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`One Night in a Museum' releases in Telugu today, bringing to the fore the issue of dubbed films

LANGUAGE TRAVAILS A still from `One Night in a Museum'

For those most comfortable thinking, speaking and watching cinema in English, the release of Jurassic Park in Hindi was one of the most hilarious moments in film-watching history. The largely urban, English-speaking audience had quite a chuckle at attempts to localise Hollywood such as calling dinosaurs bhayanak chipkalee, or renaming Dunston Checks In as Ek Bandar Hotel Ke Andar, all the while smug in the knowledge that at least those in the A Centres could still choose to enjoy the original.

For those viewers, here comes a bit of a shocker. With their latest comedy feature, One Night in a Museum, 20th Century Fox are taking the dubbing concept one step further, releasing the film only in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu throughout the country. The idea behind it, says George John, Marketing Manager for the studio, is to expand the market for Hollywood cinema by creating versions that are understood by a larger section of the viewing public. Museum Ke Andar Phas Gaya Sikander, is an experiment, he says. Adds film reviewer Jai Arjun Singh, being against dubbing per se is an elitist reaction, since much of the film viewing audience in the country is semi-literate and can't comfortably read subtitles. But what most people have an objection to is the idea of releasing a film only in the dubbed versions, and keeping the original out of even multiplexes in the A Centres. Although George claims that since viewers of English cinema in the country also like Hindi films and hence blurring the boundary between the two is a good move, others don't agree with this perspective. Says Jai Arjun: "I can understand making dubbed films available to a non-English speaking audience. But if we're talking about the typical multiplex crowd, I doubt many of them would want to "mix" English and Hindi in such an awkward way."

From the viewer's perspective too, not making the original version available is a bad move, says Rajeev. "It is important for many viewers to see the film in the language it was meant to be seen in." Jai Arjun agrees, pointing out that no matter how good a dubbed version is, it is never as good as the original because the vocal element is an important part of an actor's performance. "Besides, too much suspension of disbelief is required. It's difficult for me to sink into a film where American actors have Hindi lines coming out of their mouths with lack of synchronicity between the sound and the lip movements."

As lucid as such arguments are, however, one of the few constants about the Indian box office is its unpredictability. It remains to be seen if 20th Century Fox has hit the nail on the head, and if in the future all our favourite Hollywood actors will speak the good old Rashtrabasha.

RAKESH MEHAR

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