English Vinglish

Kapil Sharma’s new ad on embracing Hindi seems to have struck a chord with viewers. We glean insights from Hindi writers and artists on this great Indian lingual divide...

It has been a long-drawn battle between the English language and languages of India vying for the vote of popularity amongst the youth of the country. And comedian Kapil Sharma has fired the latest salvo in this battle in an ad for a mobile phone brand, that’s been captioned “Angrezipanti ko angutha” or “snubbing English-ism”. The ad showcases an assistant director on the sets of a movie berating an extra for not understanding his instructions in English. Kapil, overhearing the discussion, butts in to ask the assistant director why he is called Ramesh and not “Robert”. He looks around the sets to ask why people in the country do not value their own languages as much as they seem to value English, especially even when Indian politicians travel to other countries and give speeches in Hindi. “Angrezi bolo, par usko deewar mat banao,” (speak in English but don’t make it a barrier) he tells the young lad.

The comedian, who shot to limelight on the Hindi reality comedy show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, has been known for his brand of witty jokes in Hindi. Subsequently when he hosted Comedy Nights With Kapil and The Kapil Sharma Show, the running gag on both the series has been one where the 35-year-old pretends to not know English well, translating Hindi words into English and wrongly so, for comic effect.

The commercial underlines how in urban centres, languages can have classist undertones and how, more often than not, fluency in English becomes the yardstick for excellence, irrespective of what field one’s in. But the question is, must the vernacular medium take a backseat

Asks actor Yashpal Sharma, “How much does the present youth know about Munshi Premchand or Harishankar Parsai, or other great Hindi writers of our times When children now are taught to talk in English in schools, is the same amount of importance given to Hindi as well ” Reminiscing about a trip abroad, Yashpal mentions the confidence speaking in Hindi brought to him. “While we were shooting for Lagaan, we went to the US for a month and though I am not well versed with the English language, I was able to communicate with the team members there rather well; the grammar may not have had been great but the confidence was. If you notice, no one knows or speaks pure Hindi as a language anyway. It’s always a mix of English and Hindi words thrown in together to form a new Hindustani language of their own.”

The basic motto is communicating and conveying your message,” Yashpal says.

Getting your point across is the whole idea, regardless of the medium, says stand-up comic Sanjay Rajoura, in agreement with Yashpal. “For us, it’s not about a Hindi comedian or an English one; it’s all about the story and there’s no point categorising comics over the language they talk in. If I tell you a story and you get attached to it, the language the story is in ceases to matter,” says Sanjay, who is known for his satirical brand of Hindi comedy.

Lyricist and comedian Varun Grover says with a laugh that he turns to Hindi whenever he finds the other person speaking better English. When Varun started to write out comedy for television, a large percent of his writing was in English, whereas it’s the other way round now. “Hindi as a medium of entertainment is definitely finding more acceptance, and not as much for cultural reasons as for marketing reasons,” asserts Varun, who won the National Award for the song Moh Moh Ke Dhaage, from the film Dum Lagaa Ke Haisha. “Creators are realising that the audience is in small towns, they have technology, they have smart phones and they can consume content on their fingertips.”

Talking about his first stint into doing stand-up in Hindi, Varun recalls, “When I won the first ever comedy competition held at Blue Frog, which was typically seen as the nerve centre of slightly high-brow ‘English’ entertainment,I knew I was on to something. I won that competition twice in a row. In comedy especially, Hindi stand-up is nothing new. In cities like Indore, Varanasi they are prevalent and popular, I once remember seeing a comedy act played out in Bakhri Urdu in Bangalore. So yes, vernacular medium is slowly but surely finding takers in big cities too.”

Zakir Khan, a Hindi stand-up comic who shot into the limelight with an act of his that went viral on Facebook says, “While I’ve never felt the issue of elitism, there are issues that sometimes crop up in say, corporate shows. For the corporate circle, Hindi comedy is associated with Raju Srivastav. So there are times when we’re told, ‘we don’t want this in Hindi, we want it in English.’ Except the regular bumps that a predominantly Hindi speaking person goes through, I’ve not had much trouble.” Zakir has also been a part of comedy collective AIB’s news-based show, On Air With AIB’s Hindi show. “See, I understand the kind of trouble people who don’t speak English very well go through,” he says. “I also understand the reservations they justifiably have while mingling with people who do speak in the language; the hesitation to speak in Hindi too is understandable. When it comes to any form of ‘isms,’ elitism when it comes to language, regionalism, casteism, it’s the lack of knowledge in the person in front of you and not you. Jo khud kam hai who doosron ko kya hi kam kara dega (how will a lowly person show someone else down). I always forgive the other guy thinking he’s a small person.”

Sanjay too believes the language you wish to communicate in is a matter of comfort more than a matter of prestige. “I prefer doing my comedy in Hindi because it’s natural for me,” he says. “My English isn’t that great. I can express my ideologies, emotions and gestures better in Hindi and that’s why I prefer it. I don’t have a problem with people speaking in whatever language they want. Baaki kisi ki himmat hai ki humein Hindi mein baat karne ke baare mein kuch bol de! (Would anyone dare to tell us anything about talking in Hindi!),” he signs off with a mock caveat.