Melbourne Indian film fanatics can rejoice about a little-advertised new Indian Melbourne Festival running 27 December 2010 to 2 January 2011!
Boasting movies from Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi film industries, this is the first Indian film festival in a long time that has attempted to screen popular films from so many regions of India in Melbourne. We are so lucky!
Click the link to visit the IMFF website!
Sorry for the lack of posts!
The ‘Tollywood Is My Teacher’ Tumblr started with a bang but sputtered into silence when its author started having multiple fun things to do and not as much time in which to do them as she’d like.
One thing Telugu-related I have started doing is learning some basic Telugu with the help of a native speaker. I hope to be able to start posting results from that soon.
To keep you happy, just a tiny piece today.
Not to make this the Siddharth show or anything…
…but I was listening to the Baava soundtrack today, and I observed something that reminds I’m still at the earliest phases of learning this language!
Imagine my consternation, when at the end of the first verse of Pannendella Praayam, I hear:
‘Have you got any beagle talking the ear Charlie Garly’
Remember this?
Yep, my brain’s making up funny English words (like ‘minor bun engine made Benny lava’) to replace the Telugu it doesn’t really know yet!
Here’s a link to a YouTube video with the Telugu superimposed on the audio:
According to which, the line in question is:
అదిగో తేనేటీగాల్లె తాకిందీ ఆ చల్ల గాలి / adigo teeneeTeegalle taakindi aa challa gaali
which, may mean something like *drumroll*…
‘Hey! Check it out! Honeybee touches the cool breeze!’
or
‘…Cool breeze touches the honeybee!’
Or, something else entirely.
I hope that knowing the Telugu, whatever it means, succeeds in driving the English version out of my head!
* According to this Wikipedia article, the word that means ‘interpreting lyrics in one language as similar-sounding lyrics in another language’ is the Japanese ‘soramimi (Japanese 空耳; lit. “sky ear”)’. Who knew?!
The audio launch for Siddharth’s next movie, ‘Baava’ was held yesterday, and the movie will be out soon!
So I found this article on the web and thought I would have a go at translating it: http://www.andhraprabhaonline.com/movies/article-149804.
Here is a summary of what I was able to glean:
‘Siddharth is acting as a hero in the fresh new movie ‘Bava’. Rajendra Prasaad is playing a lead role. Ram Babu is being introduced as director, ML Padma Kumar Chaudary is producing the film.
Director Raambabu says about the film, “In a village atmosphere is a love story between a baava-maradallu (boy cousin / girl cousin). As Bava, Siddharth is naughty, mischievous and lively, and dedicated to amusement, always laughing. Rajendra Prasaad is playing the role of Siddharth’s father.”
Producer ML Padma Kumaar Chaudary says: “this film was shot in villages surrounding the east Godavari and west Godavari districts, and also in Hyderabad and surrounds.”’
I missed a section that mentioned ‘meeting’ or ‘union’, ‘dramatic situation’, ‘entertainment’, ‘style’ and ‘you can guess’ - and in another section ‘recently’ ‘shooting part’, I just couldn’t pull it together!
Here’s what I got from the article:
1. Handy descriptors for Siddharth/s character
2. Family / kinship terms and relationships
3. Essential film industry terminology
1. All about Siddharth/Bava
Any of this sound familiar? :D
అల్లరితనం allaritanam – naughty, mischievous, noisy, troublesome
కొంటెతనం konTetanam – mischievous, lewd
చలాకీతనం chalaakitanam – 1. lively, vivacious. 2. pert, saucy
2. Family / Kinship words
I know from learning Hindi that family (kinship) terms of address / relationship descriptors can be a bit tricky.
Bava-Maradallu
The bava-maradallu relationship seems central to this movie’s plot!
I’ve heard ‘bava’ used as a form of address in a lot of Tollywood movies. I thought it just meant ‘brother-in-law’ but not every situation seemed to fit that translation! And maradallu? Had never heard of it!
So I looked it up, and here’s what the online dictionary said:
బావ bava n.
man’s sister’s husband, whether older or younger than himself, man’s father’s sister’s son if older than himself, man’s mother’s brother’s son if older than himself.
woman’s husband’s elder brother, woman’s father’s sister’s son.
:D And maradallu?
మరదళ్ళ maradalla n.
woman’s younger brother’s wife, woman’s father’s sister’s daughter or mother’s brother’s daughter if younger than herself.
Man’s younger brother’s wife, man’s wife’s younger sister, man’s father’s sister’s daughter or mother’s brother’s daughter if younger.
If I apply these definitions to my own family I get that the following:
my brother in law who’s older than me is my bava! – and I’m his maradallu!
my cousin James, who’s younger than me is NOT my bava! – because I’m older than him. He is my Maridhi (thanks Dblstnrd). o However, he’s my youngest sister’s bava, and she’s his maradallu!
SO! Siddharth’s character Bava’s maradallu is his father’s brother’s daughter (and is younger than him!)!
Update: I’ve now seen the movie: actually Sid’s character Veerababu’s maradallu is his mother’s brother’s daughter!
Other family/kinship words
తండ్రి Tandri – father
Here are some more words for members of the family that I’ve been able to dig up:
talli - mother
anna - brother
akka – (big) sister
chelli – (little) sister
Telugu also seems to link male and female versions of family words! Here’s what I mean:
Baava-maradallu
tandri-talli – father-mother, or ‘parents’
3. Essential film industry words
These will be good to know for future exercises! I’ll try and go into further detail grammatically when I become more familiar with it.
naTi – actress (actor?)
నటిస్తున్న naTistunna – is acting
నాయకుడిగా naayakuDu - hero
తాజా taajaa – fresh, new, latest
చిత్రం chitran – movie
ప్రధాన pradhana – main, lead
పాత్రధారి paatradhaari – actor
దర్శకు darshaku – director
దర్శకునిగా darshaku+niga – as a director
దర్శకుడు Darshaku+du – Director (masculine singular noun as the subject of the sentence)
నిర్మిస్తున్నారు nirmistunnaru – is producing.
పరిచయం చేస్తూ parichayan chestu - is introduced
షూటింగ్ shooting – shooting
—
Source of article: http://www.andhraprabhaonline.com/movies/article-149804
Accessed: 14 October 2010
Source of image: http://movies.sulekha.com/telugu/baava/pictures/1.htm
Thanks to all commenters for helping correct this post! :)
