Creative Subtitles of Indian Cinema
The Tumblr site Paagal Subtitle (http://paagalsubtitle.tumblr.com) was created by a Bollywood fan named Beth (http://www.twitter.com/bethlovesbolly) to celebrate “creativity, typos, and expert image-and-word juxtaposition in subtitles in Indian cinema.” Anyone who has watched Indian movies knows that there’s no shortage of “creative” subtitles. Here are a few from Paagal Subtitle:
In the 2001 Hindi film Zubeidaa, Suleman Seth (Amrish Puri) recalls the death of his daughter: “I couldn’t bear to see the body, the coffin, and the symmetry.”
In the 2007 Hindi film Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Rikki Thukral (Abhiskeh Bachchan) leaves this instruction as he leaves home: “Any call tell I back evening ok.”
In the 2012 Hindi comedy Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal, David (Om Puri) finds his house burning and yells, “Someone fire my house.”
In the 2012 documentary Supermen of Malegaon, a sidekick of Superman is impaled on a pole and says, “I’ll have to take pain coolers now.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips and more.]
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