Om Shanti Om (2007), dialogues by Mayur Puri
Dabangg (2010), dialogues by Dilip Shukla, Abhinav Kashyap
Kaun kambakht hai jo bardasht karne ke liye peeta hai? Mai toh peeta hoon ke bas saans le sakoon
This brilliant sequence was meant to be a spoof of old-school Hindi film melodramas of the ’50s and ’60s. But newbie heroine Deepika Padukone played the part so well, it hardly seemed like one!
Dabangg was first planned with Shiney Ahuja because director Abhinav Kashyap wanted to make a serious film about a corrupt cop. Salman came later!
This dialogue was written by famous Urdu Progressive writer Rajinder Singh Bedi. It was after the release of Devdas that Dilip Kumar was given the title of “The Tragedy King”. The character became such a part of his personality that he had to seek a psychiatrist’s help, who advised him to play lighter roles.
Yeh jism pyaar karna nahi jaanta... yeh jaanta hai sirf bhook... Jism (2003), dialogues by Niranjan Iyengar
No other Hindi mainstream cinema heroine had uttered lines like this. Bipasha Basu was nominated in the Best Villain category (not Best Actress).
Devdas (1955), dialogues by Rajinder Singh Bedi
Sharaabi ko sharaabi nahi toh kya pujari kahoge? Gehun ko gehun nahi toh kya jwari kahoge?
Sharaabi (1984), dialogues by Kader Khan Just before the shoot for Sharaabi started, Amitabh Bachchan hurt his left hand on Diwali when a firecracker went off in his hand. So in Sharaabi that hand remained in his trouser pocket most of the time. And everyone thought it was a unique style!
Main kitni baar bola tereko daaru nahi peeneka, daaru bahut kharab cheez hai
Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), dialogues by Kader Khan
This is one of Amitabh Bachchan’s most iconic drunk scenes, played out in front of a mirror. The Big B was arguably the only hero who could do these light-hearted tipsy scenes to such comic perfection. (We remember you, Keshto Mukherjee!)
Daru peene se liver kharab ho jaata hai!
Satte Pe Satta (1982), dialogues by Kader Khan
If one googles the best drunk scenes in Bollywood, this epic dialogue comes up right at the beginning!
Babuji ne kaha gaon chhod do... sab ne kaha Paro ko chhod do... Paro ne kaha sharab chhod do... aaj tumne keh diya haveli chhod do... ek din aayega jab woh kahenge, duniya hi chhod do Devdas (2002), dialogues by Prakash Kapadia
Shah Rukh Khan actually met Dilip Kumar (who played Devdas earlier) to discuss how to play the part in the newer version by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
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WELLNESS
MIND BODY SOUL
a
SHIKHA SHARMA
For any worries related to unplanned pregnancy: Write to us at consumercare@piramal.com or call us at 1800-22-0502 (toll free) or sms ICAN to 56070 Website: www.i-canhelp.in
3. Dear Doctor, my partner used a condom but for few moments he was without one. To be sure, I consumed an emergency contraceptive pill. After that I danced & did physical activity every day for 1 hour to get my periods early. Still, my periods are late by 2 days. I am really worried that I may have become pregnant. Please help me, what should I do now? A slight period delay may take place sometimes after consuming an emergency contraceptive pill. Please wait for another week for your periods to begin and do not worry. There is no scientific evidence that shows that dancing and/or physical activity will definitely cause your periods to come earlier than the expected date. We therefore urge you not to believe in such myths and instead practice precaution. Please be careful from next time and use protection at all times. In case you do not get your periods for another week, conduct a pregnancy test just to crosscheck.
IS YOUR TUMMY UNHAPPY?
All of us suffer from troublesome digestive problems thanks to our eating habits. But we don’t have to
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E ALL experience sensations of a bloated tummy due to indigestion and flatulence once in a while. It’s uncomfortable and sometimes extremely distressing. But you don’t have to put up with it.
