Japanese Comes Calling To Marathi

Going beyond the Okamyoma garden and Origami classes, the city’s relations with Japan are getting a boost now in the form of a Marathi-Japanese online dictionary. As a part of the celebrations of 60 years of diplomatic relations between India-Japan, the government there has funded a project to build online Marathi-Japanese dictionary. About 30-35 volunteers from the city are contributing in this project.

The Online Verb Handbook will be one of the first of its kind. The project is launched by Dr. Prashant Pardeshi, Professor of Cross Linguistics in National University of Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL), Tokyo. He and his 7-member team has identified basic verbs in Japanese language and they are providing complete explanation in Japanese, about meanings of the verbs in their various shades and numerous examples of their usage in sentences, idioms, proverbs, and even example of wrong usage (for avoiding common mistakes of usage) and so on. It also consists audio information (for accurate pronunciation) and animation (for proper understanding).

A team of volunteers from city is taking care of translation of the Japanese explanation into Marathi. The team consists of Dr. Hari Damle, Salil Vaidya and other Japanese language teachers. According to Dr. Damle, the project assumes significance that it is precursor to other languages. After completion of this project, similar verb handbooks will be prepared in other languages like Chinese, Korean and English.

For editing this handbook, Prof. Kiryu from Mimasaka University has developed an online editor, which enables simultaneous editing of the handbook from different countries. The work is expected to be completed in an year.

A workshop was recently held at the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) about the nuances of this project. During the workshop, Prof. Pardeshi spoke about earlier efforts in this direction. He exhibited a copy of his earlier Japanese-Marathi basic verb dictionary in printed book-form. He added, “The present handbook is the first of its kind in the sense that it is the first attempt in Japanese to compile such a work using a large scale database of written Japanese.” Prof. Yasunari Imamura

Prof. Pardeshi is a Puneite by birth. After securing education in Japanese from Pune and New Delhi, he compeleted Ph. D. from Kobe University.

The Maharashtra-Japan Relations

The relations between Japan and Maharashtra, especially Pune, share common bonds. Adv. Sameer Khale, president of Association of Friends of Japan, told Pune Mirror, “The grammar of both languages is same. That is why it is found that Marathi students acquire Japanese language more easily than others. There are about 500 families or 2000 Maharashtrians living in Japan now. This dictionary will facilitate to all those who want to learn Japanese without knowing any other language like English.”

Dr. Umesh Joshi vice president of Mombusha Scholars Association of India, said, “This is the first Japanese dictionary based on verbs. This dictionary will take the natural language to common people beyong academic circles. Most of all, it will be free of cost.”

Dr. Saroja Bhate, veteran indologist, said, “The relations of Maharashtra and Japan are very deep. There used to be an annual issue named Maharashtra. Also, Acharya Atre’s famous book Shyamachi Aai was translated also in Japanese.” Dr. Bhate said that there is a tremendous interest among Japanese for indology and given their lesser skills in English, these types of projects will bridge a wide gap.

The commonalities

The basic structure of Japanese and Marathi are too similar viz. subject-object-verb. The particles in Japanese are closer in meaning to Marathi. Even some words have the same meaning. For example, Marathi ka and Japanese ka means why. Dr. Damle informed that even some proverbs in both languages astounding similarities. For example, the equivalent to Marathi bhintila kana astat (walls have ears) is khabe-ni mimi aari in Japanese.

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Sorry Plight of Marathi Schools

Two separate agitations in two different cities in Maharashtra have brought to fore the sorry state of Marathi schools in the state. In an year when the state is celebrating 50 years of its formation, the government apathy is killing the language schools in favour of the English schools. The action of the government is in stark contrast to the numerous promises it has offered to public, both before and after the elections last year.

Thousands of students and teachers joined hand to protest against the closure Marathi schools on Saturday. “We have a right to learn through Marathi medium, the government can’t deny us the right to do so,” the statements written on the placards carried by students read.

The issue was first raised by Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthhi Sena, student wing of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The porganisation first objected to a Government Resolution brought out by the state government on June 19 which made running Marathi schools in the state illegal. First the government invited applications from the willing school owners for permitting the schools. When it received 9,000 applications, it conveniently allowed other schools while denying the same right to Marathi ones. Not stopping at that, it even threatened with criminal action for running schools without permission. Almost 4,000 schools all over the state are now facing the axe putting a question mark on the fate of the students.

The activists and lovers of Marathi are obviously concerned over the manner in which their schools are being sent into obscurity in a systematic manner. The Chief Minister himself and his council apparently have misplaced their priorities. In a state where 13 members of legislature have been elected on a strong linguist agenda and rejuvenation of the Marathi culture is evident everywhere, symptoms of Macaulay's mentality will be hard to digest. It comes as no surprise then that the opposition is growing stronger day by day against government policy. The state government will have to mend his ways.

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Sanskrit and Marathi

A Tale of Two Languages

Sanskrit and Marathi, as anybody with a primary knowledge of languages is aware, are sister languages from the Indo-Germanic languages. In Maharashtra where the Marathi is the primary languages, both the languages shared a vibrant and cordial relation for centuries. Most of the vocabulary in Marathi is sourced from this ancient language. The scriptures from Sanskrit inspired a plethora of similar texts in the native language. Just as the Ramayana inspired Kamb Ramayanam in Tamil, the Bhagwat inspired Nath Bhagwat in Marathi. Most of the writings of leaders in the freedom struggle like Lokmanya Tilak and Swatantryaveer Savarkar was replete with Sanskrit quotations and couplets. It was no surprise then that the state emerged as one of the prominent centres of Sanskrit learning. For centuries, alongwith Varanasi (Benaras, UP) and Shringeri (Karnataka), Pune and Wai from Maharashtra were recognised as the centre of learning for the Sanskrit. So much so that University of Pune has a centre of advanced study in the language having been the only such centre in the country recognised by the University Grants Commission. Besides, institutes like Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) and Deccan College are heavily engaged in the learning, teaching and research of Sanskrit.

