Published on 12:00 AM, January 12, 2014

LOST IN TRANSLATION: BANGLA MOVIE TITLES

LOST IN TRANSLATION: BANGLA MOVIE TITLES

Bangla movie names are super entertaining [mostly the Dhallywood ones any way], and I'm sure the readers are well aware of that. But it was recently pointed out to yours truly that the Bangladeshi film industry needs a dedicated translator, shall the producers decide to put an English tagline or subheading to the film titles. The ones currently doing it neither put the literal translation off Google Translate, nor the figurative meaning, leaving a rather farcical translation subject to much laughter. As a result, we are unable to take the movie in all its solemnity and dismiss it before even watching it.
Take superstar Ananta Jalil's movies for example. While “Khoj: The Search” made perfect sense, the translated dub of “Nishwartho Bhalobasha: What Is Love?” did not. The literal translation of “Nishwartho Bhalobasha” would be “Unconditional Love”, which does justice to the storyline of this blockbuster, contrary to the established subheading “What Is Love?” The same applies for another movie by AJ, “Hridoy Bhanga Dheu: Heartbreaking Blow.” I'll cut this some slack as it figuratively describes the Bangla title, but others don't let it slip so easily, especially because of what can be added after the subheading for the kicks of it.
But AJ isn't the only one. Butterflies aren't birds, are they? I wonder, then, why the makers of the film “Projapoti” added “The Mysterious Bird” to the name. Doing that is the like signing your own death-warrant while getting humiliated on the social media and in public. Similarly, I don't understand how “Ek Buk Bhalobasha” (which translates to a chest/heart full of love) can turn into a philosophical notion, “Love Makes Life Beautiful.” Another such blunder would be “Valobasha Dibi Kina Bol?” which has been dubbed as “Love Me or Kill Me.” And then what? Get imprisoned for life? Thanks, but I'll pass.

On the other hand, I highly question the morals and motives of the makers of “Toke Valobashtei Hobe”, not only because it implies violation of a person's freedom of choice and promotes stalking, but also because its English tagline sends out a very wrong message. “By Force Love” might seem like an innocent stalker's wishful thinking, but willingly or not, the makers are promoting an act as grave as sex offence.
I must add, though, that not every movie is as such; there certainly are Bangla movie titles which have successfully been translated to English for the world to understand. One shining example of that would be the late Tareque Masud's critically acclaimed movie “Matir Moina”, which was translated to “The Clay Bird”.
Our English to Bangla translation skills were put to question when the picture of an X-Men poster in Bangladesh went viral on Facebook. It had written on it “America Te Manush Roope Jin: Bhalo Jin Bonam Kharap Jin”. It probably wasn't an actual poster of the movie, but if the translator behind this did so to subtly put a pun (Jean Grey), I declare him a genius.
Regardless of everything, the misnomers discussed are blatantly funny. Yet the question remains, are these actually mishaps, or are they done on purpose to make people laugh and publicise the movie? You know, any publicity is apparently good publicity.