A professor of Hindi film told me that RIng Biarangi includes hte following dialogue:
Utpal Dutt: Jaisa ke Kalidas ne kaha hai, What's in the name?
> Some other actor: Uncle Kalidas ne nahin, Shakespere ne!
> (Uncle, Not kalidas, It was Shakespere )
>
> Utpal Dutt: Are(y) bhai, jub naam mein hee kuchh nahin rakha,
> to Shakespere ho ya Kalidas, Kya farak parta hai!
> (** When there is nothing in the name, it doesn't matter if
>it was Shakespere OR Kalidas **)

The DVD I saw was base dona bad print and did not include the dialogue. DOes anyone know if he riginal print does include this dialogue and if there isa DVD based on that print? Thanks.

Hi P,

I just watched Rang Birangi, which I actually thought was really very funny,
but the Shakespeare / Kaildas quotation did not appear. The print the DVD
was taken ftom had a lot of cuts, so maybe this DVD does not have the
dialogue. There is a moment at the end whoich seems perfect for the
dialogue when Utpal Dutt asks who asks a character, who is said to be "the
author of this drama," who he got his inspiration from--but the answer is
Patni Patni Aur Woh (1978), a film by B. R. Chopra, whose arrest Dutt (a
police officer) the orders, and the film ends. It was had to tell if there
were cut lines fomrthis print / DVD or not. by mid-way through, I was
expecting the Shakespeare / Kalidas dialogue to come at the end of the film,
which builds toward a climax at the police station. The film actually has a
lot of parallels with Shakespeare--twins, mistaken identities, disguise,
madness, and so on from plays like The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth
Night--and even with the romance The Winter's Tale (one woman refers to
having seven lost years of her marriage restored). Rang Birangi is also
very self-reflexive, refering to plays a lot (and also films within films),
like Shakespeare (though Shakespare hardly has a monopoly on meadrama, of
course). And one character, pretending to be mad, says to a woman he
embraces "Juliet, my beloved" (as in Romeo and Juliet?)

I wonder if your friend might have a DVD or video of a print with the
Shakespeare dialogue in it or know where I might purchase it, if he has one.


Also, have you seen Bollywood: Popular Indian Cinema, Joshi, Lailit Mohan,
ed. 2001. London:
Dakini Ltd.?

It doubles as a very handsome coffee table book and excellent scholarship.

Thanks again for your help.

Best,
R

----- Original Message -----



> R,
>
> Here's one answer, all the way from New Zealand!
>
> P
>
>>From: "S
> >
> >Dear G and P...
> >
> >the what's in a name reference is from Rang Birangi..an Uttpal Dutt
comedy
> >with om prakash, and askok kumar or devan verma...
> >The Ajit one..I have heard it before, but there are so many Ajit
jokes...I
> >will have to dive into my Ajit jokes archives and see if it is one of
those
> >that is "made up" or it's for real.
> >
> >cheers