LANGUAGE AND CINEMA
Though pure cinema should be beyond language we, as a collective society, have not reached that level of refinement and homogeneity to detach from spoken words in cinema. The period of ‘silent cinema’ produced some great works of Art such as the cinema of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplain which made dialogues redundant for a while. But, the fact that with the advancement in technology the cinema makers clung to the sound of words such firmly that the question of abandoning it does not arise . The dialogue writing has come of age too and realism is the order of the times. In hindi cinema too the earlier text and delivery of dialogues has been handed over to the television soap opera operators and much emphasis is applied to write lines which are spoken by characters in day to day life .Often we see that the characters speak the dialect of the region they represent though in the name of artistic freedom certain dialects are spoken to provide humour only and geographical location of the character is of little importance. In the sixties , seventies and eighties though standard hindi was spoken by the actors, but whenever rural depiction was shown the dialect was ‘ bhojpuri’. Perhaps if we trace the origin of this norm the influx of migrant population to the then ‘ calcutta’ where cinema started eventually in a big way could be the reason. Much of the migrants to the city of Mumbai and Calcutta were from UP and Bihar who carried their culture with them and did influence the rural characterisation in films. Dilip Kumar immortalised the rural dialect in his rendition of the role of a farmer turned dacoit under oppressed circumstances. The song in bhojpuri ‘ nain larjayen to manwa ma khatak hoe be kari’ is sung and fondly remembered to this day. Many actors tried to emulate him but could not match his fluidity and rhythm , later Amitabh Bachhan surpassed him, but only slightly on the strength of his larger body of work and having been born in Allahabad. Bachhan matched Dilip in his portrayal of ‘ khai ke paan banaras wala’ in ‘Don’ and also in ’Adalat’ and ‘ Ganga ki Saugandh’.
In recent times Vishal Bharadwaj engaged the audience in ‘Omkara’ with its typical western U. P. accent . Shekhar Kapoor used the dialect spoken in the ravines of the ‘Chambal’ in ‘Bandit Queen’ very effectively, it added to the seriousness of the subject. However; the wide usage of the the ‘dialects’ of Hindi language spoken in eastern and central U.P. and parts of western Bihar ranging from ‘avadhi’ to ‘Bhojpuri’ and its variants have reigned supreme. Other accents have been attempted and the hindi with ‘Haryanvi’ dialect is gaining currency in comedy and with time other dialects will also emerge. Mani Ratnam does provide a distinct dialect to his minor actors but is random in selection as he is not faithful to the geographical region.
Shyam Benegal in his recent film ‘Well done Abba’ has set the film in a village near the city of Hyderabad and therefore his actors speak hindi in the typical accent of that place popularized by the great comedian Mehmood in films ‘ Gumnam’ and ‘Kunwara Baap ‘.What I observed was that this restricted the flow of the film and the dialect lacks the melody which is inherent in Bhojpuri. Perhaps the choice of the dialect marred the fate of the film at Box office as the audience has limited patience for such jarring experiments .Coincidently; I saw a day after I had seen ‘Abba….’ ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ a film also of Shyam Benegal released last year which was not only a surprise Hit of the year but also of his career. This film too has a rural setting but with ‘Bhojpuri’ dialect, there is such flow and beauty in that language that it contributes largely to its success. The comparison is apt because the dialogue, and screenplay writer is common to two films . It is my belief that had he retained the Bhojpuri dialect in ‘Abba’ and changed the lead actor to someone more conversant with language variation such as ‘Naeer’ the result would have been better.
At times reason may dictate that a certain dialect is mandatory but the inherent sweetness of certain tongues is beyond debate . It is ironical that the region from where this dialect emerges is one of the poorest economically but has given much emotional joy to the society with its melodious dialect. No wonder why most vocal Hindustani classical music is performed and created in Bhojpuri dialect.
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