Boloo.ngaa to maa.n maregii, nahee.n boloo.ngaa to baap kuttaa khaaegaa

Film : Sadhu aur Shaitan

Year of release : 1968

Spoken by : Bajrangi (Mehmood)

Spoken to : Inspector (Anwar Hussain)

Dialogue writer : Rajinder Krishan

This film is among the countless Nagesh remakes that Mahmood starred in. If you ever get the chance, see the original with subtitles. Nagesh was at least 23 times better than Mahmood. Great actor. This particular film was a remake of the 1966 Tamil hit Saadhu MiranDaal. They repeated the panchratna naaTak manDali of Padosan fame in this film too. Both came out around the same time, but PaDosan (which was also a remake of a Bengali/Tamil film) became more popular.

The police is inquiring from all taxi drivers about having ferried a passenger of a certain description. Bajrangi, who is a taxi driver, has ferried the passenger that the police is looking for. However, that passenger had threatened to slit his throat if he squealed to the police. Now when the police inspector (Anwar Hussain) threatens to beat him black and blue, if he does not reveal the details, he cries out in anguish -

"yeh to achchhee baat huee saab, boloo.ngaa to maa.n maregii; nahee.n boloo.ngaa to baap kuttaa khaaegaa"

"ये तो अच्छी बात हुई साहब, बोलूंगा तो मां मरेगी; नहीं बोलूंगा तो बाप कुत्ता खाएगा"

The inspector shrieks in anger 

"kiskaa baap kuttaa khaayegaa?"

Bajrangi explains with this story. A boy watches his mother prepare dog's meat for his father. At dinner time when the meat is served on the table, the son is at sixes and sevens. Damned if he says it, damned if he doesn't. If he reveals the secret, his father will kill his mother in anger, if he does not his father will end up eating dog meat. That very dilemma is conveyed in this dialogue

"boloongaa to maa.n maregii; nahee.n boloongaa to baap kuttaa khaaegaa"

Interesting to note that dog meat is considered a delicacy in some parts of India (like Nagaland) and many other countries (like China and Korea), but it is prohibited in Islamic and Jewish dietary laws. So generally in India eating dog meat is considered offensive. But to those people who consider it a delicacy, this dialogue will be meaningless. It will also be offensive to vegetarians. 

But the story is still interesting, so I have put this line up.