Why Break the Bond?

Ms. van der Zyl worked on the very first Bond film,Dr. No in 1962 right up to Moonraker in 1979. Over the years,viewers have encountered characters such as Pussy Galore,Honey Ryder,Kissy Suzuki,Plenty O’Toole,Solitaire,Mary Goodnight,Holly Goodhead and Chew Mee in Bond films. One may be excused for thinking that these femme fatales,who 007 seduced over his many years in Her Majesty’s faithful service,were screen names of adult film actresses. These campy,sexist names are indicative of just how politically incorrect the early Bond films were. For an aging Bond heroine to deny a dubbing artiste her moment under the spotlight after so many years,is downright mean-spirited.

Dubbing artistes rarely,if ever,get their due. They are the faceless,nameless,uncredited specialists who give voice to stunning divas who look luminescent on-screen but either cannot speak the language or have weak diction and modulation.

There is a long tradition of dubbing the voices of Hindi film heroines. Some of our actors have strong regional accents such as Tamil,Bengali,Marathi and Haryanvi,and therefore,require a professional to step in and save the day. Interestingly,Sridevi,

Kajol,Ameesha Patel,Rani Mukerji,Bipasha Basu,Lara Dutta,Deepika Padukone have all had their voices dubbed at some point in their careers.

The current trend of importing fair-skinned,non-Hindi speaking heroines from across the world automatically requires their voices be dubbed. All these girls have to do is don the grease paint and parrot some lines of dialogue on camera. It is then left to the dubbing artiste to imbue their performance with a soul in post-production. Katrina Kaif,Nargis Fakhri,Lisa Ray,Jiah Khan,Sunny Leone,Giselli Monteiro — the list of firangi imports into Bollywood is endless.

A number of actors from the Hindi belt head south to make their mark in Tamil,Telugu and Kannada films. Again,they simply regurgitate chunks of dialogue in an alien language and leave it to the unsung dubbing artiste to do the rest.

Film is an audio-visual medium. And acting requires emoting not only through facial and physical expression,but also with a nuanced and varied performance through the voice. The timbre,tone and tremor are more vital to an actor’s performance than mere costumes,make-up and histrionics.

The value of the dubbing artiste’s contribution towards creating a star’s persona can never be overstated. But Bollywood,like its western counterpart,seems to have little regard for their worth. They are neither credited nor compensated even a fraction of the obscene sums paid to the stars they give voice to.

Screenplay writers in India were also woefully underpaid. But Bollywood has started to slowly wake up to their true worth and they are now better treated,earning both respect and a fatter pay cheque.

In a significant move,the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards has instituted a category to recognise excellence in dubbing. I wonder how many of our Bollywood divas will be comfortable with the notion of their “voices” becoming publicly known and feted.

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