Still, most of the Hindi voice cast does an admirable job given the tough, high-pressure material at hand. And when Hindi speakers have a character named ‘Nala’ in their midst, you wonder what the poor little lioness did to deserve the verbal gutter. So ‘the Pride Lands’ becomes ‘Gaurav Bhoomi’, which Mufasa often refers to as ‘humara desh’ for some reason, making him sound less like Mufasa and more like (Narendra) Modi ji. (If you are going to come at me with ‘but it’s not like lions speak anyway’, then you should avoid *all* versions of the film.) Make no mistake: the Hindi version has its share of problems, primarily some awkward translation often leading to stilted dialogue, making it sound like an unfamiliar, unspoken kind of Hindi. Keeping any debate about nepotism away for a bit, the extra dynamic of a superstar dad, and his young star-son voicing father and son in perhaps one of the great coming-of-age father-son tales in pop culture gives it a value that the Donald Glover-James Earl Jones combo just cannot bring to the table (or the dubbing studio.) In particular, the one scene where Khans Sr and Jr share dialogue together, when an adult Simba hears his dead father’s voice from the sky, telling him to remember who he is - that one is a proper moment for the SRK lovers among us. However, what SRK lacks in voice, he and young Aryan Khan together make up for with sheer feel. Because once James Earl Jones speaks dialogue and you hear it, anyone else trying to fill those shoes should just go home barefoot instead. It was the first time that I was watching the Hindi version of a Hollywood studio film on the big screen, so the comforting voice of our very own superstar was a good way to make a newbie feel at home, even though - and I cannot state this enough - Shah Rukh Khan is the weakest link in the Hindi voice cast of the film. Surprisingly enough, it was in the Hindi version that I found myself slightly more involved emotionally.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |