Cutting the Chai has moved to a new domain: cuttingthechai.com.
You can get in touch with Soumyadip at www.soumyadip.com.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Citizen Sweety Blouse: Draupadi Cheer Haran

Dhritrashtra - Eyes Popping OutOne of the highlights of the Mahabharat (you can watch the complete episodes of the original TV serial here) was Draupadi's cheer haran. And one of the wittiest Bollywood movies Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron also incorporated that in the climax.

Ekta Kapoor's tried to add a twist to the great epic with her Kahani Hamare Mahabharat Ki and instead of beginning from the beginning, she started the serial with Draupadi's cheer haran. The serial bombed.

If we conduct a poll on the most memorable scene from the Mahabharat, I doubt if anything else can pip the tale of the endless saree.

I found an (amusing) ad on the same theme. While logic says they should be selling sarees with the idea, it is for a brand of blouses - Citizen Sweety Blouse.

Playing the role of Draupadi is Preeti Jhangiani, the Chui Mui girl (I'll prefer to remember her for those videos only). They had also roped in the original Shakuni, Gufi Paintal. So powerful is the impact of the colourful blouses that the blind King Dhritrashtra's eyes pop out (aankhe phaad phaad dekha). Aap bhi dekho.


Download video [00:00:30 FLV 670 KB]
Download hi-res video [00:00:30 AVI 3.07 MB]

5 Comments:

Sugar man said...

Nice one boss.But do you think this kind of distortion, of characters of a great epic is justified or are we making mockery of our own literary culture.
It has become a fashion for English speaking to mock this great literary work and hail Shakespeare.Today's kids learn our great epics in comic books or on cartoon channels.The emotion ,aural strength of many Indian languages(actually derivatives of Sanskrit) dilutes when translated
to any other language.
How could there be bliss ,if kalidasa be read in English.Ghalib is better read in Urdu.Indian languages(beginning fom Sanskrit)have words closely linked with human emotions.Emotion seamlessly flows along with words as seen in some old epic movies.Where as English speaking people appear so pale to me (my opinion)
I am neither saying English is bad nor taking sides with those fundamentalists.Just sayin literary works are better read in the language of their origin.I do support English as a unifying language of the world,china may speak chinglish , India hinglish ,pakistan pinglish,turky turklish afterall its english and we are all talking to each other.

Sugar man said...

Just some add on to my previous comment.Can the song duniya from gulaal be sung with the exact impact in English.I think you got the point.No offense meant.

Soumyadip said...

@Sugam manMockery or a parody? The answer will be different for different sensibilities. The Indian culture always allowed space for good hearted fun. We even made fun of our gods, something that could warrant a death penalty in certain countries of the world. But when we saw others taking offence on things 'hurting' their feelings, we followed suit, to 'protect' our culture.

Regarding the translated works. I agree. First that I've always found more soul in Indian poerty than those of the English greats. Maybe, it was because I emotionally attached to the Indian languages (Bangla and Hindi, the two Indian languages I can read and write). Second, meanings are always lost in translation.

But then translation also adds to the aura of the litterateurs, making their works reach more people than it otherwise have. The world wouldn't have revered Rabindranath Tagore but for the English version of Geetanjali. Sarat Chandra wouldn't have fans in the Hindi belt. Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Franz Kafka would have remained just names to me. Some thoughts might get lost in translation but the ideas seep across.

I wish I knew all the languages of the world or literature would have been like painting, with no linguistic boundaries.

Sugar man said...

yup I missed your angle of view.Yes Indian culture had always been liberal,but I don't understand when the degeneration set in .
As is translations create problems in their own respect.
May be I am inadvertently biased to Hindi and co. I found tremendous inspirational power in "yeh desh ki darthi","Hy mere watan ke loge" "Kando se kande miltay hai" or "dil chatha hai"
then in any rap or rock.
My apologies for being biased.

Sugar man said...

When i spoke of translations it's about likes of "munnabhai chale america".
Big winter in small nose.
Come for a Date I'll pay you.
Mothers Brother Dont rotate my brain