After Maharashtra was formed on May 1, 1960, Marathi became the official language of the state. On account of the three language formula adopted by the central government, Hindi and English replaced Sanskrit as the secondary language in the schools. Although on account of the exam pattern, Sanskrit remained scoring subject for students of the secondary schools. At the primary level though the study of the Sanskrit was discouraged as much as possible. Coupled with the government's unwillingness to continue the teaching of the subject in curriculum, nouveau intellectual voices also projected the language as a symbol of retrogression and caste supremacy. 'it is a language of Brahmins used to oppress the masses,' was a popular argument. Slowly the number of people knowing Sanskrit diminished. (at the personal level, I myself do not know much Sanskrit. I could not learn it in school because we had no teacher available. In later years, I tried to learn it and caught up a bit of skill in writing some stray sentences, but that is hardly a fluency. I can only say that I am a Sanskrit 'literate'.)

This fading of Sanskrit had its percussion on the linguistic life of the state. Speaking at a function in the city yesterday, noted Sanskrit scholar Pt. Vasant Gadgil underlined this fact. “Today we are decrying the sorry state of Marathi. but we have to understand that it is because of the neglect of Sanskrit that Marathi is fading into oblivion,” he said. And he has a point. In the last five decades or so, the formation of new words in the Marathi has taken a beating. That has made the language unpopular in the younger generation. Once Sanskrit was sidelined, hardly anybody has taken pride in using the native language. Government of Maharashtra had introduced many new words for the technical and administrative terms. But they were opposed on the ground that these words are heavily influenced by Sanskrit. The net result of this argument was that public remained away from using these words and people who opposed them could not provide any alternatives either. So first these words from English seeped in singularly and then whole language was adopted. The state of the affairs is such that in the state, number of Marathi schools is dwindling each passing year giving way to English medium ones. One more reason why English mediums schools are catching up is that it offers more opportunities for youths in contrast with vernacular languages. But that is a different subject altogether.

The severance of ties between Sanskrit and Marathi has not only affected the word additions, it has also created a void in the shaping of literature. After the tide of Dalit literary movement died down, the new Marathi literature appears heading nowhere. Its old roots have been lost and new directions are hard to get. As new generation is more prone to western influenced, it appears disinterested with the literature based on new conventions. Hardly any new book in Marathi has created wave in recent years while old classics like Mritunjay (an epic novel on the lifes of Karna) and Yayati (a novel based on a story from Mahabharata)still reign supreme in the market. This shows the affinity of common readers to its own roots. This is not withstanding with the popularity of Dalit literature which rejects the Sanskrit traditions but is more vernacular than it.

It is unlikely at the moment that Sanskrit will regain its glory in India immediately. But it continues to exist in pockets and continues to flourish, if dedicated attempts by various quarters are to be believed. However, in case of Marathi, it is unlikely to benefit by distancing itself with its source. The disadvantage will be more of Marathi and not Sanskrit.

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First French Movie

Thanks to NFAI, I Could Watch It

First time in my life, I watched a French movie a day before yesterday. It was a beautiful movie telling a story of two young girls with dreams in their eyes. Though I understand French a little, it was easy to understand the movie because of subtitles.

French films are screened in Pune time and again but I do not get a chance see them. For one reason or another, I have always missed the bus. This time round also, I could not go to the all movies because of office timings. It was a chance holiday on May 1 that enabled me to attend the screening. There was a motley group of about 100 people to see the film. Although, I doubt how many of them came out of the love of French language because as far as I could see, the majority of them were from Film and Television Institute of India.

The movie was a part of the French film festivals organized in Pune by National Film Archives of India with the co-operation of Embassy of France in India. La vie rêvée des anges, that was the title of the movie. The film festival started on May 1 and will go on till tomorrow.

Before the start of the festival, India and France signed an agreement to donate 234 films to India. The films are donated from the library of embassy of France to NFAI.

All these films are produced in France. An agreement to this effect was signed on April 30 at NFAI by Philippe Martinet, Cultural Counsellor, Embassy of France and Vijay Jadhav, Director, NFAI will sign the agreement.

This is one more time that NFAI will get a treasure of French movies. In 2003 also 88 films were handed over to NFAI by Embassy of France. Before that, Earlier, in 1998, the Embassy of France donated 29 films to the National Film Archives of India.

Under the agreement, these films will be preserved at NFAI. They will have non-commercial screenings, research and studies. An embassy press release said that the Embassy of France in India is committed to strengthening the relations between cultural institutions of our two countries towards achieving this goal.

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Deutsche Welle Rocks

Deutsche Welle is the national broadcaster of the Federal Republic of Germany. The reason why I wrote Germany this way is that the organization originally belonged to erstwhile Western Germany until East Germany was accommodated in the former. Accordingly, the broadcaster company of East Germany was merged in the DW. I first listened to the station sometime in 1992-93, three years after the merger. In that respect, I can never compare the two stations. DW immediately caught my fancy because of its reporting and presentation. There were two more reasons for me to like the broadcast: it offered service in Hindi also and its broadcast quality was far more superior than the other ones.

As time moved fast forward, I lost the touch with DW. But not before I  learned some German through its programs. I could gather some sentences and basic phrases in German thanks to DW. It is myinability that I could not keep the tempo and garner some proficiencyin the language. In the meantime, I had become a journalist myself
and I rediscovered my favorite radio station. Though the medium ofthe contact had changed: it was on the internet mostly that I visitedDW nowadays. This allowed me the comfort of listening at my leisure and in as many languages as I could. Since I was a old fan of Hindi service, it was obvious that I refer to it on the net. Englishservice was irreplaceable to get a flavor of the international
developments. DW had also shifted its focus extensively from being a Germany centric station to a Europe centric one. In addition, I was also able to refer German and French service pages of the broadcaster to brush up my knowledge of the languages.