Queries answered by Dr Nirmala Rao MBBS, MD, DPM; a well known psychiatrist who heads Mumbai based Aavishkar - a multifaceted team of expert doctors and health professionals. Aavishkar has a comprehensive approach to mental and physical health, with an emphasis scan this QR code to visit website on counselling and psychotherapy. Supported by:
tions. For example, eating a melon after your meal will cause gas. n Eating too fast. SOLUTIONS FOR INSTANT RELIEF n Ginger root: Chew a piece of ginger root and then drink a cup of warm water, or boil ginger root in water to create a decoction and drink it. n Peppermint / mint tea: Mint and peppermint have a unique component that relaxes the intestines and allows trapped gas to be released. n Fennel (methi) seeds: A decoction of methi seeds and water is helpful. n Rock salt: Add a pinch of rock salt to hot water and drink it.
CAUSE OF INCREASED TUMMY GAS n Milky tea or coffee: This is the most common cause of gas. Milk boiled with tea irritates the lining of the gut and creates gaseous products. Coffee has an acidic pH that causes gas. Add milk to it, and you compound the problem. n An empty stomach: Our intestines are working even when there is no food in the stomach. Intestines are home to large colonies of healthy and unhealthy bacteria and produce gas. The stomach LONG TERM produces acid SOLUTIONS for digestion. n Avoid not eating When we go for long periods. hungry for a long INSTANT FIX n Sip probiotic drinks time, the combined Mint and peppermint to build healthy effect of the stomach tea are the quickest bacteria. If you’re acid and intestinal remedies for gas attack lactose intolerant, take churning produces adenzymes. ditional gas. n Drink aloe vera juice with half n Eating foods that produce a teaspoon of triphala powder gas: Rajma, white channa, every night for a month. cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, n Exercise, walk, play. Make most dry beans and heavy dals sure you remain active. are regular offenders. n Take deep breaths if you n Incorrect food combinations: are stressed. Gas is formed when we eat foods in unhealthy combinaask@drshikha.com
MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch DECEMBER 14, 2014
Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK, THINKSTOCK
2 . D e a r D o c t o r, I h a d consumed some regular birth control pills because my friend said it makes the skin glow. Please help me what I should do now. It is a misconception that birth control pills have favourable effects on the skin and make it glow. Please remember that regular birth control pills belong to a category of medicines known as prescription drugs or prescription medicines. Any prescription drug should only be consumed under a doctor’s guidance. Doctor’s guidance in these cases is required to ensure that the medicine is suitable to you and is doing its job without causing any long term harm. Hence, you must never take any prescription
medicine without the consultation of a qualified doctor. I suggest you consult a local gynaecologist and take advice to normalise your period cycle.
MediaMedic ICH/Q&A/1202
1 . D e a r D o c t o r, I h a d unprotected intercourse last week and consumed an emergency contraceptive pill after 2 days (48 hours) and then again I immediately had another incident of unprotected intercourse. Do I have to take another pill or am I safe? Please understand that emergency contraceptive pill is a back-up contraceptive method and should be used only in emergency situations, when there is a failure or absence of regular contraception. Since you had intercourse immediately after consuming the pill, it may have worked to avoid pregnancy. Kindly use regular contraception during intercourse.
indulge
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Fitness Bands 2.0 Fitness bands might have died a quiet death but they’re slicker, better and ready for a comeback
GRAND ENTRANCE
Microsoft’s debut Band has great smartwatch functionality and provides workout coaching on screen
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HE FITNESS band mania came in with a big bang and went out with a whimper. Most models were eventually dismissed as glorified pedometers – devices that had been around for years. But the fitness bands are about to fight back. This is the all new, feature-heavy, actually helpful, loaded-with-sensors band, designed to make you into a fitness junkie. It’s here and it’s about to latch onto your wrists.
