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Word of the day: Hinglish

Lydia Ianni's photo
LA Foreign Movie Examiner

Slumdog Millionaire

The word Hinglish refers to a combination of English and Hindi becoming increasingly common in India and Indian communities throughout the world. Now this was bound to happen. Both Hindi and English are the official languages of India today, a by product of years of British colonization. This exchange has been going on for quite some time and oddly enough it goes in both directions. Take the word pajamas. Totally borrowed from India. Same with cummerbund, bungalow, caravan, bandana... Language has been fluid for years. Now cinema is catching up.


Bend It Like Beckham blends Indian culture and British filmmaking.

As a mixture of Hindi and English is increasingly becoming the norm in modern India, many have remarked that a recent trend toward Hinglish in films is really just about staying current. For years many Indian films have included English phrases mixed in mostly Hindi films, but a recent trend toward greater blending of cultures and film industries have resulted into something known as Hinglish movies.

Hinglish movies include films such as Slumdog Millionaire, Bend it Like Beckham, and the forthcoming Lions of Punjab, a film that deals with an all Indian singing contest taking place in New Jersey. These films have been able to blend Indian languages (usually Hindi) with English. This integration goes deeper however. For instance, Bend it Like Beckham deals with a girl named Jess who is a  British-Indian Punjabi Sikh who, despite the objections of her family, loves to play soccer. Jess is torn between her culture and loving family and following a dream that is very much based on her adopted British culture. While most of the film is in English and was produced in England, the director is of Indian descent, the film's family breaks down to bhangra music and speaks Punjabi, and the film deals heavily with the often difficult decisions that face second generation Indians living in the UK.  


Bollywood star Anil Kapoor before an interview at the Today Show for Slumdog Millionaire. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Slumdog Millionaire proves to be another excellent example of cinema's ability to integrate. A British director, an Indian cast, a Dickensian story, a top notch Indian composer... Ultimately at the core of good Hinglish films is an ability to blend diverse film traditions, cultures, and languages into a single cohesive and compelling film.
 
What is the future of the Hinglish Film? Much of the future of Hinglish film, at least in the U.S., rides on the upcoming Oscars. The success of Bend it Like Beckham propelled this cinema forward in the U.S. but that may have been put on hold for a bit after Bride and Prejudice came out. The critical and financial success of Slumdog has proven that American audiences are perfectly capable of sitting through a film with a significant amount of subtitles and no stars they have ever heard of- who knew?! The film came out of nowhere to gross $77 million. With 10 Academy Awards nomination, it is entirely possible that a sweep by Slumdog would result in a growing number of hybrid films. In an increasingly connected world, this is long overdue.
For further reading: NPR and BBC article
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, LA Foreign Movie Examiner

Lydia Ianni watched Hitchcock's Vertigo at 12 and her life has never been the same. She has received a B.A. and M.A. in Film Studies, has worked at a number of film festivals, and is currently learning Japanese. While her primary area of interest is East Asian film, she is interested in anything...

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