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.