Nuggets of Sholay: Three - Loha Garam Hai, Maardo Hathoda

The third of this series on Sholay is also a muhavra. And it's an example of the genius of Salim-Javed.


Muhavra: Loha Garam Hai, Maardo Hathoda (लोहा गरम है, मार दो हथौड़ा)

The proverb has been used brilliantly in the movie - why? I will explain in a bit. It appears at (1h.49m) when Girija (from Pipri village) brings the news that Gabbar's nomadic arms suppliers (Hira aur uske saathi) have appeared near his village. That's when Thakur tells Jai and Veeru  by predicting that Gabbar will certainly appear to buy arms and says 'Loha Garam Hai, Maar Do Hathoda'.

The English equivalent of this proverb is 'Strike while the iron is hot' and even Latin, 'Carpe Diem'. This expression refers to art of the lohar or the blacksmith. In order to get the desired shape, the blacksmith must hit the piece of iron when it is red hot. Once the iron cools down, it cannot be shaped.

This idiom has existed in English since at least the 1500s. We find early examples in Chaucer, John Lyly, and many early English authors. The expression itself dates back to ancient times.

I'm not sure when this was translated into its Hindi form, but it's used to denote that timing is everything in life.

Coming back to the brilliance I was talking about. Here's some Q&A for you:

• Q: Why does Thakur use this proverb? 
• A: Because he analyzes the situation and thinks the timing is right. 
• Q: Who tells Thakur that the nomads have arrived? 
• A: Girija from Pipri. 
• Q: Who is Girija? 
• A: A blacksmith or lohar! 

Get the connection? Wah Salim-Javed saheban, Wah. Kya likhavat! I am not sure on how many caught this subtlety, but it's pure screenwriting magic.


Finally, does anyone recognise this actor who played Girija? He looks so much like Dhumal to me.

Hmm..that was the nugget. Samjhe ke nahin? Agar achha laga to comment kijiye. Agar achha nahin laga to lament kijiye.

Goodbye, aadab and namaste.

Nuggets of Sholay: Two - Kala Akshar Bhains Barabar

So, I'm not going in any particular order of the appearances of the muhavras, but the second one to catch my attention is this one.

Muhavra: Kala Akshar Bhains Barabar (काला अक्षर भैंस बराबर)

To be technically right, the usage in the movie is 'kale' as against 'kala' and it appears, again at the end of the movie (at 2h.26m). The scene is that Jai and Veeru have been allegedly killed by the gaonwalas as a gift to Gabbar and sent their bodies as proof. 

There are five dakus who see the alleged bodies and one of dismounts his horse to check. He sees a letter strapped to Veeru (yes, I checked this too!). He says, "Arre, yeh kya hai? Chitthi?" To which another daku (still mounted) remarks "Kale Akshar Bhains Barabar. Chitthi nahin to kya hai? Padh!"  Then of course, the accursed daku reads the contents of the letter. I my view, this muhavra has not been used correctly. I will explain why. 

Let us first understand what this phrase""Kale (or kala) Akshar Bhains Barabar"  means. According to Quora, the proverb literally means “Black letter(s) and (black) buffalo are similar to each other.” An accurate contextual translation would be “An illiterate person equates black letters with black buffalo.” or “Both black letters and black buffalo appear similar to an illiterate person.” This is a famous Hindi proverb in Hindi conveys how an illiterate person comprehends text printed/written with black ink i. e. text written/printed with black ink on paper appears similar to a black buffalo to an illiterate person.

Now, coming back to my analysis - when the mounted daku taunts the dismounted daku with this proverb, why does he then ask him to read the letter! Dismounted daku should be illiterate right? And unperturbed by the remarkable jibe, dismounted actually reads the letter, thus nullifying the proverb's accusation! Readers of this blog would do well to correct my analysis here.

On a funny note, while researching then origin of this muhavra (I didn't find any), I came across this interesting poster on Pinterest. It's funny, really.

Hmm..that was the nugget. Samjhe ke nahin? Agar achha laga to comment kijiye. Agar achha nahin laga to lament kijiye.

Goodbye, aadab and namaste.

Every Brilliant Thing

Ellis Boy "Red" Redding: I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I? don't wanna know. I would like to think they were singing about some thing was so beautiful it cant be expressed in words and make your heart ache because of it.I tell you this voice soared higher and farther than anybody in a Gray place dares to dream it is like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away. For the briefest moment every last man in Shawshank felt free.

Andy Dufresne: Remember Red! Hope is a good thing, may be best of things and no good thing ever dies.

These two passages from the 1994 icon The Shawshank Redemption streamed through my head as I was watching brilliance unfold in front of me through 'Every Brilliant Thing'. EBT is an intimately inspiring format of theatre, directed by Quasar Thakore Padamsee (or Q), written by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe and performed by Vivek Madan (yes, it's a solo).

While the play (can it even be called a play? to me, it was more of a conversation) talks about a million brilliant things, ranging from the smell of old books to coffee to every good thing under the sun, I would like to extend that list to 1,000,001 (a million and one) - Vivek Madan. Boy ain't he a mesmerizing magician. He so effortlessly weaved a story in front of us, that made it impossible not to ebb and flow with the character's feelings. I smiled, laughed, cringed, twinged, smirked, cried, laughed some more...to the entire credit of Vivek Madan, who tends to his audience like..like...like...a puppy!

I came away bewitched. And I implore the reader of this post - do not miss the opportunity of seeing this play when it's on next!

*****

Nuggets of Sholay: One - Oont Pahad Ke Neeche

Those born in the 60s and 70s have this surreal fascination for the Hindi movie Sholay - in varying degrees of intensity. Many of us regard this as the greatest (Hindi) movie ever made, and a few of us go completely crazy discussing finer points of the movie.

So I'm beginning a new series, where I will capture one nugget from the movie and talk a bit about it. These nuggets could be trivia, unknown facts, mysteries or the language used. I will begin by analyzing muhavras (idioms) used in Sholay. For me, the movie is a bhandaar (storehouse) of muhavras, and many of them are unique only to the movie.

Muhavra: Oont ka pahad ke neeche ka aana (ऊंट का पहाड़ के नीचे का आना)

Toward the end of the movie, (at 2h.45m), Veeru, who has arrived to save a trapped-by-dakus Basanti, is himself captured by Gabbar's minions. As he is being pulled into the den, Veeru tries to violently break free, when Gabbar remarks nonchalantly 'Aaj aaya hai oont pahad ke neeche' 'आज आया है ऊंट पहाड़ के नीचे' . Have you ever given a thought on what this means? Oont? Pahad? Neeche?...Hain?...

I myself didn't know, until recently, I found out. It's a muhavra that has a quaint story to it. Here it is.

Literally, it means: Today the camel has come under the mountain.

It originates from an anonymous folk tale, where a camel proud of its height, behaves arrogantly, since it is tall and could see farther than anyone else, including its master. One day, the master takes the camel to a mountainous area and there the camel realizes that though it is tall, the mountain is taller and it therefore could see farther.

The owner of the camel was happy that his proud camel had been brought down to earth.

This muhavra  is used when you wish to say, that someone has been cut down to size, or someone has been shown his/her place or that someone has been finally humbled.

So that was the story. Samjhe ke nahin? Agar achha laga to comment kijiye. Agar achha nahin laga to lament kijiye.

Goodbye, aadab and namaste.