MICROSOFT BAND – MAKING AN ENTRANCE
Microsoft arrived late to the party, but came in strong with an awesome-looking band. Unlike the typically small, dimscreened band with some dinky little numbers, this one has a gorgeous capacitive TFT 320x106-pixel full-color display touch screen. It tracks steps, workouts, runs, calories burned, heart rate, sleep quality and hours and has some awesome smartwatch functionality too. Plus it has a builtin GPS and provides workout coaching on screen. As it’s Microsoft’s first foray into fitness bands, it comes with a serious set of problems too. The band is uncomfortable to wear and the heart sensor can be wildly off at times. It is priced at $199 but will drop to about $99 soon, owing to all these issues. Although Microsoft Band 2.0, which tackles some of these problems, could be the one to look forward to as they seem to be on the right track with developing it.
MUSCLED MIGHT
Push will not analyse heart rate, sleep or calories burned. It will track your actual workout with weights.
BASIS PEAK – GETS IT RIGHT THIS TIME AROUND
The original Basis band was the epitome of what a wrist -based fitness band could do. Unfortunately, a poor design and some sensor issues marred it from achieving greatness. The new Basis Peak aims to set all that right. The optical heart-rate monitor doesn’t give up on extreme activity and the design is much better. The screen is brighter and readable, can still read skin temperature and its resistance to electricity. It can automatically analyse what kind of activity you’re doing and is easily the most accurate sleep tracker I’ve ever used. It also has smartwatch features like notifications of incoming calls and text messages. All in all, other than a built-in GPS, the Basis Peak at $199 is the whole fitness deal on your wrist.
THE FITBIT THREESOME - BACK WITH A BANG
The leader in fitness bands makes a huge comeback after the debacle of the Force. The Charge is what the now recalled Force should have been. The Charge HR adds heart-rate Rajiv Makhni monitoring to its roster of fea- TERRIFIC THREE tures and the Fitbit Surge is a Fitbit, the leader of big badass smartwatch built fitness bands, is around a fitness band. The back with a bang always-on heart-rate analysis is a big deal and the smartwatch features on the new Surge are actually very well built. The Surge does suffer from an old-style LCD display and the price is a bit much. BASIS DOES A MISFIT FLASH - SUPER ECONOMY PUSH – A NEW BREED OF FITNESS BANDS TURNAROUND CHAMPION The Push is the most futuristic looking fitness For some reason, the Misfit Flash dropped in With Peak, Basis band I’ve ever seen. And here’s the cool part: it price from $50 to $25 almost as soon as it was re- has set its earlier WON’T track your steps, distance, sleep quality, leased. And that makes it very awesome. Think of hiccups right heart rate or any other activity. Just your workthe Flash as the much awarded and lauded Misfit out with weights. It’s built to do just that and nothing else. Shine but with a plastic body. It is waterproof so you can Its sensors will tell you how your body is performing, the wear it while swimming. It will tell you the time and count level of strength and the speed with which you’re lifting, the steps you’ve taken, calories burned, distance covered, how much weight to add, how many reps to do and gives you the amount of sleep clocked-in and its quality. Because it feedback as you do it. It can help you train with full intenhas a coin-cell battery, the Flash will keep flashing for about sity, makes sure you avoid injuries and take your workout six months with no recharge required. If you can get over to the next level. At $189 it does what many athletes spend the fact that the display takes some getting used to, get one millions of dollars to analyse. for the whole family; $25 is chump change to get super fit. There are many more fitness bands coming GET IT RIGHT MIO FUSE – HEART IN THE RIGHT PLACE out. The Wellograph looks amazing, but it’s expenMio is the only company that got heart-rate moni- Mio Fuse is possibly sive and needs work. The LifeTrak Move gives you toring on a wrist-based device completely right. the only device that heart-rate sensors for $50 but you get what you But that’s all they did. Now with the Fuse, they’ve tracks your heartpay for. The Atlas will identify the exercise you’re entered proper fitness band territory. Fuse is rate accurately doing, analyse the intensity as well as your heart water-resistant and can be taken for a swim, it rate but will cost $249. Fitness bands 2.0 are about can measure distance, steps taken, calories to be unleashed and this time they aren’t givburned, sleep quality and track heart-rate ing up without a fight. You can run but you very accurately even with extreme activcan’t hide! Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and ity. Plus, the dot-matrix display is touch and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3 scroll enabled. It’s priced at $149.
