After heavy backlash, Adipurush dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir defends Bhagwan Hanuman's 'Jalegi Bhi Tere Baap Ki' dialogue

Om Raut’s Adipurush was released in theatres on Friday. The film, starring Prabhas, Kriti Sanon, Saif Ali Khan, Sunny Singh and Devdatta Nage, has faced quite a bit of criticism on social media for its "disastrous" VFX and cringe worthy dialogues.

 

 

 

1. 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.

 

 

2. Hanuman: Aap kaal ke liye kaleen bicha rahe hain.

 

3. Ravan: Jo humai beheno ko hath lagayega... uski lanka laga denge.

 

4. Ravan: Teri bua ka bageecha hi kya jo hawa khane chala aaya.

 

5. "Mere Sapole ne tumhare Sheshnaag ko lamba kar diya, abhi toh pura pitara bhara pada hai."

 

Several netizens started trolling Manoj Muntashir, the dialogue writer of Adipurush, recipient of three National Film Awards, who has defended the dialogues and said that “a very meticulous thought process has gone into writing the dialogues for Bajrangbali”.

 

In an interview with Republic TV, when Muntashir was asked if it was an error from his side that he oversimplified Hanuman’s dialogues in Adipurush or if it was done so that there is a larger audience connect, the dialogue writer said, "It is not an error." He added, "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."

 

 

When he was prodded further about Hanuman’s dialogue during the ‘Lanka dahan’ sequence where he’s heard saying, “Tel tere baap ka. Aag bhi tere baap ki. Toh jalegi bhi tere baap ki,” Muntashir said, "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."