telugu paaTa lO telugu lessa?? by Darina poye daanayya

celimi lO valapu raagam
valapu lO madhura bhaavam
raagam bhaavam kalisae praNaya geetam
paaDukO, paaDukO, paaDukO

cakkanaina O cirugaali
okka maaTa vinipOvaali
ushaadooramaina naenu oopiraina peelcalaenu
gaali ciru gaali celi centaku veLLi andincaali
naa praema sandaeSam

vinaraa vO rannaa
kanaravae ranna
jagamae maayannaa, Siva SambhO
ninnaa raadanna, raepae laedanna, naeDae needanna, Siva SambhO

All the above songs have one common feature, apart from the fact that all the songs are rendered by our own gaana gaandharva SPB. As clear the expressions are, as lucid the language is and as interesting the concepts are - they are all dubbed songs, with concepts, ideas and thoughts finding their origins in the original language, tamizh in this case. All that the telugu poets did was to understand the intention of the original lyricist and then set to translate, not just the language, but the entire flow of the idea in the native text. At the end of, what it is seems an easy Find and replace functionality, came out an utterly native song, whose origins (language and ideas) have been changed to the native land. Welcome to the interesting, and often times looked down, art form of dubbing.

In the earlier times, a successful movie was either simultaneously made in both the languages or remade immediately afterward the release in one language, (the confines of our observation restricted to telugu and tamizh) and hence the concept of dubbing did not take root, thanks to the controlled production costs and people who cared about translating an idea than translating the language. And the existing poets (lyricists and dialogue writers) handled the occasional and odd movie that "needed" to be dubbed, be it due to the fear of failing to recreate the original magic or failing to repeat a great performance (Raj Kapoor's "Aah" (dubbed as praema laekhalu) and Sivaji's "karNa", "Veera Pandya Kattabomman" come to mind). Since the old productions houses (Vijaya, Vauhini, Prasad, Bharani, Gemini, AVM and the like) had firmly established themselves in both telugu and tamizh terra firmas, and had the majority of the mainstays under contract, good ideas were freely translated, retaining the original flavor and the nativity factor.

After the decline (or demise) of studio style of film making, independent production houses, who couldn't handle the rising costs of remaking the movies, started this "cheap" trend of looping over the language in recording studios and passing them off as an poor man's alternative to the rich original. The 70s and 80s which say a flood of youthful movies in tamizh, thanks to the rise of Kamal Hasan, Rajani Kanth, Bhagyaraja and the like, found acceptance and recognition in telugu, thanks to the deft handling of the lyrics and dialogues by the regulars - specially by SriSri in the yester years and Arudra in the later years. 80s saw the rise of Rajasri, fondly "dubbed" as "Anuvaada Brahma", a push-over in the then telugu field, who eventually made a life, career and a name transliterating some one else's ideas in his tone. His job was made a lot easier with the passing, where the emphasis was laid more on the visuals than on the aurals. But for the occasional Mudhal Mariyaadai (Dir. Bharatiraja, dubbed as "aatma bandhuvu") which was heavy on the prose poetry, tackled this time by Aacharya Aatraeya, Rajasri handled the rest of the fare with fair consistency and considerable amount of flair. When Mani Ratnam teamed up with A.R.Rahman and came up with some memorable scores for Roja, Thiruda Thiruda (Donga Donga), Rajasri faithfully followed the original ideas penned by Vairamuthu, touched them up with his own lyrical prowess and made the songs fair to the ear and mind, if not as great as the original.

putham pudu bhoomi venDum
nitham oru vaana venDum
taga mazhapeyya venDum
tamizh kuyil paaDa venDum

was translated beautifully into

kotta bangaaru lOkam
maaku kaavaali sontam
gaali paaDaali geetam
puDami kaavaali swargam

Rajasri's translation was never literal, following the original idea around every curve and corner, like a faithful dog. Which brings us to the culprits in question - A.M.Ratnam and Siva Ganesh. If Tirupati Venkata Kavulu showed how far literary aroma (saahityapu gubaaLimpu) can spread in one direction (upwards, towards its zenith), here are these janTa kavulu, who are spreading the trend in the reverse direction - how far their translation stench can spread in the other direction (downwards, towards its nadir).

Here is a producer, who doesn't mind, shelling crores and crores, in a bid to beautify his product, but does not apply the same conviction to clean up the most important aspect of a dubbing movie - the words that are actually heard. This duo (Ratnam and Siva Ganesh) started off butchering the language with Bharateeyudu and thanks to the deep pockets of Ratnam, continue to do so, till their latest offering Boys. Their idea of remaining faithful to the original consists in dubbing the movie (the lyrics, specially) by having a copy of complete Tamil-to-Telugu dictionary by their side. The movie - Kandukondein Kandukondein ("priyuraalu pilicindi"). The lyric talks about the good nature of the heroine and how she cannot hide her effervescent character, even if she tried and our janTa kavulu come up with a

"gandhapu gaalini cekkala talupulu aapunaa, aapunaa"

Even to the ears of the most liberal, this cacophony of concoction has to bring a cringing effect. Whoever meant dubbing meant a literal, faithful and an honest translation of the original? A slice of their illustrious career would reveal the following gems

"snaanamaaDa pasupu laaga nannu neevu raacukOvae"
"kanubomalu kindaku digi meesa maayenu"
"ice cream naa baTTala pai vaesi adi nuvvu naakipO"

If one on one hand, Sirivennela chooses the following words

"mellaga mellaga taTTi
maelukO maelukO manTu
toorupae veccagaa caerangaa
sande sooryuDae sooTi gaa vacci
cilipi gaa cempanae gicci
talapula talupulae teeyangaa" - aaSa aaSa aaSa

for a tamizh lyric, and if Ratnam & Siva Ganesh counter it with

"naa praema baavilOki kappavai nuvvu dooku"
"kuLLipOyina maamiDi panDu lO janTa purugulam avudaam"

(let's not consider even the whole lyric, this is just the tip of the iceberg)

we are much much better off listening to the original tamizh lyric than the lobotomized telugu lyric. That way, one would only gripe about not understanding the lyric, than unduly worry about the incoherence of the it.

It is quite incomprehensible that one who spends 20 crores on a movie, could not spend an extra lakh or two for the five or more songs which is the industry standard, to get the lyrics washed-up, sanitized and made presentable. The only seeming solution, if the duo do not intend to clean up their act, is to stop buying the telugu version of the music and instead, spend it on its tamizh counterpart. Atleast one could concentrate on and enjoy the music than rack the brains and pull the hairs, hugely dissatisfied with the whole presentation itself.

If the producer's idea of making a rich movie is to spend lavishly on the visual aspect of the movie, completely ignoring, dishonoring and disrespecting, the aural aspect of the same, the movie would certainly go down in the books as a rich movie treated rather poorly. It is like buying a lavish house that has a great exterior but an ugly interior. Dubbing does not consist in reproduction of the language. Dubbing does not merely involve finding a suitable match to the original term. Dubbing is not a mere refit or resize!

straightu Dabbu bommalu okka pOlika nunDu
Dabb vinaga vinaga telugu jaaDa laedu
telugu Dabb la lO telugu laenae laeda yaa
viswadaabhi raama vinave sinee seema

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