The great emperor of English literature and the legendary wordsmith Shakespeare has once said, “What is in a name?” But, we know, how experimental our Bollywood artists are, as they haven’t let go even a chance to defy this famous quote by Shakespeare. Quirky, weird, attractive, intriguing, outlandish, eccentric or inspiring, Bollywood movie titles have everything in stores. Let us have a look at some of these unique film titles and explore the depth of the creativity of B-Townies!
1) Newbies in list – Talking about the very recent ones, there is Jaanisar which released in this week. This ancient romantic saga`s name is actually a combination of two words and has Turkish and Persian origins. Jaan denotes life and Nissar means to sacrifice, i.e. to sacrifice life for some purpose. One more is Drishyam which is a remake of Malayalam film with the same titile. It literally means sight/visuals and one can get the true essence of the title only after watching the film. Recently released and critically acclaimed, Richa Chadha`s Masaan is one different name. It has been sourced from Sanskrit origins Shmashaan meaning crematorium. One of the leads of this movie works at Masaan, so goes the title.
2) Short and Sweet, But Deep Meaning – Ever wondered what Rajnikant and Deepika’s historical but ‘hi-tech’ movie Kochadaiiyaan meant? It not only the name of 7th century king Kochadiyan Randhiran but also has got Tamil meaning. ‘Ko’ means king ‘chadaiyan’ is a male with matted hair. Ajay Devgn`s Singham franchise was a huge rage. ‘Singh’ in Hindi means lion; now, here it has got a figurative meaning. The meaning lion actually represents the characteristics of hero like bravery, courage and confidence. Another one named ‘Fukrey’ was a tale of friends who just see big dreams and do nothing to make them come true. Fukrey means the same and is a colloquial term popular in Delhi. ‘Koyalanchal’ if roughly translated, means a state of coal. This Vinod Khanna-Suniel Shetty starrer was a political-based film that dealth with controversies related to trade of coal. ‘Kai Po Che’, based on Chetan Bhagat’s Three Mistakes Of My Life was a story plotted in terror-struck Gujarat. The name, too, is derived from the same region and means the kite being cut, as this sport is the identity of the state.
3) Long-lasting And Quirky – Ram Kapoor starrer ‘Mere Dad Ki Maruti’ is one of the many examples of movies having long, quirky titles. For that matter, even ‘Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi’, ‘Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola’, ‘Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani’ are no less. From olden times, a movie of 80s has got name ‘Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyu Aata Hain?’ Even the movie would get over by the time we learn to pronounce the title!
4) What works without food? Some movies have got even the name of eatables. For instance, Garam Masala, Bheja Fry and Aloo Chat are some of the movies with a tinge of ‘spice’.
5) Even Slang Has Bang On impact – Some slang words have also been tried out by the filmmakers. Some examples being Kaminey, Gunday, Ghanchakkar, Besharam and Fugly.
But, at the end, what matters is the main content of the movie. For marketing purpose it is fine to have such names, but the key to truly mesmerize audiences lies in the storyline of the film! After all, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. What is in a name?”