Mind your language

Ever since the movie Kaminey lisped and stammered its way onto cinema screens,like its twin protagonists,movie goers across the country have unwittingly fallen for the bumbling charms of Shahid Kapur’s characters,especially wise guy Charlie,whose unique lisp constitutes of replacing ‘s’ with ‘f’. Enter a whole new breed of SMS text messages,Facebook statuses and Twitter tweets inspired by the quirky character.

Miffin u,Pleaf call me foon and even Think I’m fuffering from fwine flu are some of the best samples for display on mobile phones and the internet. But this isn’t the first instance of celluloid lingo making a strong impact on daily jargon. After all,evergreen gems like Mogambo khush hua!,Kitne aadmi the? and Mere pass maa hai! never seem to go out of fashion for a lot of people. And of course,as is the case with any trend,it is always the youngsters who get affected before everybody else. Take Wadia College student siblings,the Bansals,for example. Oldest brother Rahul exclaims,“My favorite movie to quote from is the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Don. I love muttering goofy punchlines like Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi,namumkin hain! in reference to myself just to get a rise out of my friends and sisters.” His younger sisters Deepika and Priyanka agree,“Our favourite lines come from another SRK starrer,Om Shanti Om. It is mindless fun to utter corny lines like Deepika Padukone’s Ek chutki sindoor monologue just to release stress in the silliest and lightest way possible.” Apparently,Shah Rukh Khan is to India what Bart Simpson and his Eat my shorts! jab is to the US. Niketan Tidke,first year student from the Marathwada Mitra Mandal College,another youngster who ceaselessly keeps repeating the King Khan’s famous ditty from Baazigar – Jo haarkar bhi jeet-te hain,unko baazigar kehte hain!,proclaims,“The phrase just suits my personality and that is the reason it has caught on to me the way it has!”

One movie which has turned out to be a reservoir full of catchy quotes is Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapur vehicle Jab We Met. Hollywood too proves to be a massive influence in shaping one’s lingo. From May the force be with you of Star Wars to I see dead people! from M Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense,Hollywood has never had a dearth of quotes to shamelessly steal from. The latest on the tip is Why so serious? from last year’s blockbuster smash The Dark Knight. Dusane,a fan, theorises the reason why the phrase has caught on like wildfire,“The question is repeatedly asked by the late Heath Ledger’s charismatically evil character of The Joker in the movie. People revere Ledger’s performance in the flick as it was his most critically-acclaimed role to date and they feel like they own a bit of it every time they speak the line. Plus,it is great in terms of sheer simplicity.”