Shahrukh in a soup: Baadshah

"Being in a soup" is one of my favorite Bollywood subtitle expressions. Others include strange placement of the word "only," such as "Please wait here for five minutes only," which seems to mean "Please wait right here and don't leave. I'll be back in five minutes."

Which is neither here nor there. I felt like I should like Baadshah much more than I actually did. Clearly it's referring to, making fun of, and paying tribute to lots of different films and types of films, and I suspect that the more of them you know, the more you'll enjoy this movie.

Go read the review by Gorilla's Lament. He understands and likes this movie more than I do, so you might as well read about it from someone who can say funny-yet-thoughtful things about it that are actually relevant.

Before you go, though, think about this: even when Seema has short hair, Baadshah's trip to Switzerland still envisions her with long hair, and she has long hair again at the end when he is busy with he in his bed. (That's what the subtitles said! Honest!) Why is short hair so seldom in romantic scenes? This seems to be the case around the globe.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, so let me take this opportunity to shine a light on one of SRK's overlooked talents: his nonverbals. He is a whiz at whistles, sighs, sobs, hmmmms, and so on. While it's weird to think that these are probably dubbed in later - I have a hard time imagining sitting in a studio trying to synch up "wow this box is heavy" noises with myself on a screen - I am impressed that he can say so much without saying a word. A good example from this movie is when he comes out of his Switzerland reverie, fondly caressing a window pane, and a passerby looks at him oddly. He makes a "hmmm" noise that clearly means "What are you looking at?", she shrugs, he does some sort of whistle and click combo to tell her "Go on, get outta here," and, as she leaves, he looks uppity and hmms "she's got some nerve." It's great. Of course, as in all SRK talents, sometimes he overdoes it - you can tell the box is heavy by how he's carrying it.

Aside to set designers: is "Scream Club" supposed to be scary? Or funny? What up?

Aside to choreographer: thank you for having Amrish do a few steps. I shall cherish them always.

Comments

Obi Wan said…
I saw Badshah in Westend cinema hall in Pune with 7-8 friends from college, and almost got kicked out of the hall! I totally freaked out on the movie, was guffawing throughout the movie(except for the half an hour of Nick of Time)! My personal favorite scenes:
The madness in Badshah's Den
Moti(Sharad Saxena)singing to the dog to quiten it
The climax, where Badshah is hanging after Amrish Puri pushes him, and tells him- "Abe neeche giraane ki nahi rakhi!!!"(Pushing me down was not a part of the rules)!
I miss so much not getting to see these movies in the theater! Almost all movies are better in a crowd, in a theater (and preferably a lovely old theater, in my opinion - a real movie palace), than on your own with the DVD player. I guess that shows I'm a social person! ANyway...I did like the bit with SRK singing to the dog (and the earlier part where he and his crew are singing with the police officers after the diamond incident - my DVD wasn't subtitled so the only lyrics I caught, I think, were him saying he was crazy). Oh, and when he hid behind the mannequin. I loved that!
Badhshaah: Saw it on TV. Actually, I saw it for ShahRukh. I did like the song in the nightclub though! Total Bollywood: with all the glitter and glamour!
JR said…
Okay, I know you wrote this review months ago, but I just saw a picturization of one of the songs on a "25 songs of SRK" disk, and all I could think was WTF? I have no idea what the plot was, but I was seriously hoping the police woman would beat SRK's character around the head and shoulders with her club. He seemed to need it at that moment. And Johnny Lever's gloves....

Mostly wrote this to tell about the funny "wait here five minutes only" bit. It has to do with where they place the "bhi" particle in the sentence, we had an entire lesson on it in Hindi class this spring. It's the same particle that produces the "Even I am sad at this" or "Even Aman needs a bath" subtitles. I won't elaborate, but it does sound okay in Hindi.
I am delighted that there is a reason for those constructions. Hey Hindi speakers who read this blog - why didn't you say so? You could have saved me months of agonizing. And now I need a new subtitle joke. Hmph.

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