Of course, this has mostly to do with the inclination to sound cool and appealing through an affinity for a linguistic style (tashan) that is accepted as a funda (mannerism) that is hip, especially in contemporary societies in India. Words like tashan and funda are popular across the Indian college student community. Ishtyle, Ishtory, and Ishtars are considered hip pronunciations for style, story and stars respectively. The roots of these lie largely in the Bombay underworld, which is, for better or worse, glorified in the movies. The Munnabhai film series used similar lingo in a refreshing sense.
I am still amazed at how frequently some of us use fotos, muzik, trailerz, dis (instead of this), dat, etc. as acceptable e-mail and instant message words. I don't like them, but I appreciate where the filmmakers are going with this, given the primary target audience.
Seriously, ggop. That film production houses feel the need to go to that extent to differentiate their products from those of their counterparts is just a reflection of society, is it not?
I'm not sure how I feel about appealing to the SMS lowest common grammatical/writing denominator. I sort of hate it, but I also understand (and enjoy) that language is an ever-changing medium etc. I also understand that abbreviations have their place when one is typing on tiny keys or using a number pad, but otherwise they grate. I think of them as a tool that has certain understandable and reasonable but very limited uses. I wonder if the promotional use of these terms is winking or sincere? Personally I like winking humor, but earnest use in a very professional context when your audience is not solely 17-year-olds is questionable. I'm certainly glad it's not my decision to make.
Recently I was chatting with a colleague who has just graduated from college. We were talking about music and without thinking I said "I remember that song from college. Lord I'm old." He replied "How old are you?" I said "33" and he said "OMG, no way, I thought you were like 27 - you're so lively."
You know, it's funny, the timing of this discussion. The Times of India had this article on a very closely related subject. Here's my take.
Anonymous said…
This is what happens when fogies gang up with the clueless to try and act all hip. On the other hand, at least they didn't call it "Teh Ishtory" or "Teh Muzak" and substitute cute kitties instead of the stars. OMG, somebody with photoshop skillz should do that!
They could have hired a grammarian to explain how dumb this would look in two years. Instead, the money was spent on hooking up Kareena Kapoor with Cher's surgeons so she could have a few ribs removed. Either that, or the money was used to keep her locked in a gym with cocaine and fierce bodyguards who would not feed her or let her off the cardio machines for a few months.
Shweta, I have every confidence you will remain lively.
-ramchandra- - Brilliant!
Anne - Leave the teeth! I like them! But please never compare my beloved Bebo to Cher ever again. Ewwwww. But anyway, yeah, everyone should get to eat, especially when they dance for part of their livelihood.
OMG LOL! i'm watching the movie this weekend and I cannot stop lol-ing in anticipation. dis moviez gonna be godawful (i cant think of a totally cool word for that).
For all your Kapoor Khazana reference needs (and beyond), here is a Kapoor family tree. This image is courtesy of Madhu Jain's book The Kapoors: The First Family of Indian Cinema (Penguin Books India, 2005). Click the picture to enlarge to legible size. The dates and underlining are my own. My notations indicate who is of what generation: double underlines are for Prithviraj's children; single underlines are for their children; dashed lines for their children; etc. If you'd rather read, the family tree goes like this, color-coded by major branch and with the names you probably recognize in bold: first and second generations: Prithviraj Kapoor (born 1906) is the father of Raj (Ranbir Raj, born 1924), Shammi (Shamsher Raj, 1931), and Shashi (Balbir Raj, 1938). Prithviraj and his wife Ramsarni (Rama) also had a daughter, Urmi (between Shammi and Shashi), and two children who died, Ravinder and Devinder. Prithviraj has a brother named Trilok Kapoor , who is a
Hey, everyone - hi. This is Beth. I am absolutely fascinated with the question of who is reading this, and my curiosity is further piqued by the growth of the happy little dots on my ClustrMap . Either there is some creative ISPing going on here, or I see people visiting from India, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Europe, South America, Canada, and the US. (Special shout-out to Canada! I'm an honourary Canadian! I love you guys!) Anyway, hello to you all! I don't like how most guestbook thingies on websites seem to work, so instead I invite everyone who stops by to leave a little comment on this post (this will also be linked from the nav bar) and say hi and share why you like or are interested in Bollywood - and what brought you here. Thanks! And don't forget to have a snack before you go - they're on the table over there. Punch, too.
Alternate title: by far the least of the movies starting with "D" released in fall 2006. My favorite part of this movie is from about 7:40 to 8:10 in, during the title song, when Hrithik is dancing under the rafters and in front of the round window. In my opinion, the best bits of this song, when he's by himself doing his rubber-limbed tap-dance-y moves, are almost as good as Lakshya 's "Main Aise Kyon Hoon" and I watched them over and over. After that, I think my favorite moment was Uday's Baywatch -esque reverie. And how sad is that? This could have been so much fun, and it just wasn't. (As with the first Dhoom , I'm willing to give it some points for "good to watch with a bunch of other people in the theater," which I didn't get to do.) What went wrong? For starters, four of the six main characters are stupid and annoying beyond a level I could forgive. We've got the opportunity for a cool girl baddie, but no, Sunehri ch
Comments
Of course, this has mostly to do with the inclination to sound cool and appealing through an affinity for a linguistic style (tashan) that is accepted as a funda (mannerism) that is hip, especially in contemporary societies in India. Words like tashan and funda are popular across the Indian college student community. Ishtyle, Ishtory, and Ishtars are considered hip pronunciations for style, story and stars respectively. The roots of these lie largely in the Bombay underworld, which is, for better or worse, glorified in the movies. The Munnabhai film series used similar lingo in a refreshing sense.
I am still amazed at how frequently some of us use fotos, muzik, trailerz, dis (instead of this), dat, etc. as acceptable e-mail and instant message words. I don't like them, but I appreciate where the filmmakers are going with this, given the primary target audience.
Or subtitles :-)
Its a malaise I tell you. I often shudder reading email from the under 25 crowd in India.
That said, I do enjoy LOLcats because I've always assumed they're sarcastic - if perhaps played out by now. The genius thing about them is that the text is so contained and constrained: it's not paragraphs, just a sentence at most. I've often considered some filmi LOL captions. On my post about a Tashan outfit at Bollywood Fugly, maybe I should have written: "Suspenderz: ur doin it wrong."
Recently I was chatting with a colleague who has just graduated from college. We were talking about music and without thinking I said "I remember that song from college. Lord I'm old." He replied "How old are you?" I said "33" and he said "OMG, no way, I thought you were like 27 - you're so lively."
Please?
I wonder if I will be more or less lively....:D
(filing down points of eyeteeth...)
-ramchandra- - Brilliant!
Anne - Leave the teeth! I like them! But please never compare my beloved Bebo to Cher ever again. Ewwwww. But anyway, yeah, everyone should get to eat, especially when they dance for part of their livelihood.
our blogs have a lot in common www.bhadmeinjao.blogspot.com