When I saw Dil Hi Dil Mein (2000), I felt like a genius, or an idiot, or both. I kept thinking that since this was originally a Tamil movie titled Kadhalar Dhinam (1999), that is was probably dubbed into Hindi. But then I’d see scenes where the lips were completely synching up with the Hindi, and Bollywood actors like Anupan Kher and Johnny Lever. These guys don’t do Tamil movies, right? I felt like I did when I was a kid seeing dubbing for the first time in some Godzilla film on TV some Saturday afternoon. As a 5 year old watching that, I knew there was something off with the voices; adult women pretending to talk like kids for the children’s parts, and lips not matching up with the voices. Well here’s the genius part, when doing my post movie internet research I read this:
The film’s success prompted Hindi Distributors to dub the film in Hindi as “Dil Hi Dil Mein”. However, director Kathir had actually reshot scenes in Hindi featuring actor Kunal and Anupam Kher [Replacing the Kunal-Manivannan tracks] conversing in Hindi while Johnny Lever’s scenes replaced the Goundamani Tracks [Even though he appeared briefly for the Chand Aaya Haisong]
with the same Titanic hairdo. Even the tracks dubbed from the Tamil version were re shot with Hindi synchronization sans for the first line of Roja Roja. Actor Nasser, though dubbed in Hindi, had given his Hindi synching in the song “Sawar Gayee”. Though actors Kunal and Sonali Bendre had synched their dialogues in Hindi, the rest of the film was dubbed and became a flop at box office. (wikipedia)
So there! It’s not completely dubbed over, since some portions were actually re shot in Hindi, so those no-dubbing lips were completely synchronized, since they were speaking Hindi after all. So this is what I will now term a hybrid dubbing film, since I don’t know what else to call it. Do you? Here’s a bit about the film:
Kadhalar Dhinam meaning Lover’s Day (English) is a 1999 Tamil film directed by Kathir. This film is based upon love which started upon an internet chatroom and how it developed. The movie stars Kunal, Sonali Bendre, Nassar, Manivannan, Goundamani, Rambha, Visu and Chinni Jayanth. This film was also known as the transition film between the 20th Century and the 21st Century.Produced by A.M. Rathnam and the music was composed by A.R. Rahman. The film was released April 1999 and was a box-office record breaker.(wikipedia)
What I enjoyed most in this movie is the story of how Rosa’s wealthy, accomplished father, played by the very handsome Nassar, once was an orphan. Who doesn’t love a good orphan story? With his orphan background, he’s naturally drawn to help out Raja, who he has no idea is in love with his very own daughter!
Orphans unite! Here are some images to show the rough start Roja’s daddy had before winning his hard earned success.
Well one of the things wrong with begging in this case was that they didn’t give the little girl milk, so she’d cry with passion and get more money from begging. But they went too far and she died.
As an young orphan boy, Roja’s dad, aka son of the eclipse, was blamed for his sister’s death, since her begging money went to pay his tuition and satisfy his lust for education.
Well it sounds to me like his mom was projecting her guilt over her beti’s death onto her son. I hope he eventually grew to understand this. I do love these neglected orphan tales though. All the suffering!
I found the Dorthy Hammil hair of the lead star, Kunal, distracting. For those who aren’t old enough to recall, Dorthy Hammil was the gold medel winning figure skating darling of the 1975 Olympics, who stormed the world with her sassy hairdo.
Even Johnny Lever’s character wore the Dorthy Hammil hair:
“…and your tresses look like those of Dorthy Hammil.”
When I tried to find out more about Kunal, I was saddened to see that he committed suicide on Feburary 7, 2008, which is incidentally my birthday. I heard Dorthy Hammil interviewed on the radio recently and she spoke of her struggles with depression, which must have been what Kunul suffered from, since untreated depression is the cause of suicide. So sad. But we have this nice movie to remember him by.
Now on a lighter note, who doesn’t like dancing with sticks? Do you know if there’s an official name for this style of stick dancing? You can see it here in “Daandiya Aattam,” from DHDM, with music by A.R. Rahman:
Thanks to memsaab for coming through with the answer to my question. The dancing with sticks is called dandiya raas which has an interesting history you can read about at Dandiya: The Great Indian Social Dance. Look! The type of dance is right there in the title of the song, “Daandiya Aattam.”
Bollywood Food Club 