Aprominent feature of DW's Hindi service was program in Sanskrit language. It used to last for 15 minutes and appeared each alternate Mondays. The program is not in service today. It was discontinued two years ago. But I used to listen the program enthusiastically. DW was the only radio station besides All India Radio to broadcast Sanskrit programs regularly.

It was not that I was listening to DW alone. I used to listen many overseas radio stations at that time. But I was hooked to this station mostly because I always thought it like catering personally to me.

It was long ago that DW ceased to be a radio broadcaster only. It started TV programs in late 90s. Though the reach of the programs was limited in my country or at least in the area where I live. For this reason, I could only imagine the kind of programs offered. However, that difficulty also is now overcome with DW available on most DTH platforms. It is available on DD Direct Plus, Dish TV and other leading service providers. This has really increased the visibility of the channel in India though I really doubt as to how many viewers are 'attached' to it.

There are reasons why I am posing this doubt. First off all, it is not an entertaining channel. It is to its credit that DW never comes forward as a government broadcaster. But that has not helped it from being a mere informative channel. In India, where even the news channels are fast turning into entertainment machines, it would be hardly appreciated by the common public. Presumably, intellectuals and people with liking for serious content will fast take to this
channel. But the documentaries and news with a European perspective will hardly appeal to the viewer trapped in the TRP games.

I for myself liked the programs offered by the channel. Especially the kind of travel based programs are always to my liking. Previously, the programs came alternatively in English and German having one hour slot for each language. Now, I notice that it has considerably altered the programming with Asia Plus. German language programs, even though mostly comprising of news and documentaries, are less now. For last two days, I could watch only two to three hours of German programs on the channel. I wish it could have been more. But in any case, I am with DW. DW rocks!

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.pune Very Soon

Very soon, you will be able to log in a site which won’t have a domain name like .com or .in. Instead, the domain name of the site, which is the electronic address of the site, will be ‘.pune’. The international body which controls internet domain names has issued new guidelines which allow locality specific domain names. Though the move has created new questions, it has also some good news for industry and businesses.

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted on June 26 to allow more generic top-level domain names beyond the 21 currently approved names such as .com and .biz and the country domain names such as .in and .uk. A final version of the implementation plan must be approved by the ICANN Board before the new process is launched. It is intended that the final version will be published in early 2009.

This has opened doors also for the .pune domain name. When contacted, Jason Keenan, Media Adviser, ICANN told Pune Mirror, “The new top level domains could include .pune. It's important to understand that the new TLDs will be ideas that come forward to ICANN. We are not suggesting what should be applied for. What has to happen is someone needs to put together an application that meets the conditions of the yet-to-be-finalised application process. The application period is expected to open in the second quarter of 2009.”

This will be a boom for the businesses in Pune as a top level domain name will give the city specific identity to the businesses and sites. According to Deepak Shikarpur, Chairman, IT committee, Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture, “With the growth of internet and eCommerce existing domain names are in short supply and hence .com alone was not sufficient. We started with .biz. Some countries like Singapore insist on .com.sg extension. In the same spirit we have an option of .in (India specific). Now a welcome step for Pune specific businesses is to get .pune domain name. This will boost ePresnece of Pune specific businesses. However, if one wants a national or global image then such businesses won’t gain by .pune domain name change and hence these businesses wont bother to change.”

The Double Boananza

The city specific top level domain name is not the only boon given by ICANN. It has also decided to allow these domain names in local languages. Termed Internationalised Domain Names in the cyber parlance, these will allow people to access websites and emails in their local languages. Indian languages were considered for IDNs in the conference held in January these year in New Delhi. ICANN has finally decided to give go ahead for the same.

According to Keenan, “As for Internationalized Domain Names, ICANN's goal is to have them available at the same time as the application for new top-level domains, so people will be able to apply for TLDs in characters from the language of the world.” Dengate Thrush, ICANN's Board Chairman, was reported as saying, "New generic Top Level Domains and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) will open up the Internet and make it look as diverse as the people who use it," added.

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What is ICANN

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world.

It was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interpretable.
ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It is responsible for managing and coordinating the Domain Name System (DNS) to ensure that every address is unique and that all users of the Internet can find all valid addresses. It does this by overseeing the distribution of unique IP addresses and domain names. It also ensures that each domain name maps to the correct IP address.

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Sanjay Satolekar, chairman, Regional Advertising and Marketing Association

The new .pune domain name will definitely help the city business as they will get new identity. We had earlier the attraction for .com but later .in was accepted vehemently. As the businesses are getting more localised, the new top level domain name will create affinity between the businesses and customers. As an advertising professional, it is also a welcome move as the advertisers tend to go for the more localised content and new local domain name will help them in maximizing their returns.

Deepak Shikarpur, Chairman, IT committee, MCCIA

“With the growth of internet and eCommerce existing domain names are in short supply and hence .com alone was not sufficient. Now a welcome step for Pune specific businesses is to get .pune domain name. This will boost ePresnece of Pune specific businesses. However, if one wants a national or global image then such businesses won’t gain by .pune domain
name change and hence these businesses wont bother to change.”

Amit Tripathi, MD, ID8Labs

All the domain names, whether they are top level or not, cater to particular geography. Their role is to create an identity for the company. With internet services penetrating to city and zonal level, these is a great opportunity. The new domain names will create a great revenue platform for the most of the companies as there are loads of services which are necessarily city specific. Also, it will also facilitate the easy names for companies in particular sector like calendar.pune will refer all the events taking place in city. However, the new domain name should be first promoted in the city first. After the model becomes successful, outside businesses should acquire it and thereafter only, big business should spread this domain name to outside world.

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Addicted to Orkut? or MySpace instead? There is danger ahead. As the Pune is poised to become a Cyber City, it is also home to most crimes targeted against women in the cyber world. The commonest of all the abuses are posting duplicate or bogus profiles on the social networking sites causing harassment to women.

