shakti kaa santulan bahut zaroorii hai sansaar me.n

Film : Maqbool

Year of release : 2003

Spoken by : Inspector Pandit (Om Puri)

Spoken to : ACP Devsare (Murali Sharma)

ACP Devsare has been newly posted. A major shoot out has occurred in his jurisdiction. He asks the two officers PanDit and Purohit where they were on the night of the crime. They both claim they were on duty. Devsare is skeptical about their claim. He says, if that was indeed the case, the crime would never have been committed. PanDit responds with the classic

"phir to bahut baDaa crime ho jaataa sir. shakti kaa santulan bahut zarooree hai sansaar me.n. aag ke liye paanii kaa Dar bane rahnaa chaahiye"

"फिर तो बहुत बडा क्राइम हो जाता सर. शक्ति का संतुलन बहुत ज़रूरी है संसार में. आग के लिए पानी का डर बने रहना चाहिये"

The entire cold war was testimony to this adage. But we seem to be doing fine even in a unipolar world. 

ham to private company waalo.n ka namak khaate hai.n

Film : Dhoop

Year of release : 2003

Spoken by : Electricity department employee

Spoken to : Prof. Suresh Kapoor (Om Puri)

This film is based on a real life struggle of the father of a Kargil war hero to get a petrol pump allotted to him. It is a good film. Om Puri, Revathi and Gul Panag are excellent. The story moves along his travails with every department in getting the petrol pump. The electricity department also harasses him. Prof Kapoor tries to reason with him. He appeals to his patriotism and tells him that the petrol pump has been allotted due to compassionate reasons. But the cynical electricity department employee responds with

"is desh ka namak nahee.n khaate ji ham. ham to private company waalon ka namak khaate hai.n"

"इस देश का नमक नहीं खाते जी हम. हम तो प्राइवेट कम्पनी वालों का नमक खाते हैं"

I feel Tata missed a great in-film branding opportunity here!

itnaa runway ho gayaa, ab take off karo

Film : Johny Mera Naam

Year of release : 1970

Spoken by : I S Johar (as Dooja Ram)

Spoken to : Unknown actor (Premnath's goons)

Dialogue writer : Vijay Anand

I S Johar plays a triple role in this film. Not a father, son, grandson kind of triple role. These are three brothers - Pahlaa Ram, Dooja Ram and Teeja Ram. Pehla Ram is a palmist. Dooja Ram is an Indian Airlines steward. In a case of mistaken identity, Moti (Pran) thinks that Dooja Ram is Teeja Ram - his bar man. When his drink takes a long time coming, Moti thinks Teeja  is pulling a fast one. His boss Bhupendra Singh (Premnath) sends his men to pick him up. When the goons are frog marching Dooja towards Moti, he asks them what they are doing. The goons think that he is pretending, but Dooja actually has no clue why he is being frog marched. Finally he gets exasperated and asks them

"arre, itna runway ho gayaa, ab take off karo. kyaa baat hai?"

"अरे, इतना रनवे हो गया, अब टेक ऑफ़ करो. क्या बात है? "

uskee plane ko take off karne ke liye 2 runway lagte hai.n

Film : Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na
Year of release : 2008
Spoken by : Aditi (Genelia D'Souza)
Spoken to : Sushant (Ayaz Khan)

There was a time when a heroine whose name was Genelia D Souza would have changed it to Janaki Devi for acceptability from the broad audience. And they called that India more secular. I think the new generation is far more secular than our parents are/were. Genelia's screen name Aditi became a legend thanks to the popularity of the song "kabhi kabhi aditi". But it was her unique and slightly high pitched way of speaking that probably left a greater impression on the cine goers.

In this scene, Aditi is telling Sushant that Bombs (Alishka Varde) is slow on the uptake. She uses a flying metaphor for that. Normally a metaphor is used either because the speaker or the receiver understands that metaphor better. In this case neither is true. So wonder why Aditi used this flying metaphor. In any case, mine not to reason why. I liked the line. So here goes.

"uskee plane ko take off karne ke liye 2 runway lagte hai.n...matlab...thoRii slow hai woh"
"उसकी प्लेन को टेक ऑफ़ करने के लिये 2 रनवे लगते हैं...मतलब...थोड़ी स्लो है वो"

peD par chaDha kar seeDhii kheench lii

Film : Parakh

Year of release : 1960

Spoken by : Pandit Tarkaalankaar (Kanhaiyalal)

Spoken to : Bhanj Babu (Asit Sen)

This is on my all time top 25 list. If you haven't seen this film, please do see it.

The Post Master NivaaraN Babu (Nazir Husain) gets an anonymous letter promising Rs. 5 lacs to the most honest man in the village. Many in the village put forth their candidature. The priest Pandit Tarkaalankaar is one of them. The zamindar TaanDav Tarafdaar (Jayant) promises to support him, but when the actual meeting starts, he favours Rajat (Vasant Choudhury). This makes Tarkaalankaar say

"peD par chaDha kar seeDhii kheench lii badmaash ne"

"पेड़ पर चढ़ा कर सीढ़ी खींच ली बदमाश ने"

mardo.n ke mukhauTe badalte hai.n, mard nahee.n

Film : Bhumika

Year of release : 1977

Spoken by : Mrs. Kale (Amrish Puri's first wife)

Spoken to : Urvashi (Smita Patil)

This was a film based on Hansa Wadkar's autobiography called Sangte Aika (literally translated it means - I'll speak and you listen). I found the message slightly layered, but then I am too used to the Bollywood formula. Urvashi (or Usha as she is later called) keeps running from one man to another. From the slightly elder Dalvi (Amol Palekar) to her co star Rajan (Anant Nag) to the witty producer Sunil (Naseeruddin Shah). She finally meets Vinayak Kale (Amrish Puri) and feels that she would settle down with him. She does not realise that he is already married (his first wife is handicapped) and worse while living with Kale, she cannot move out of the house without Kale's approval. She feels stifled and plans to run away to Dalvi, her first partner. Kale's first wife learns of this and tells her

"mardo.n ke mukhauTe badalte hai.n, mard nahee.n"

"मर्दों के मुखौटे बदलते हैं, मर्द नहीं"