techilicious
NOT A TOTAL MISFIT
At $25, the Misfit Flash is one of the cheapest bands to track your fitness
MORE ON THE WEB For more Techilicious columns, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter. com/RajivMakhni The views expressed by the columnist are personal
DECEMBER 14, 2014
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Not Just ANother sweet story B Gujarati food is a complex interplay of flavours, and if you think it is only sweet, you’re just plain ignorant
ECAUSE I went to school in North India and had to eat things like paneer and rajma, I am accustomed to people making fun of Gujarati food. One Dusshera, when our school took us on a trip to Ahmedabad, a delegation of boys went to see the cook at the guesthouse we were staying at and handed him an empty jar. “Please put all the sugar you were going to put into our food into this jar,” they requested him. “We hate sweet food and so just give us the sugar, we’ll make coffee with it.” I’m surprised the cook didn’t give the delegation a couple of tight raps because apart from the rudeness, the boys were displaying pure North Indian ignorance. Gujarati food is not just sweet. Like all great cuisines, it relies on the interplay between sweet and sour flavours (what the Chinese
Vir Sanghvi
rude food DELICATE DELIGHT
I yield to nobody in my admiration for a good steamed idli. But a dhokla takes steaming to another level entirely
regard as the yin and yang of cuisine) and in any case, the sweetness usually comes from gur, not from refined sugar. That experience taught me two things. One: North Indians can be very limited in the flavours their palates can handle. That’s why they miss the subtleties of, say, Thai cuisine, where sweetness is one of the basic flavours in main courses. And that’s why they are foxed by the European tradition of pairing sweet (often fruit) flavours with meats: duck with orange; pork with apples; foie gras with a balsamico reduction; etc. And two: the rest of India (and perhaps the world) knows very little about Gujarati cuisine. The average Punjabi may abandon his primitive paneer masala to try a Gujarati dish but its sophistication will pass him by. A delicately flavoured cauliflower sabzi, for instance, will strike him as no more than the Punjabi version with a little sugar added. When people ask me to recommend a quintessential Gujarati dish, I always suggest the kadhi. In North India, kadhi consists of thick robust gravies. In Gujarat, our kadhis are thin and when cooked expertly, can show off sweet and sour flavours. The same is true of the classic tuvar dal. In North Indian restaurants, dal has come to mean
DECEMBER 14, 2014
A FEAST IN ONE PLATE
Gujarati cuisine is thali-based and usually has fresh vegetables, sprouted pulses, mithai, poori, papad and God alone knows what else a thick, viscous black substance that is packed full of dairy products. In Gujarat, the tuvar dal is as complex as, say, a great Tom Yum soup in Thai cuisine. It will have four or five flavours and yet each will live in perfect harmony with the others. But these are dishes from Gujarati home cooking and hard to find in restaurants. So the one easily available dish that captures the complexity of Gujarati cuisine is bhelpuri. By now, you should know the story of its origins. Chaat was taken to most parts of India (except the South) by guys from UP (and perhaps Bihar). When they got to Bombay (as it then was), the local Gujaratis had very little time for all the papri chaat-type rubbish that they still serve in Delhi. Soon Gujaratis had taken inspiration from the UP chaatwallahs (or bhaiyyas as they called themselves) and created paani puri (a variation on the batasha of UP; they call them golgappas in most of North India now) and had added such typically Gujarati touches as sprouted pulses and small chickpeas. Even the paani took on a more complex dimension. But then they went further and taught the chaatwallahs a thing or two. Bhelpuri was not an adaptation. It was invented in Bombay and combines all the strengths of great Gujarati cuisine: a mix of sweet (the khajoor chutney), sour (a little kuchaa kairi or aam went into it) and hot (the red chutney). The texture was a work of genius: crunch (sev), softness (the boiled potato) and bite (the kaanda or pyaaz). It was neither dry (because of the chutneys) nor wet (like all that papri chaat-type nonsense). Even now, a well-made bhelpuri is a work of art. Many Gujaratis still make it at home but you can get the real thing at Bombay’s Soam (and perhaps Swati; I am not so sure about Vithal any longer). Complexity of flavour and texture is one hallmark of Gujarati cooking. Delicacy is another one. Try eating