The fact has been revealed by experts in the field and also police records. According to Vishal Kumar, legal consultant with city based Asian School of Cyber Laws, "This is the most common of cyber crimes found in Pune. Unfortunately not much cases are reported with police and thus escape the public eye. But as a consultant firm and private investigator, we can surely say that this is the biggest problem in the city.

The record available with police says it clearly. Out of the 50-odd crime registered in the city since IT Act came into existence, some 13 offences pertain to harassment of girls and women. In the last six years, one fourth of the registered cyber crimes fall under this category. Remaining two thirds of the crime include all types of offence ranging from credit card theft and misuse to data and source code theft.

These include creating false profiles on orkut, sending obscene mails, text messages and pictures. "Registered crimes are just tip of the iceberg. We sometimes get complaints or just applications to block a particular site. In most of the cases, girls do not come forward for various reasons. They fear their image being maligned," said Chandrakant Thakur, assistant police inspector in the cyber crime branch."

One worrying aspect in cyber crimes pertaining to creating obscene profiles is large number of ‘unidentified’ culprits. Cyber sleuths say they can trace an offending PC’s Internet Protocol number. But if it happens to be from an internet cafe, which usually do not keep detailed records of users, the culprit can not be traced. It lefts victims with the only option of removing the offending site form the cyber world.

Vishal Kumar says since student community is high in the Pune, it is obvious that such types of crimes do happen. But he has a word of solace to the citizens also. "Cyber crimes do happen everywhere, but in Pune the awareness for the same is very high. This is a good factor in all this story."

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Major Cases In Pune

7/10/03
Accused sent many obscene emails to the victim and threatened to send it to police, so that the matter is reported in the press girl’s image gets maligned. The accused also asked Rs. 15,000 to settle the matter.

10/10/03
One identified man posted a bogus profile of one girl on internet with obscene photos and content.

27/03/07
Accused used to call the victim on phone in filthy language. He thereafter posted an obscene profile showing the girl as call girl.

28/06/07
A girl student posted an obscene profile of her friend as a call girl. The profile contained all the details of the friend. The victim who was from a business family in Kothrud, filed a complaint with police. Investigations revealed that the incidence occurred out of love triangle.

6/09/07
One unidentified person sent nude and obscene photos of a woman to her colleagues and relatives so as to malign her.

4/01/2008
A woman’s cell no. was posted in the RediffBol chat tool in the Pune group. The woman was mentioned as a call girl and another no. was given as her pimp who was actually her father-in-law. The culprit remains unidentified.

1/02/2008
One unidentified person sent obscene and threatening mails to a student of MIT college. When the girl blocked his mails, the person posted some derogatory scraps on two of her friend’s Orkut account. The person also threatened to beat the two guys also.

March 2008
A girl was sent obscene emails and her duplicate profile was created on Orkut. Even numbers from the family members of the girl were given on the profile who in turn began received obscene calls.

(Published in Pune Mirror on 30 April)

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Log in — the desi way

Domain Names In Indian Languages To Become A Reality
Pune: The web is set to reach new heights in India as use of several Internet Domain Names (IDN) got a thumbs up at an international meet held at New Delhi recently.

Internet Corporation on Assigned Numeric Names (ICANN), the apex body, which controls domain names, discussed the subject at ICANN’s 31st public meeting in the capital on Friday.

Mahesh Kulkarni, the programme head of Punebased Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), gave a presentation on ‘development of Internationalised Domain Names (IDN) in local languages’.

“There are two sides to this issue—policywise and technical. We have recommended to the Department of Information Technology and ICANN to bring some policy changes to enable IDNs in local languages. The work is going on for two years but it has reached an advanced stage now,” said Kulkarni. India has 22 official languages and domain names in 13 languages have already been tested. But the issue now is allowing top level domain names (.com, .gov, .in, etc) in Indian languages.

Kulkarni said, “Given the complexities of our languages, the issue has to be resolved systematically. The main risk in allowing IDNs in Indian languages will be from phishing sites (who indulge in internet frauds using duplicate domain names). Keeping this in view, we have made some recommendations.”

According to him, if the suggestions are accepted, it could pave the way for email addresses in local languages.
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Risks and the solutions

There are 22 languages written in 11 scripts. Many languages are written in more than one script — Konkani is written in Roman, Devnagari, Malyalam and Kannada, while 54 languages (including dialects) are written in Devnagari.
Solution: Deciding one script for any given language, on which a decision is yet to be taken.

There are many characters common to more than one languages. Making it easier for fishing sites to pose as original websites.
Solution: Reserving specific names for important sites and not allowing similar characters for domain names. A variant table of characters for each language has been prepared so that character set of one language is not copied to other characters.

Many languages have similar sounding words (homophones) and similarly spelled words (homographs) making the access difficult as well as prone to risk.
Solution: Unicode sets for each character has been finalised and only homographs are focused, restricting uncommon characters from using in domain names.

There is a risk that some obscene words or phrases might be used by some elements to register the names.
Solution: A list has been prepared of such words which will not be allowed to use, a la European countries.

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Lost in translation!

PUNE: When Durga Dixit, director of the Aikyabharati Pratishtan gets requests for translation jobs, she just has to call up her regular translators and get the job done. For, Dixit has a group of trusted people who can translate documents into target languages. When the quantity of the work increases and she faces a deadline, however, she feels the crunch. There are just not enough people to go around. Many agencies have the same story, a dearth of skilled translators in the city.

As Pune grows into an international industry and IT centre, translators and interpreters are in high demand. And, surprisingly, the situation is worse for Indian languages. "There sure is a scarcity of translators, especially from vernacular languages to English and vice versa. Most of our work comes in these languages. The quantity of work is growing and the job can be done even at home. Still, there are just not enough skilled persons. And, where Pune loses, Mumbai gains. "Trained manpower for this work is needed. We have proposed that the government start a new course aiming at translation from English to vernacular languages," says Dixit.

BITS International handles translation works for domestic as well as foreign clients. Chairman and managing director of the organisation, Sandeep Nulkar says, "Skilled manpower is not increasing at the same rate as the work is. One problem is the lack of specialised courses for this purpose. Even existing courses have not been tailored keeping in mind the concerns of practising translators. Since translation needs special skills, even though the number of students learning languages is increasing, that does not amount to the availability of the good translators."

Interestingly, Pune seems to do well in grooming translation talent. "Delhi and Pune are cities where a conductive ambience for emerging translators exists. Even Bangalore does not have Masters-level courses in as many languages as we have here. That is why so many IT companies there are hiring translators from Pune," Nulkar says. Madhura Datar, founder of the Language Services Bureau, has 45 years of experience in translating. "There are many translators, but professional ones is hard to find," she says. "For some not-so-common and Indian languages, the problem is more acute." Datar has trained many students over the years and still teaches those willing to learn. "The situation has changed very much in the last few years. Though more people are learning the skills, there’s scope for everyone."

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(The news can also be read at Times of India site here)

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Chinese learners dwindling in Pune

Pune: Chinese may be the buzzword in kitchens, shops and businesses, but when it comes to the language, there seem to be few takers. Institutes teaching the Chinese language are seeing a fall in the number of students opting for the course.

Though there are few establishments in the city that offer such a course, their enrollments were rising until a couple of year ago. Anagha Natekar, co-ordinator of the course in Symbiosis Institute of Foreign Languages (SIFL), told TOI, “It is our personal perception that the Chinese bubble has burst. We have a capacity of 25 students, but even that number is hard to achieve.”

Agrees Ketan Vadke who arranges personalised Chinese courses: “Compared to other languages, demand for Chinese seems limited. However, by itself, the awareness about the language is definitely rising. We usually see business people and professionals enrolling for language-course.”

Swati Somani, training co-ordinator and counselor with Chrysalis institute has a different take. She asserts that, comparatively, the last two to three years have seen a rise in the number of students. “Since there are few who know the language, lot of people opt for it to work as translators and interpreters. And, there is a fair bit of money in it,” she said.

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Hollywood faded out

Where would the English movie viewers go to watch their favorite and anticipated films? That is the question looming large in the minds of those who watch Hollywood stuff frequently. The regular theatres for the English movies are fast turning into endangered species. They are shrinking to exhibit the stuff in the fear of loosing the profit in the favor of dubbed movies. Dubbed movies also are fast encroaching on the space for the original Hollywood stuff.

It was in the year 1994. First ‘Jurassic Park’ had made waves in the pre-publicity era and its release was widely expected. When the movie actually hit the theatres, it came in two separate versions i.e. English as well as Hindi. That heralded a trend whereby more and more foreign films were dubbed in Hindi and few other regional languages. That business strategy paid off very well paving the way for major and minor Hollywood studios to set up their offices here itself.

What happened to English films later took place with films in other languages too. Chinese, Japanese, French and so many other films started making rounds. Not only through theatres, but through pirated CDs and DVDs too. Increasingly people started to see English films in their language instead of the original ones. The things have come to such a pass that ‘Spiderman 3’ last year was dubbed in Bhojpuri, a first for any Hollywood or for that matter, any non-Bhojpuri. The trend continued unabated and ‘A Night in Museum’ was released in India in only Hindi. However, the film was available in English on DVD circuit.

Rising localization and increasing competition has made original Hollywood films now as rare as old Hindi flicks. Either you see Hindi dubbed versions or else you see nothing. Even some multiplexes are going for the dubbed versions. In short, the day is not far away, when one will have to ask : English films, where are they?

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Indian movies growing out of all woods

The film industry in India could not have better than this. After witnessing its most successful year in the recent past in terms of box-office collections, the industry is poised to grow even more. And this is not an abstract anticipation of any Bollywoodwallah, it is a studied inference of an American institute.
The PTI recently reported about a report by the Creative and Innovative Economy Centre (CIEC) of George Washington University Law School, wherein the centre has estimated that Indian film industry will grow by more than 15 per cent in the coming year. The reasons attributed are growing number of multiplexes and the availability of digital technology.
What this report did not elaborate, and which I specifically observed some three months ago, that this trend of growth is more evident in Bollywood but it equally, or more precisely more forcefully exist in the regional film industries. The statistical data of these scattered centres of film making does not come up at once and hence it is relegated to the unhidden corners of respective trade papers.
The Bollywood, that now produces Hindi films for mainly urban and overseas audience is considered worth 25, 000 Crores, according to Industry sources. Coming next to it is Kollywood or Tamil film industry which had a turnover of around 23, 155 Crores at the end of year 2005. This year’s data is yet to come by. The second biggest film industry in South India, that is Telugu film industry has a turnover to the tune of 23, 044 Crores.
Even the once near-dead or non-existent industries are gaining or regaining ground in the unprecedented ways. The Marathi film industry was staring at its death just five years ago. But the Shwaas changed it all. The film released in 2004 won a Golden Lotus Award from the President and that provided a much-needed impetus to the Maharashtrian producers. That’s why this year saw as many as 75 films in Marathi language were passed for the release by the Central Certification Board of India, called Censor Board, compared to the two or three on an average in the 90s.
The Bhojpuri films till recently remained in the shadow of the Hindi films. But as the Bollywood turn more and more urban; these films emerged strong with flavor of local themes and talent providing ingredients. Even Bollywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan has thought it imperative to act in a Bhojpuri film, which was quite unthinkable in the past.
So given this trend, it is hardly surprising that world is anticipating a big growth from Bollywood. The question is, will it take cognizance of the growth of other film industries in India.

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Tamil Films facing closed doors in South

It was not long ago that Kannada film industry, apparently raged over the diminishing collections on account of copetition with Tamil films, demanded to the State government to restrict release of non-Kannada films in Karnataka for the six weeks. The state government subsequently conceded on account of which non-Kannada films were barred entry for the first six weeks of their release in Karnataka. That decision affected all other languages films as well. On account of that step alone, Karnataka witnessed a high number of remakes in Kannada from Tamil and Hindi films. It did not though brought any worthwhile trend of original stories or new concepts in Kannada movies. Some trade bodies even went to the Supreme Court against this order in 2004 and now recently state government has denied having issued any such order.
These trade bodies feared that neighbouring States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala will be provoked to take similar decision against release and exhibition of Kannada and other language films in their respective states. Though these apprehension were not realised owing to the little popularity of Kannada films in other regions, it has came into existance for Tamil films. The same situation aroused in Andhra pradesh some time ago. Some Chiranjeevi films having failed to garner collections to the level they once did, at the same time Rajinikant's Chandramukhi dubbed in Telugu making records in collections and Santkozhi, Thimiru, Aanai etc. films making waves on box-office gave sleepless nights to the industrywllahs. Faced with a lacklustre performance of a majority of Telugu films and Tamil dubbed films making hay one after another, the film producers association there demanded a ban on Tamil films dubbed in Telugu. But this demand, arose as did subsequently vanished without a whimper and no concrete decision in this matter has not been taken till now.
After the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, it is the turn of the Kerala now to try to halt Tamil films at its border.
Tamil films, actor, actresses and songs have a huge fan following in Kerala. Anyone watching Asianet or Surya TV can vouch for that. Even Malyalam actresses have a harvest time now in Kollywood. Asin, Nayanthara are two heroines who can prove this point. Sometimes Tamil songs have more buzz than the Malayalam songs in Kerala. Old horses like Rajinikant and Kamal Haasan command a big fanbase with young guns Vijay, Surya and Vikram following the suit. So much so, that though Prithviraj is a face to reckon with in Tamilnadu, he is a big craze in Kerala girls. A distributor in Palghat has the bought rights for Shivaji-the boss for a whooping amount of Rs. 35 Crores, which is considered a record in Kerala.
It is hardly surprising then that Mollywood's insiders are alarmed at the pace at which Tamil films are gaining ground. To contemplate on this situation, some financiers in Mollywood recently had a meeting. It was decided in this meeting that Tamil films should be released in Kerala few weeks after their release in Tamilnadu. Even so, this restriction is less likely to affect the films starring Rajini, Kamal, Vijay etc. These films will be released simultaneously in Kerala.

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Bharati
Lucky Coincidence
By Tanya Kokoska

He will be the only, who speaks. Will tell of millenniums old myths and ritual, will report about the struggle between tradition and modern that is the country of India. And in between he will interlace cheerful anecdotes. He will provide the German public an understandign of the love story of the beautiful Bharati and Siddharta, which otherwise comes out without words. He will become the cue for an ensemble of hundred dancers, musicians and acrobats – and will even wear himself Indian costumes. He, Friedrich Karl Praetorius, will be Sutradhar - the narrator.

Actually they wanted to have an Indian actor for this roll in the Bharati-the specatcle in Germany, who speaks German well, Praetorius says, but they found none, as always. So a Dutchman stood there first of all on the stage who spoke with accent, that caused involuntary and strange comic scenes in this intoxication out of strange sounds, exotic colors and attractive dances.

Then the call of the organizer and the question came whether Praetorius did not want to get the roll. "I thought first, is that uch an Event-spectacle as a Shakira-concert,” he says Then he had looked at the show and had hesitated no longer. "It is as though India came to me after I went there so often. One can name it as the chance or fate. I feel the stroke of fate will be the best."

Friedrich Karl Praetorius, born in 1952 in Hamburg speaks about the Bharati as though a childe, that he once saw the story of Pinocchio played in a theater. At that time for a six year old, he tells , “I got the impossible for possible-that was a lovely feeling.”
He sits at the large wooden table in his working room, which he has decorated with Indian furnitures and accessory. Illuminated candles, they smell like green tea, and the CD-player plays pieces of the music, which will appear from tonight in 41 presentations in 14 cities. Now he learns his text, filled with the "Keywords", cues, that he must give in Indian language, so that he can make them understand others. Although he "hates" Frankfurt without naming a concrete reason for that, he remained like to the defiance in the vicinity of this city, bought itself 13 years ago a half-timbered house in Maintal-Hochstadt, lives there his woman and two children. Friedrich Karl Praetorius - actor, director, author and painter - wants to become here old, he likes the "province", the creaking of the halls, the large garden. And yet he pulls it often to India, "because one can experience adventure there " - and would be it a deader that lies between the waiting before the load ticket window.

This article appeared at http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/kultur_und_medien/feuilleton/?cnt=1039418

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Maestro’s sublime act

Kudos to Illayaraja. The maestro has done again what people in film industry are seldom expected to do. The man who has mesmerized generatios with his sweet voice has shown that he can stand for his convictions when it matters.
Music director Ilayaraja and director Gnanarajasekaran shared an excellent rapport. Ilayaraja’s works in Moga Mul and Bharathy, both directed by Gnanarajasekaran, won several accolades.
Obviously Gnanarajasekaran approached Ilayaraja for his current directorial venture Periyar, a movie based on the life of the revolutionary thinker in Tamilnadu. Actor Satyaraj and Khushboo are expected to act in the film. But the news is that Ilayaraja has declined to work in the movie. Eventually the baton has been passed to Vidyasagar.
According to Ilayaraja, he has a great respect for Periyar. "Certain ideas of Periyar still holds relevant. However he was a known atheist. But my life is total contrast to the ideas and thoughts of Periyar. Hence I thought it would not be appropriate for me to work in the movie and more over I though I cannot do justice to my job," he has been quoted as saying.
Fotr the non starters, E.V. Ramasami Naicker, also known as E.V. Ramaswami, EVR, Thanthai Periyar, or just Periyar, was an atheist, social reformer, an activist, and the founder of Dravidar Kazhagam and the Self-Respect Movement in Tamil Nadu, India.
EVR’s given name was Ramaswami. He was from a prominent Kannada Naidu caste, a community that is descended from the Nayak rulers of Tamil Nadu. Hence he is called E. V. Ramaswami Naicker. "Periyar" means ‘respected one’ or an ‘elder’ in Tamil.
EVR was an atheist. He is well known for his antitheistic statement, "He who created god was a fool, he who spreads his name is a scoundrel, and he who worships him is a barbarian." He created a cult of hatred against Brahmins. In fact the most important legacy of EVR in Tamil Nadu is his Anti-Brahmanism and the effect it had on individual Brahmins. He never made any attempt to distinguish between good or bad Brahmins. He used Ganesha Chathurthi (a Hindu festival celebrating Ganesha, one of the popular forms of God in Hinduism), to desecrate and publicly destroy statues of the Gods. Though he was an atheist, he was criticized as a minority appeaser, since he choose to criticise only Hinduism and was soft on minority religions like Christianity and Islam.
Ilaiyaraaja, on the other hand is known for his spiritual leanings. A deeply person, he has composed for over 800 film in various languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. His Thiruvasagam - A Symphonic Oratorio has made history in sales, in Tamil Nadu. The audio distributors Well Gate say they have sold 35000 CDs and 25000 cassettes of the album.

http://www.raaja.com/biography.html

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A Dubious Feat

Sometime ago while commenting upon an UNI story I had written, that dubbed films diminish enjoyment of a particular film. The better option will be to have subtitles instead. Those were my personal opinions and they did not required to be corroborated. On the contrary, I was aware of the fact that a large number of audienc go for such films. Particularly enjoyed from this lot are action movies! Now this fact is proved by a recent report from far south. A prominent English eveninger from Tamilnadu has reported that Telugu dubbed movies are gaining ground once again in the state. Here is an excerpt:
‘‘A decade ago, a host of Telugu films dubbed into Tamil flooded the theatres in the State. Movies of Dr. Rajashekhar, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna and Vijayashanthi were dubbed and released simultaneously. A handful of them managed a decent run.
Over the years, patronage for such films reduced considerably and virtually came to a standstill with remakes being the norm. In contrast, Tamil moves dubbed to Telugu started to rule the roost in Andhra. The success of Ghajini, Chandramukhi, Poguru (Thimiru in Tamil), 7G Brindavan Colony (7G Rainbow Colony in Tamil) is example.
The popularity of Tamil films being dubbed forced Telugu producers to contemplate a ban on the same. However, after a long gap, Kollywood seems to be veering towards dubbed Telugu films again. Three Telugu movies are ready for release in Tamil now. Chiranjeevi’s Jai Chiranjeeva, Mahesh Babu’s Arjun and Lawrence Raghavendra and Prabhu Deva-starrer Style are slated for release.
Jai Chiranjeeva stars Chiranjeevi, Bhoomika and Sameera Reddy while Arjun features Mahesh Babu and Shriya and the whole movie is set in Madurai. Mahesh Babu, Keerthi Reddy are playing brother and sister and Shreya is in female lead. Prakshraj and Saritha are in other roles. Most of the faces are familiar for Tamil audiences.
According to a prominent distributor, they are confident that these movies will do well. They all have big star cast and a story line, which would be to the liking of the audience. The fate of these movies will set a new path for several other Telugu films waiting to be dubbed Tamil.”
This pondering about the dubbed films did not catch my fancy until I watched Roja recently. This Mani Rathnam directed Arvind Swamy, Madhu starrer was a huge hit in about 1992. Originally released in Tamil, it was released later in dubbed versions in Telugu and Hindi. I was one of those who could not help but mesmerized by this flick in 1993 and there appeared no flaw then in the movie. Just last month I watched it on a channel and realized first time what a crime a dubbed film commits to original. Here I talk of Roja because it was a hit and never have I came across any comment about the quality of the dubbing in this film.
In the movie, the main protagonist Roja is a village girl. Draped in the scenic beauty of rural Tamilnadu, Mani Rathnam has etched out a visual poetry on the silver screen. Now when you see the movie, the girls wearing Pudavai, Selai and men wearing Veshti with elaan, sandalwood powder tilak seen prominently on their forehead are seen speaking in Bihari dialect and accent without slightest hesitation!

This movie was not the only one doing such a thing. The same feat was achieved in the Kamal Haasan movie, Appu Raja where Apoorva Sahodargal was brought on Hindi screen with dubbed dialogues. The lead actor and actress in the film, Kamal Haasan and Revathi respectively, roam singing in the Nilgiri jungle, which has a distinct Southern view in it. But all the characters in the film refer to the place as Lonavala, which is a tourist spot in Maharastra. And all types of trees but Nigiris crowd Lonavala. The same fate fell on Muthu, which is an all time hit of Superstar Rajinikant. Its dubbing is so lackluster that an important aspect of the film is twisted in the process. In the original, the main villain of the film is the brother of the Jamindar’s mother, while in Muthu Maharaja; he is shown as a friend of the Jamindar’s father.
The state of the dubbed films being so, it is really surprising then that they are so popular in the territories where they are exhibited. Lack of quality films in the local language and an appetite for some good films on the part of the people in the region might be a reason for the same. I have seen this curious trend in Hindi nowadays with CDs and DVDs of films popular Southern actors like Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Balkrishna, Venkatesh, Vijay, Vikram, Arjun and many others are being sold. Footpaths of major cities in Maharashtra are full of these and they are being sold in no time.
As said above, quality of dubbing of these films is nothing said the better. Still audience tend to enjoy, at least it seems going by the way they are growing in numbers and people enquiring about them. There are people whom I know, who see these films regularly, and they swear that they do not get the stuff in Bollywood movies. That explains one way the success of dubbed ones. But that has not given recognition to the people concerned with original films as they have received in Telugu.
The dubbed films are in vogue for a long time in Andhra Pradesh where film industry is a major player in the whole of industrial sector in the state. There dubbed films as well as remakes continued to go hand in hand with the original ones and all these have competed each other without whining. But a recent decision of the leaders of the AP film industry might change this scenario. They have decided to impose a ban on the dubbed film releasing in the state and the decision is being implemented from 13th Nov. This year. The move is likely to have an effect not only on Hindi films, but also English, Tamil, Malayalam and other regional languages films as well.
Even James Bond films have been released in their dubbed avatar in the past and they have collected the money as much as Telugu ones. Last year, many Tamil films like Anniyan, Chandramukhi, Thambi, Thimiru, SandaiKozhi etc. were dubbed in Telugu and received more than warm welcome by the Telugu audience. The recent decision might hamper the prospects of new arrivals, but none the same it will surely pave the way for remakes. Already AP film industry is full of rehabilitated Bollywood actors, music directors and above all actresses. If the audience is ready to accept them as much as their own artists, how can artisans keep them at a hand’s bay?
This decision coming on the heels of the success of dubbed Tamil films, might be an attempt to save the Telugu industry from being washed away by the Tamil films, but it will certainly keep the audience with some options ready for them in the form of new films and that too good ones. An audience subsisting on a large number of half-baked stuff will always be worse than the one willing to have a limited but good material at its disposal.

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To make or to remake…

(Second part of the story The Remakes-Same Old Story)
Regional films coming to Bollywood screen and vice versa have acquired such a proportion that attempts to make a catalog of it have been already shelved. Sheer number of such projects is so huge that anybody trying to keep a record of it might feel ridiculous. A large number of films in such category have been represented in fairly good manner. An exception here or there will sound justified with the numbers involved. Now, these films have been in the circuit for a very long time and nobody cared a damn for them. Only now have people started to talk actively and in high decibels that makes it sound like it has come into fashion only recently. Or is it that they have been induced to talk in such a way.
Hoopla created at the time of making Devdas, Parineeta, Don and many others has only substantiated this suspicion. There is Priydarshan who can be credited with really most successful remakes in recent times. Since 1992 is remaking his old Malayalam and Tamil hits into Bollywood blockbusters and he has never talked about it. His foray into Bollywood was with the movie "Muskurahat" (1993). This was a remake of the original Kilukkam. His first successful Hindi film was "Gardish" 1994), that was a remake of the Kiridam.
Then again He made his second foray into hindi films with the remake of the acclaimed Kamal Haasan" starrer "Thevar Magan" Tamil) in Hindi. The film was titled "Virasat". He later directed a string of remakes including "Hera Pheri" a remake of Ramji Rao Speaking, "Hungama" , a remake of "Poochakkoru Mookkuthi", "Hulchul", a remake of "Godfather and "Garam Masala" 2005)( remake of "Boeing Boeing"). Priyadarshans has also made Saat Rang Ke Sapne, a remake of "Thenmavin Kombath" Malayalam, 1994); "Kabhi Na Kabhi" 1997), "Doli Sajake Rakhna" (1998) a ramake of Aniyathi Pravu; "Yeh Tera Ghar Ye Mera Ghar" (2002) a remake of Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam and "Kyonki" 2005) a remake of "Thalavattam". Some of the these remakes of Priyadarshan however failed to achieve boxoffice success. Some of these movies originally featured Mohanlal as the lead actor and any retrospective of this Malayalam Superstar will be incomplete without these. But only a handful of the Hindi moviegoers might know this fact. They take these movies as the originals ones. Still they are successful. So why this hype only over Don and Umrao Jaan.
One answer might lie in the statement given by Anandji Shah, one of the music directors of the original Don. Terming the remake of Don as purely a commercial act, he has said on record that makers of the new film had exploited the loop-holes in the Copyright Act to make money. “Listening to the remake of my song ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala’ has hurt me immensely,” said Anandji of the Anandji-Kalyanji fame. “The first time I heard the remake of my song, I could only laugh.” The director of original film Chandra Barot has said that such remakes act as ‘nuisance value’ for the original filmmakers. “I would personally never go for a remake of any film. Why opt for a remake?” Barot questioned. He added that new film was aimed at making money and nothing else. Barot said, “I am worried if more and more Bollywood classics are remade. It will be a sad day when low budget remakes of classic films like Mughal-e-Azam are made.”
As a movie buff, personally I will say that bringing various regional films into Hindi or its reverse trend is a healthy practice. That gives a chance to viewers to appreciate artworks in another regions, which in India can be a tedious thing to do. One more thing is that movies that usually are remade go not only through the regional-Hindi mode but also one regional language to another one. That’s why Mohanlal’s Thenmavin Kombath was remade into Hindi as well as Tamil. In its Tamil version, Muthu, Rajnikant was the hero and this remade version was a bit different in its storyline as well as presentation to suit to Superstar’s image. This remade version superceded all the collection records of the original one and still has a unique reputation of being the biggest Indian hit in Japan. Though they did not give an ample idea of the talent that the original artistes, writers, music directors or any other who made the film tick, they give a reflected glimpse of the currents in the respective film industries. Many Hindi films in the 1980s and 90s were imported from the South and those movies provided enough indications of the film genre in vogue at that time.
As in Hollywood, many remade films also provided a base for the new crew to improvise on the original films and they did well. Money factor, a bane of Bollywood, for many decades, played an important role in the refurnishing of new creations and it showed in the films as well. That’s why some original regional movies fail to cast a spell to the extent that new, Bollywood hits could. Sometimes, a persona or an actor like Amitabh Bachchan would made it very difficult for others to recreate the magic. With the exception of Rajinikant, many others who tried to do such a trick paled in the effort.

(To be continued)

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