Ever since the teaser of Om Raut’s ‘Adipurush’ dropped online, the film has been stirring controversy one after the other. First, it was the disappointing visuals of the film. Second, the portrayal of Raavan (played by Saif Ali Khan) in the film was completely and utterly distorted. And third, it looked less like an adaptation of ‘Ramayan’ and more like an amalgamation of Lord of the Rings, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.
Now that the film has been released, it seems like even the dialogues of the film, which are written by Manoj Muntashir, who is the recipient of three National Film Awards, are downright laughable. They sound cheap and cringe-worthy, worse than the language that regular people use, and in no way appropriate for an epic like ‘Ramayan’.
Om Raut and Manoj Muntashir have been receiving immense flak on social media regarding the dialogues, alongside everything else. Here’s what some of them said:
I have cancelled Adipurush cause I don’t wanna watch such hopeless direction, animation and cheap dialogues.. besides this movie should be banned @myogiadityanath for its erroneous way of showing sacred Ramayana and our gods.#AdipurushDisaster #AdipurshReview#BoycottAadipurush pic.twitter.com/X9V6BxKBbY
— Principal0.1 (@principal_up) June 17, 2023
still trying to make peace with the fact that the writer of dialogues like “tel tere baap ka, jalegi bhi tere baap ki” is the same guy who has written one of the finest lyrics of all time “teri mitti me mil jawaa, gul banke main khil jawaa”. what a fall, manoj muntashir saab 💔
— Neeche Se Topper (@NeecheSeTopper) June 17, 2023
“Jalegi tere baap ki”
“bua ka bhateeja”
“isko lamba kar diya”
“aaj tu khada hai, kal letega”Raavan is from Game of Thrones
Ram is from Jerusalem
Dialogues are from Dharavi 🙈 pic.twitter.com/WHDHn6h0ag— S🍁oirse (@SaoirseAF) June 16, 2023
Indrajit lights up Hanuman’s tail and says.. Jali na? Jiski jalti hai..
Bajrang responds: Kapda tere baap ka, tel tere baap ka, aag tere baap ki, jalegi bhi tere baap ki.
Kya mazak hai?? Ye youth ke liye modern take hai Ramayan ka? pic.twitter.com/d7yzZN4ifv
— OCD Times (@ocdtimes) June 16, 2023
*Lanka Dahan Scene*
Ravana’s son lights up Hanuman’s Tail: Jali na.. Jiski jalti hai..
Bajrang: Kapda tere baap ka. Tel tere baap ka. Aag bhi tere baap ki. Toh jalegi bhi tere baap ki.
The makers are proud of these Chapri dialogues? They want kids to see this? #Adipurush
— $@M (@SAMTHEBESTEST_) June 16, 2023
The dialogue writer of Adipurush @manojmuntashir as well as the director should apologise to the nation for the pedestrian dialogues written for the movie, especially for Lord Hanuman. It hurts every Indian’s sensibilities to see the kind of language being attributed to our…
— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) June 17, 2023
Modern hair-cuts, tattoos, cheap animations and cringe dialogues. Adipurush is an All India TikTok association meeting
— Sagar (@sagarcasm) June 16, 2023
Adipurush is when Ramayan happened in Dharavi.
“Jali na teri?”
“Abey tere baap ki jali”Dialogues between gods.
— Gabbar (@GabbbarSingh) June 16, 2023
However, Manoj Muntashir addressed the backlash that he has been facing for his dialogues in ‘Adipurush’. In a debate with the Republic, he justified the dialogues saying, “A very meticulous thought process that has gone into writing the dialogues for Bajrangbali. We have made it simple because we have to understand one thing (that) if there are multiple characters in a film, all of them can’t speak the language. There has to be a kind of diversion, a division.”
“How do we all know the Ramayana? We have the tradition of katha vaachan (storytelling), we read also but there is a vaachan parampara (the tradition of storytelling). Ramayan is the kind of granth (book) which we have heard from our very childhood, there is Akhand Ramayan, paath and many other things. I come from a small village where our grandmothers used to tell us stories from Ramayan in this language. One more thing, the dialogue that you just mentioned, it has been used by the greatest saints, storytellers in our country in the same manner as I have written it (in Adipurush). I am not the first one to write this dialogue, it is already there,” he added.
Here’s a look at the video:
#HinduReawakening | Meticulous thought has gone into the writing of the dialogues of Bajrangbali. Everyone cannot have the same kind of dialogues: #Adipurush writer @manojmuntashir answers Arnab on facing flak over the film’s dialogues #ManojMuntashir #OmRaut #ArnabGoswami pic.twitter.com/XJbUvgfiXv
— Republic (@republic) June 16, 2023
What are your views on this?