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HIP CHAAT
Bhelpuri was invented in Bombay and combines all the strengths of great Gujarati cuisine: a mix of sweet, sour and hot
Photos: DINODIA
homemade dahi wadi (sometimes called khandvi). You will be astonished by how delicately it has been rolled and by how subtle the flavours are. Or consider a perfect homemade dhokla. I yield to nobody in my admiration for a good steamed idli. But a dhokla takes steaming to another level entirely. We are right to think of Gujarati food as a thali-based cuisine. In my grandfather’s house in Ahmedabad, the thali had at least three fresh vegetables, one dry dal or some sprouted pulses dish (ugaadayla mug, for instance), a wet dal, kadhi, a kathor (a savoury), a mithai, poori, rotis, rice, papad and God alone knows what else. But we forget the subtlety of the snacks and breads. In North India, you make a bread interesting by ripping apart something that already exists and by introducing vegetables or meat into it: aloo or keema thrust into a paratha, a kulcha or a naan. But in Gujarat, we play around with the flavours of our breads (a thepla can be flavoured with methi or garlic) and their textures (a khaari puri, for instance). Even our simple, basic breads have so much flavour that you can eat them on their own. In Kathiawad, farmers would carry two bajra rotlas, an onion, a chilli and a little garlic chutney when they went out to the fields – and that would make for a delicious lunch. Because most of the people North Indians think of as Gujaratis are vaaniyas (the Sarabhais, the Ambanis, Amit
Shah etc – but not Narendra Modi) and because there is an absurd intolerance towards non-vegetarians from Gujarati residents of some Mumbai housing societies, we forget that a significant proportion of Gujaratis are non-vegetarians. The Rajputs have never been vegetarians and the former royal houses of Gujarat have great non-vegetarian recipes. And then there are the Gujarati Muslims. One of the ironies of the freedom struggle was that while the men who won our independence and united India were both Gujaratis (Gandhiji and Sardar Patel) even the guy who broke India up was a Gujarati: MA Jinnah was a Khoja. In Pakistan, Gujarati Muslims who used to be among the richest people in that country have been forced to play down their Gujarati identities, first going through a process of Punjabification and now, like all Pakistanis, a kind of murderous Arabisation. But in India, we celebrate such Gujarati Muslim success stories as Azim Premji and Alyque Padamsee. Sadly, the rest of India is as ignorant about their cuisine as it is about Gujarati vegetarian food. The Bohras, the Khojas and the Memons (both Kutchi and Halai) have world-class cuisines that are hard to find outside private homes. You find traces of their food in parts of Mumbai: the crisp patti-keema samosas have a Bohra origin and many of Bombay’s dhabas and biryani joints are run by Gujarati Muslims who have never been to Lucknow and don’t really give a damn about kewda-soaked Awadhi pulao. In many ways, their cuisine is one of the true cuisines of Mumbai. The city was built by Maharashtrians, Gujaratis (Hindus, Jains and Muslims) and Parsis. Perhaps my love for Gujarati cuisine emerges out of a certain chauvinism. But given that two of the three most powerful politicians in this government are Gujaratis, maybe you should give the cuisine of our current rulers a fair shot. Its subtleness and delicacy will surprise you.
