ek age ke baad, DaanT khaane ki capacity kam ho jaati hai

 Film: The Accidental Prime Minister    

Year of release: 2019

Spoken by: Anupam Kher (Dr Manmohan Singh)

Spoken to: Akshaye Khanna (Sanjaya Baru)

Dialogue writer: Mayank Tewari (and 4 others)

This film will be always be a dark spot on Anupam Kher. Though he has gone over the top in some films, he has generally been a competent actor. In this film, in his desire to please certain people, he tries so hard to look stupid and spineless, that he really destroys the film single handedly. Many have categorised this film as pure propaganda. I think the film is better than that and even if they took a rookie actor from some wannabe acting school to play Dr MMS and remade the film - it will be a far better film. It's still not as bad as it was made out to be. Unfortunately the main actor completely misses the plot. However this dialogue resonates with me. As I grow older, I completely agree with it. Hence it needs a place on my blog. 

Although there is a disclaimer at the beginning that this is a fictionalised account and bears no resemblance to any real characters, I fail to understand what that means, when the characters are called Sonia Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Sanjaya Baru, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh. But I will also play along and assume no such real characters exist. So a certain minister called Jairam Ramesh supposedly leaks a letter written by someone called Sonia Gandhi. An irate Prime Minister calls Jairam and remonstrates with him. He also warns him not to repeat it. As Jairam leaves, Sanjaya enters. Sanjaya asks,

"Sir, Jairam kaafi upset lag rahe the?"

Dr Manmohan Singh answers,

"ek age ke baad, DaanT khaane ki capacity kam ho jaati hai"

What a lovely insight! Delivered unfortunately in a lousy way by an otherwise competent actor. Such a tragedy. Just imagine how an Irrfan or Nawaaz would have delivered it. Or Anupam's current bete noire Naseer!

loTaa hai, NOTA hai, jo pasand aaye,..., vo button dabaa do

Film: Newton

Year of release: 2017

Spoken by: Asst. Commandant Atma Singh (Pankaj Tripathi)

Spoken to: Newton Kumar (Rajkumar Rao)

Dialogue writer: Amit Masurkar, Mayank Tewari

In a great farcical scene, when the CRPF DIG Danish Hussain is touring and trying to impress a foreign journalist, the asst commandant forcibly rounds up 40 villagers to vote. 

Newton realises they don't know how to use an EVM, so he conducts an impromptu training. 

That's an amazing scene. 

When Atma sees Newton's efforts failing, he intervenes,

"Newton babu, aapke bas ki lag nahin rahi hai, now let me take over...dekhiye voting machine ek khilaune jaisa hai, "

"kya bakvaas kar rahe hain aap ye, khilauna nahin hai voting machine. Kyaa sikhaa rahe hain aap inhen ye"

"aap chup rahiye...dekhiye is khilaune se khelna bahut aasaan hai, ismen sab kuchh hai, gaajar hai, motorcycle hai, jahaaz hai, janvar hai, phool hai, loTaa hai, NOTA hai, jo pasand aaye, achcha lage, vo button dabaa do."

"देखिये इस खिलौने बहुत आसान है, इसमें सब कुछ है, गाजर है, मोटरसाइकिल है, जहाज़ है, जानवर है, फूल है, लोटा है, नोटा है, जो पसंद आये, अच्छा लगे, वो बटन दबा दो. "

Simplest explanation of Indian electoral process.