They are everywhere. No English, Tamil or any language film is without lines of text running below the screen, in a variety of options such as Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Polish apart from the usual English. Earlier subtitles were used to translate obscure foreign films to a more universal language, no doubt to increase the market for those films. Now every single movie, TV serial or reality show has them, but that doesn't mean these ubiquitous subtitles are the same everywhere. No, there are some subtypes which I, a fairly frequent watcher of VCD movies, have decided to list.
Remember that I am not including the perfect English script which characterises subs in movie theatres. Those are tame and boring. The ones below are unique, to say the least.
1) The-subs-of-people-who-stab-at-a-dictionary-at-random:
When you get a pirated version of an English movie that surprisingly has subtitles, you know this is the variety to expect. The words are written at random and only vaguely sound like the actual conversation, because the subtitler obviously can't understand what the talking heads are saying, but charitably intends that that need not hold him back from attempting to help (or hinder) other equally ignorant watchers.
My copy of Twilight, for instance, was burned from my friend's, who got it from her friend, and so on. Now Twilight is a movie that needs subtitles because the characters keep mumbling to themselves throughout the movie, and I was pleased to find it had them. I revised this opinion when Bella started talking about her decision to go to Forks.
"My erotic mom was about to get married..." read the subs, as I gaped. I recall Bella meant 'erratic'.
The whole movie was like that, and after a while I stopped focusing on the action and gazed at the bottom of the screen instead. It was far more entertaining.
2) The-subs-of-regional-movies-which-translate-everything-literally:
Regional movies have English subs nowadays, which I find an extremely good thing since I can't understand all that is spoken, especially in Hindi films. The translation is more or less accurate, which is a good thing for the prosy dialogues. It is a different matter when it comes to the songs.
My copy of DDLJ (Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge) has awesome translations, perhaps because the lyrics themselves are so good.
'As soon as I saw you my darling,
I knew what madness love is'
Well that's exactly what 'Tujhe Dekha' says in Hindi, so the English sub sounds wonderful and sweet. And all the songs in that movie are sheer poetry, so that saves us. But what happens when the lyrics are not poetry? Well, we don't notice them in the song, but translated into English that is an entirely different matter.
These are some of the gems from Tamil:
"I will stick to you like fevicol."
"You are like a bowl of fruit." (This is a compliment apparently. Both are from Ghajini.)
"Who is going to shake? You, you." (From Vasool Raja MBBS.)
And of course that famous literal English translation of Rajnikanth's autokaaran song that was the subject of a popular email a few years ago:
"I am auto-fellow, auto-fellow,
For all poor people family fellow,
Mother-loving something fellow...
Ajak means Ajak only,
Ghumak means Ghumak only."
It's not a proper translation except for the Ajak and Ghumak part. Check out the whole online by googling 'autofellow english translation'. There's even a youtube video on it!
3) The-subs-which-do-not-exist:
My friend told me about this type, I haven't come across it yet myself. It is very simple, used by people who know they can't understand anything happening on the screen, and yet do not resort to cunning guessing-games - they simply leave the screen blank.
And not just blank either, the place where the subs are supposed to be contains a question mark instead. So I imagine there would be a series of question marks which makes it look like the actors are themselves puzzled. Nice help, guys.
4) The-subs-which-are-so-awesome-they-are-better-than-the-movie-itself:
I have watched only one movie where the subtitles come under this category. It is not just that the English used was perfect, without any grammatical errors whatsoever. It is not even that the vocabulary was of a high order, and made sense.These are good in themselves, but there was more.
The lyrics rhymed.
That line needed that dramatic effect. It was simply awesome, I considered, for subtitles of a Tamil movie song to rhyme. This is a translation of two lines (The movie is 'Nanban'):
"Who is there like my friend? (En friend-a pola yaaru machan?)
He changed every fad and trend." (Avan trend-a ellam maathi vechan.)
And so on, all through the song. And it was not just this song, every one rhymed the same way. Except for 'Aska Laska', the lyrics of which mostly just mention 'love' in many languages, including Arabic and Russian. Yup, the English subs mentioned every language used in the song.
So I have preserved that CD. The movie was not bad (an unimaginative copy of the Hindi original though), but the actors, director, scriptwriter etc. are nothing to the subtitlers. I don't know if they were paid for their work, but it was so cute of whoever they were to think of rhyming the lyrics. Hats off to you guys (or gals).