When people ask me to recommend a quintessential Gujarati dish, I always suggest the kadhi
Photos: IMAGESBAZAAR
ROLL OVER
Delicacy is a hallmark of Gujarati cooking. Try eating khandvi – you will be astonished by how delicately it has been rolled and by how subtle the flavours are
MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Vir Sanghvi, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch The views expressed by the columnist are personal
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Style FileS Y
Tracing your life story through fashion can be both fun and traumatic…
OU KNOW you are getting on when a ‘period film’ is set in a period you remember all too clearly. Well, at least that’s how I felt when I watched The Wolf of Wall Street, set in the late ’80s to mid ’90s. Yes, I know. I am a bit late to this, but all those reviews about the debauchery and drug-taking kind of put me off the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio notwithstanding. But when I finally got to it last week, it wasn’t the drugs and sex – not to mention the midget throwing (don’t ask!) – that got me. It was the clothes. There they were, the fashions of the late ’80s and early ’90s on display in all their power-shouldered wonder. Double-breasted suits worn with loud, wildly-patterned ties.
Seema Goswami
spectator SAVING GRACE
I still have ‘body suits’ from the ’90s nestling safely in my wardrobe Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK
Polo shirts paired with high-waisted linen trousers. Ruffles and padded shoulders for the women. This was Giorgio Armani and Chanel, all right. But not as we know it. Except, of course, that I knew it all too well. This was the period when I came of age. The decade when I left college, began my first job, and began earning my own money, which I could spend on the fashions of the day. But now that it was being paraded before me, two decades later, all the outfits looked clunky and clumsy, over the top, and sometimes downright vulgar. Had we really dressed like that in the ’80s and early ’90s? What on earth were we thinking? Well, now that you ask, we thought we looked pretty darn good. We loved the exaggerated silhouettes, the loud colours. The brash exuberance of that decade was perfectly articulated in the clothes. And we embraced those fashions with all the wit and style at our command. Those padded shoulders were our armour of choice as we set out to conquer the world – until Armani gave unto us the deconstructed jacket. It is only in hindsight that the fashions of the period appear a tad absurd. When I pull out my photographs of that period, I can’t help but giggle at some of the images. But at the time, they looked perfectly stylish. And who knows, they may well be back in vogue in another 20 years, just like the ’60s fashions that saw a revival in the early 21st century. It is all too easy to trace our lives in fashion by picking out just one outfit from every decade we have lived through. And my suspicion is that if we store these in the back of our closets for long enough, it won’t be long before each outfit comes back in fashion. In my case, this has already happened. The leggings and T-shirt/sweater combination that I lived in during my college days and my first few years as a working journalist have now become trendy once again. Patiala salwars have seen a revival as have dhoti pants. Flared jeans had a brief
DECEMBER 14, 2014
FASHION CENTRAL
Polo shirts paired with high-waisted linen trousers, ruffles and padded shoulders... The Wolf of Wall Street displayed fashion of the late ’80s and early ’90s in all their power-shouldered wonder time in the sun before giving way to jeggings. The platform heel and the wedge have stomped back into fashion. Even the humble handloom sari – which had been cast into oblivion because of our obsession with Western styles – is experiencing a new wave of popularity. And that is good news for a world-class hoarder like me. I can pull out clothes that haven’t had an airing in years and look completely on-trend in them (if you ignore the suspicious whiff of mothballs). And what is even more fun is that I can see my life flash before me in all the fashions of that particular decade. The ’70s come to life in the flared trousers I wore to a school picnic, inspired by Zeenat Aman in Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971); the shiny garara-set I donned for a family wedding based on all those ‘Muslim socials’ that were a staple of Hindi cinema in those days; and the floppy hats and oversized sunglasses that were all the rage in those days, and turn up in almost every photograph of that time. The ’80s are universally known as the decade style forgot. And my picture albums certainly seem to bear that out: flounced skirts, pedal pushers, flowery trousers, padded shoulders, all of it accessorised with big-hair (think Joan Collins in Dynasty) and too much eye make-up. I can hardly bear to look at the photos without cringing and wondering how I dared to go out in public dressed like that. The ’90s were rescued for me by Donna Karan and her easy-to-wear aesthetic and I still have her ‘body suits’ (tshirts and shirts that were designed like swimwear so that you had no ‘bunching’ when you wore them with trousers) nestling safely in my wardrobe. That was also the decade when I discovered Anokhi and the pleasures of vegetabledye, indigo and block printing. The start of the 21st century in fashion terms, for me at least, was all about two names: Abraham and Thakore. And even 10 or more years later I still swear by their understated, pared-down and sophisticated aesthetic sense. Those elegant linen trouser suits, the silk tunics and skirts, the long kurtas with delicate embellishment, and the beautifully-designed saris: these are the looks that will last the ages. Well, at least, I think so. But should you really trust a woman who dressed in pedal pushers back in the day? Probably not!
