Nana Don't Preach

Bhookhein Bhajan Na Hoain Gopala
Eee Lo Apni Kanthi Mala ..

We know what does the above phrase mean : If the basic needs themselves are not fulfilled, then it is impossible to do something rosy or inspiring. However, when they do get fulfilled, we start musing upon the metaphysics of life, and turn preachy, even at the expense of others.

That day I was watching Ab Tak Chhappan. I must confess that I am not great fan of this movie. I might have sat down to watch this movie many a times, but it could never attract my attention long enough. I have never seen it completely.

We have this psychotic Nana of the yore. Nana, who is cock sure in front of his team, but humble pie before his venomneous bosses. It is this partial cock surety which doesn't allow me to believe in his character. In fact, I have more sympathy towards the character of Yashpal Sharma whom I feel behaved honestly.

But this is not about the cock surety of the Nana's character, but of the dialogue writer(Sandeep Srivastava) and the director(Shimit Amin) which bothers. There is a character called Vaishali(played by Hrishita Bhatt), who is the girl friend of Jatin Shukla (Nakul Vaid).

In a scene, Jatin Shukla tells her name to his boss Sadhu Agashe(Nana Patekar), to which latter chides the former for the supposed 'mispronunciation' - "Kya Tum North Indians").

Now we all know that in Sanskrit and Marathi, a definite stress is given to the vowels. So Vaishali is pronounced as Va-ayeee-shaalee, Gauri is like Ga-aoo-ree and Chaitanya becomes Cha-ayee-tanyaa.

When Nana Patekar says - "Kya Tum North Indians", he actually means Hindi but he doesn't know that Hindi is different. Hindi and Sanskrit may be scripturally and grammatically same but are phonetically different.

In Hindi, there is no such emphasis, and never was. Vowels are mellowed, and don't meet the consonants at a sharp angle. So Vaishali is precisely the Vaishali. Tomorrow, one might also start commenting that Bengalis should start saying Varun instead of Baurun, and Vyomkesh for Bomkesh.

My view is : Let Marathi be Marathi, Hindi be Hindi. Don't mess them with our superlative ideas because of misinformation or misconception. Its time that we see the world, and chuck away that Koop-Mandook(frog of the well) syndrome.