Sunday, April 11, 2010

Lost in translation

The Tamil movie, Rajinikant starrer, Mannan was aired on the local Tamil channel. With English subtitles. This movie marked the best partnership between Rajini and His Excellency Goundamani since 16 vayadhinile.

For the benefit of those (few) who may not be aware, this movie has one of the best comic sequences where the two of them cite flimsy reasons to take time off work to buy the first two tickets to a movie opening, and thus win prizes that come with it. And eventually get caught. See? It doesn't sound all that funny when you read that right? That is exactly the point of this post.

One of the most famous quips from H.E as he prepares to collect his prize is this:

"Naatla indha thozhiladhibarunga tholla thaangala da. Punnaakku vikkiravan gundoosi vikkiravan ellam thozhiladhibaraam."

The English subtitle that came on was this:

"These days, every Tom, Dick and Harry is an industrialist."

Simply put, it was lost in translation.

2 comments:

  1. I concur. If you're watching this movie with your buddies (and I don't mean a Harish, Suresh or Mahesh) they'd be looking at you strange wondering if everything's all right with you. Because unless you're stoned out of your mind or something, no one ever laughs out holding their intestines for something as innocuous as "Every other John Doe is an industrialist". I wonder what the English translation would be for one of Rajini's immortal lines - "Naan oru thadava sonna nooru thadava sonna mathiri".

    (Hint) "One time I say something it's equal to a hundred times" I don't know. I give up man! Maybe they're better off subtitling "Just go with the flow, clap and get goosebumps all over"

    - Atma.

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  2. Atma, LOL, true. Just flash: "Laugh here." I could have used that while I sat through many Hindi films.

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