So these are the four main categories I could think of. Do you know any more? Mention them in the comments!
Remember that I am not including the perfect English script which characterises subs in movie theatres. Those are tame and boring. The ones below are unique, to say the least.
1) The-subs-of-people-who-stab-at-a-dictionary-at-random:
When you get a pirated version of an English movie that surprisingly has subtitles, you know this is the variety to expect. The words are written at random and only vaguely sound like the actual conversation, because the subtitler obviously can't understand what the talking heads are saying, but charitably intends that that need not hold him back from attempting to help (or hinder) other equally ignorant watchers.
My copy of Twilight, for instance, was burned from my friend's, who got it from her friend, and so on. Now Twilight is a movie that needs subtitles because the characters keep mumbling to themselves throughout the movie, and I was pleased to find it had them. I revised this opinion when Bella started talking about her decision to go to Forks.
"My erotic mom was about to get married..." read the subs, as I gaped. I recall Bella meant 'erratic'.
The whole movie was like that, and after a while I stopped focusing on the action and gazed at the bottom of the screen instead. It was far more entertaining.
2) The-subs-of-regional-movies-which-translate-everything-literally:
Regional movies have English subs nowadays, which I find an extremely good thing since I can't understand all that is spoken, especially in Hindi films. The translation is more or less accurate, which is a good thing for the prosy dialogues. It is a different matter when it comes to the songs.
My copy of DDLJ (Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge) has awesome translations, perhaps because the lyrics themselves are so good.
'As soon as I saw you my darling,
I knew what madness love is'
Well that's exactly what 'Tujhe Dekha' says in Hindi, so the English sub sounds wonderful and sweet. And all the songs in that movie are sheer poetry, so that saves us. But what happens when the lyrics are not poetry? Well, we don't notice them in the song, but translated into English that is an entirely different matter.
These are some of the gems from Tamil:
"I will stick to you like fevicol."
"You are like a bowl of fruit." (This is a compliment apparently. Both are from Ghajini.)
"Who is going to shake? You, you." (From Vasool Raja MBBS.)
And of course that famous literal English translation of Rajnikanth's autokaaran song that was the subject of a popular email a few years ago:
"I am auto-fellow, auto-fellow,
For all poor people family fellow,
Mother-loving something fellow...
Ajak means Ajak only,
Ghumak means Ghumak only."
It's not a proper translation except for the Ajak and Ghumak part. Check out the whole online by googling 'autofellow english translation'. There's even a youtube video on it!
3) The-subs-which-do-not-exist:
My friend told me about this type, I haven't come across it yet myself. It is very simple, used by people who know they can't understand anything happening on the screen, and yet do not resort to cunning guessing-games - they simply leave the screen blank.
And not just blank either, the place where the subs are supposed to be contains a question mark instead. So I imagine there would be a series of question marks which makes it look like the actors are themselves puzzled. Nice help, guys.
4) The-subs-which-are-so-awesome-they-are-better-than-the-movie-itself:
I have watched only one movie where the subtitles come under this category. It is not just that the English used was perfect, without any grammatical errors whatsoever. It is not even that the vocabulary was of a high order, and made sense.These are good in themselves, but there was more.
The lyrics rhymed.
That line needed that dramatic effect. It was simply awesome, I considered, for subtitles of a Tamil movie song to rhyme. This is a translation of two lines (The movie is 'Nanban'):
"Who is there like my friend? (En friend-a pola yaaru machan?)
He changed every fad and trend." (Avan trend-a ellam maathi vechan.)
And so on, all through the song. And it was not just this song, every one rhymed the same way. Except for 'Aska Laska', the lyrics of which mostly just mention 'love' in many languages, including Arabic and Russian. Yup, the English subs mentioned every language used in the song.
So I have preserved that CD. The movie was not bad (an unimaginative copy of the Hindi original though), but the actors, director, scriptwriter etc. are nothing to the subtitlers. I don't know if they were paid for their work, but it was so cute of whoever they were to think of rhyming the lyrics. Hats off to you guys (or gals).
So these are the four main categories I could think of. Do you know any more? Mention them in the comments!
