Why B’wood speaks a new slang-uage

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Stills from Besharam

Language is an expression of who we are and cinema is the reflection of our society. Bollywood is now embracing the lingo of the common man in its choice of titles. Words like besharam, gunday, lootera, ghanchakkar, nautanki saala, which are a part of common parlance, have now become the titles of films in 2013.

Filmmaker Ahmed Faiyaz says, “The trend is a reflection of the way we act and speak today. Such words make the dialogues and even titles more authentic and believable. It isn’t like the person is being cussed, it’s just the way people speak. I feel cinema should reflect the way people act and speak.”
This is how the generation next thinks, speaks and acts, says young actor Anshuman Jha who was part of controversially titled films like Love, Sex and Dhokha and KLPD. He adds that apart from being realistic, these titles are instantly attention-grabbing. “I guess contemporary writing in films has led to contemporary titles. If the title gels with the theme of your film, why not? They are also a part the common lingo, so they get on the tongue easily. Recall value is the ace in the title. The style of dialogues has become very conversational. Therefore, desi titles help the audience to immediately associate with the film.”
Theatre director Vivek Mansukhani adds, “Cinema is a huge influencer, so is television, or any audio-visual medium. The darker side, the forbidden apple, the dangerous and edgy, all these make one’s adrenaline race faster, blood rush quicker... Therefore, filmmakers believe that these everyday words will attract audiences, and help connect with them at their level so that people feel the film they will pay to see will have themes they can relate to and can identify with.”
But author Vikram Sampath feels that these days narratives have words with shock value in an attempt to appear “cool” and “trendy”. He says, “It’s not just with films in general, this is a sad trend even in literature where slangs are force-fitted irrelevantly. One generation back films like these might have created a furore. So to that extent today we are not overtly shocked, but tacitly accept things as the norm, this could be called ‘evolution’.”