MORE ON THE WEB For more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/seemagoswami. Write to her at seema_ht@rediffmail.com The views expressed by the columnist are personal
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PERSONAL AGENDA
twitter.com/HTBrunch
Singer/composer
Adnan Sami BIRTHDAY PLACE OF BIRTH SCHOOL/COLLEGE
August 15
London
SUN SIGN HOMETOWN Leo
Mumbai
HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE
LOW POINT CURRENTLY I AM...
When I became the first to introduce OF YOUR piano to Indian classical music. And LIFE FIRST BREAK the success of my first album in India, When I lost my I wrote the song Run For His Life about Ethopia for the Kabhi To Nazar Milao (2000) father in 2009 United Nations in 1986
Rugby School, England and University of London
with a very aristocratic background, I did not fall in line with their choice of professions. Live performance or studio recording – which do you prefer? The satisfaction from an electrifying live performance is great as I share a wonderful relationship with my audience. A piece of advice you wish someone had given you 10 years ago. Nothing I can talk about openly. The theme song of your life is... Yeh Kya Hua, Kyon Hua, Kaise Hua... and Musafir Hoon Yaaron. Would you want to team up with Yo Yo Honey Singh? Why not? I rapped way back in 1991. The first thing you said when you saw a slimmer you in the mirror? “What the hell are you upto now?” Your advice to people trying
YOUR FAVOURITE CO-SINGER
I will always have a special place for Ashaji in my heart DECEMBER 14, 2014
to lose weight. Do not go on the Internet to look for diets. Go to a good nutritionist for advice that would suit your body best. A food you still binge on. I eat everything in moderation now. Your fitness funda. I play squash. What makes your day? A good cup of tea or coffee. What spoils it? Not getting that. You de-stress by... Listening to music. Or watching a movie from my collection of over 7,000 films. Your favourite holiday destination. Any remote place or a resort in Bahamas or Mauritius. The last line of your biography would read... He did it his way! — Interviewed by Veenu Singh
FILMS WITH THE BEST SOUNDTRACK
Abhimaan (1973), Umrao Jaan (1981) and Mughal-E-Azam (1960) FILMS YOU WOULD HAVE LOVED TO SING IN
Guide (1965) and Aradhana (1969)
MOST OVERRATED FILM
my movies
If you weren’t a singer, you would’ve been... Music is something I have worked on since I was a child. But I am also trained to be a barrister. Which musical instrument do you enjoy playing the most? I can play 32 instruments. My father insisted that I master playing the piano. The style of singing you are most comfortable with. I’m comfortable in all styles, right from jazz to ghazals. Your favourite singers. Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi. Your favourite lyricists. Anand Bakshi, Majrooh Sultanpuri and Gulzar. The biggest risk you’ve taken in life. Despite coming from a family
Getting ready for a world tour early next year. And I’m going to make my acting debut soon
Recently, the films Her and Enemy (both 2013) had interesting plots but lost it somewhere in the middle. Enemy had the dumbest ending of all time YOUR FAVOURITE ACTORS
Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan