For Hindi Film Fanatics...

Oxford University Press has just brought out a glossy hardcover book containing all the dialogues of 'Mughal-e-Azam' (MeA). It has a foreword by Javed Akhtar and an introduction by Nasreen Munni Kabir. Ms. Kabir has done a lot in recent times to bring interesting facets of the hindi film industry to a wide set of readers. I cant think of anyone who has done anything comparable now or in the past. MeA is a landmark film and an all-time favourite. Even the story of its making is fascinating to hear -what with the extravagant sets, the funding problems & delays and K. Asif's maniacal attention to detail . The film set a new high in the use of urdu in hindi film dialogues and this was possible because the dialogues for this film were jointly written by - not one, not two but- four leading writers of the time : Amanulla Khan, Kamal Amrohi, Ehsan Rizvi, & Vajahat Mirza. The book is a delight to behold and hold. On opening, it presents an 8.75" high and 21.5" wide view of four elegant columns of text. From left to right these contain the english translation of the dialogues, the roman script transliteration of the urdu to allow accurate reading, the rendering in devanagari script and finally the original rendering in urdu script. At the end the book recreates the magic with a set of large full-page colour prints of key scenes from the film. Strongly recommended as a collectors' item. It is priced rather steeply at Rs 1500 and that may put some people off but MeA fans may decide to forego other pleasures for a couple of months to indulge in a lifetime of evocative reading and re-reading. The book becomes even more attractive when one notes that it contains all the dialogues and songs including those edited out by the recent colour version of the film. Every MeA fan has his or her own favourites among the dialogues many of whom can be elegant, sharp and moving all at the same time. I cannot help reproducing my favourite which will need no elaboration of context for MeA fans: "Shahenshah ki in behisaab bakshishon ke badle mein ye kaneez Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar ko apna khoon muaff karti hai .."< " The Immortal Dialogues of K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam"; 250 pp; Oxford University Press; 2007>