Opinion Condemned by every syllable they utter
From Kangna Ranaut to Katrina Kaif,our actors seem to think that diction coaching is beneath them.
Hormones. Testosterone. Estrogen. These words will never be the same again. Those who have seen Tanu Weds Manu will empathise. My ears are still ringing from the way the films leading lady Kangna Ranaut butchered these words bang in the middle of a telling scene in the desi rom-com. Her character (Tanu Trivedi) uses these three words to define love as she perceives it to be. She murders them all.
In a short span,Ranaut has proved her mettle as a fine dramatic actor and its refreshing to see her breaking away from the mentally unhinged/suicidal/ junkie roles that she was saddled with in the beginning of her career. The aforementioned diction paharhi accent mixed with vernacular Hindi with a dash of American slang remains her weakest link. It has been so since her debut in Gangster (her highly individual style of saying You Bustarrrrd ranks high up there as troll favourite on the Internet). Five years on,she still struggles with diction,and her audience has to suffer with her.
Acting is as much about emoting as it is about being articulate. Across the ocean,there are numerous stories of screen luminaries perfecting their art,spending years learning dialects and enunciation. Someone like Meryl Streep enjoys a rock-solid reputation for her chameleon-like ability to take on new accents with new roles. Colin Firths Best Actor
Oscar for The Kings Speech is an acknowledgement of his masterful performance as the stammering King George VI. The film,which also earned the Best Film nod,is more performance-goaded than plot-driven,and it all relies on speech.
Some of our leading ladies can take inspiration from Firths Oscar. Other than Ranbir Kapoor,arch-enemies Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone have their fluctuating accents in common. Padukones Mumbaiya accent was way off the mark in Lafangey Parindey and even the way she says mocha in the recent ad with Karan Johar is dodgy. As for Kaif,she does to Hindi what Ranaut does to English. Since shes grown up abroad,a concession can be made for Kaif but now that shes been here for close to a decade its about time she got the hang of the language.
An actors graph can dip and soar based on what he/she does with the material. Recently Sonakshi Sinha got the critics and the janta raving for her debut in Dabangg. By any standards,it was not a great acting role,it was that one dialogue that became her signature line. She said it well,she said it clearly and everybody was bowled over. Come on,lets hear it again for Thappad se darr nahin lagta sahib,pyaar se lagta hai.
After a sparkling turn in Band Baaja Baaraat,Anushka Sharma is also earning a reputation for being a dependable actor. Aditya Chopras discovery has learnt to pitch her performance with some solid dialogue delivery.
Diction really is so elementary. Other than clothes and makeup,the characters lines help an actor become the character. If you dont feel it,how can you be it? In the West,top stars still go out to read parts,they audition for roles,and bagging a role then takes on a literal meaning. Why just restrict this to actors? Even our cricketers practice hard,singers do riyaaz everyday. Practice,after all is the only way to perfect the craft. Not for our Bollywood stars who are above this. It is only in B Town that a Hindi film actress can get Rs 5 crore without having even a working grasp of the language. Luck by chance,eh?
harneet.singh@expressindia.com
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