Up, arranged, and re-chopped

Jadav (Bhatt ko) – Pralaynath Gendaswami kaise dikhta hai?
Bhatt – Kya?!?!
Jadav – Kis desh se hai tu?
Bhatt – Kya?!?!
Jadav – “Kya” naam ka koyi desh maine to nahi suna? “Kya” mein Hindi bolte hai kya?
Bhatt – Kya!!
Jadav – Hindi maadarchod!! Hindi – Tu bolta hai kya use?
Bhatt – Haan!!
Jadav – Toh tu jaanta hai ki mein kya bol raha hoon
Bhatt – Haan!
Jadav – Bol ki kaise dikhta hai Pralaynath Gendaswami
Bhatt – Kya?!
Jadav – Ek aur bar “Kya” bol, Ek aur bar “Kya” bol – mein tujhe chunauti deta hoon, mein tujhe dugni chunauti deta hoon maadarchod. Ek aur baar “Kya” bol saala!
Bhatt – Kaala hai!
Jadav – Aur????
Bhatt – Takla hai…
Jadav – Kutti ki tara dikhta hai kya?
Bhatt – Kya?!?!
Jadav Bhatt ko kandhon pe goli maarta hai…
Jadav – Kutti ki tara dikhta hai kya?
Bhatt – Nahin?!?!
Jadav – Toh phir kutti ki tarah usko chodne ki koshish kyon ki tune?
Bhatt – Nahin, maine nahi kiya
Jadav – Haan tune kiya!!! Haan tune kiya!!! Bhatt, tune usko chodne ki koshish ki…
Bhatt – Nahin..
Jadav – Pralaynath Gendaswami ko yeh pasand nahi ki Srimati Gendaswami ke siva use koyi chode……….Tu Gita ko padta hai kya Bhatt???

Jules (Jadav) and Vincent could be two facets of any human being (say Impulse and Logic) trying to accomplish something for a higher control (Marsellus). Impulse fucks up (Vincent shoots Marvin), and somehow logic, with the help of some luck (Winston Wolf) gets them out of the situation. Butch (conscience) has some weird nostalgic attachment (the watch) which drives his value system. But he evolves from killing a boxing opponent (evolving conscience making mistakes earlier), to saving his worst enemy (the supreme magnanimous sacrifice). And of course, at some level, they are all controlled by/related to the higher power of Marsellus. Conscience (Butch) killing Impulse (Vincent) in an impulisve reaction (the toaster timer) has an element of Tony-Rocky-Horroresqe irony. If you like this pilot, I can churn out more.

Is it the deadpan dialogue? Is it the black humour? Is it the inexplicable element of style? Is it the countless references to American pop culture? Is it the seemingly arbitrary choice of music? Or is there something more to Pulp Fiction? An (over?) extensive philosophical analysis can be found at Pulp Fiction – The sign of the empty symbol (on MetaPhilm). This particular interpretation of the movie is all about how Jules and Butch start seeing more meaning to their lives as the events of the movie unfold in this almost meaningless fucked up order. Of course, if I tried hard – real hard, I could interpret movies like Hot Shots, Sholay, or Godfather in a similar vein. Any small sequence of events can be explained by some pattern or the other. So, is trying to find meaning in Pulp Fiction an exercise in futility? That’d be a damn shame. No “quack quack” any more; and so, here is my own allegorical attempt (a la Upendra’s Upendra)…

Anyway, as of today – Pulp Fiction is my favorite English movie. Jatin and I are attempting to translate it to Hindi, while keeping all the deadpan-ness and black in the dialogue.

21 thoughts on “Up, arranged, and re-chopped

  1. I know. Changes in perception and perspectives I guess.

    First time, it was very bad, and as my archive says, I didn’t even go beyond 30 minutes into the movie, inspite of Sudeep recommending it very heavily.

    After having seen it many times now, with the sound track…esp Dick Dale’s Surf Rider – I love the movie now. The dialogues on the tip of my tongue. Esp. from the parts that I like.

    On a similar token Good Will Hunting, which I claimed a while back as my all time favorite has now slipped down into the yeah-I-like-it category.

    And so it goes…

  2. Interesting.

    I was always under the impression that there was nothing more to pulp fiction than an exotic script and the Tarantino way of shuffling events along the time axis.

    Your perspective on pulp fiction bears a striking resembles to Upendra’s on the movie Upendra. I’m not sure if every movie could be looked at this way. But nice attempt. It may be possible that we individuals in a society wittingly or otherwise represent personality traits. However I’d love to make myself look more complicated than that!

    Fantastic attempt.

  3. and me was thinking I was the only soul who wants to translates this classic into an indian languange(kannada) πŸ™‚

    not sure if u are aware of this site on QT -> http://www.godamongdirectors.com complete scripts of PF and other movies πŸ™‚
    And for futher reading: thread on QT in KA.(OffTopics at http://www.kannadaaudio.com/forum)

    but, a word of caution – copyright laws..(though u don’t intend to sell ur script to RGV or Upendra)

    for a moment I thought u are tejaswi from LA(USA) (coz I hit ur blog via karthik’s..) πŸ™‚

  4. Kannada was dropped as there is no good equivalent there for “motherfucker.” And also, here in Mumbai, where I actually watched and fell in love with Pulp Fiction, I have a lot of friends who are fellow fans, and these dialogues are mostly cuz of them.

    As for Kannadaaudio, I could not register and log into the forums. Lost patience. Will try some other time.

    Also, the GodAmongDirectors site has an alternate version of the script, with quite a few different plot twists, change in dialogue, change in time lines, etc. Do check it out.

    Speaking of Upendra, its a pity that he sold out πŸ™

    And pray, who is the Tejaswi of LA? There is one Tejaswi (also a Kannadiga) in Caltech. I dont know any other Tejaswi, who has a dominat net presence at least.

  5. yeah it is the same tejaswi at caltech.(when i said LA.. i meant LA area..) and he is a friend of karthik too..
    for kan equiv of MF(nin**am**n) and for the F word…(k*y*) seem to be the best… of course if such a script is made into a movie.. the censors will “bleep” the lines.

  6. Techinically speaking, “ninnamman” is just “your mother…,” and “keya” is just “fuck.”

    Believe me, I have thought quite a bit on this, and there is no nice sounding equivalent for “motherfucker” in Kannada.

    I hope that the censor board in India will come up with rating schemes where you have differnet bands and rules for nudity, swearing, controversial topics like rascism, etc. can be dealt with. Thats the time when any dark movie directed by the likes of erstwhile Updendra can see the light of the day.

  7. This is a nice post . I don’ think too much of Pulp Fiction myself but your creativity in translating Ameringlish dialogues to Hindia is impressive . Not much work in the hallowed corridors of IIT ?:-P

  8. First of all

    “Shantam Paapam”, “Chee Polies”
    What has the world come upto, perverted hooliganism in its tandava pose in here.

    On a different note…how about

    “Ninnamman denga”

    PK

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