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desi bond: A poster of Skyfall at Payal Cinema in Mango on Thursday. Picture by Animesh Sengupta
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Jharkhand — like the whole world — discovered Bond at 50 with Skyfall. But here, the British secret agent spoke mostly in Hindi, with many plush multiplexes screening the dubbed version.
Dubbed Bond films — “mera naam Baand, James Baand” — do well in Jharkhand, with 007 fans lustily cheering the globetrotting spy’s accented Hindi.
Loyal audiences, mostly young men, thronged plexes in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad on Thursday for first day, first show. For most, only Bond mattered. The plot was an excuse to see the superspy in action, language no bar.
In the capital, Fun Cinema in Hinoo screened morning and noon shows of Skyfall, while Glitz screened two evening shows. In both, the first was in English, the second in Hindi.
In Jamshedpur, the city’s sole multiplex Eylex released three shows of Skyfall from 3.30pm on Thursday and will hike the number to five — all dubbed in Hindi — from Friday. Old single-screen favourite Payal Cinema will run three shows from Friday, one in English.
In Dhanbad, all three shows in Fame on Thursday were in Hindi.
From Dr No in 1962 to Skyfall in 2012, the spy has done everything most men only dream of — demolished larger-than-life villains, dated girls who could kill with their looks or guns, driven everything from cars to torpedoes — without turning a hair.
The only change? The marquee of Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, all of whom have bonded in varying degrees with diehard fans of the British secret agent over the five action-packed decades.
But many among the young crowd at Fun Cinema hadn’t heard about the devastating and deadpan Sean Connery in Dr No or Goldfinger or suave Roger Moore in Octopussy.
Blond Daniel Craig was their man of the moment. “He looked the perfect spy,” said twelfth grader Mishu Ranjan Kumar.
“I love the fact that Craig does most stunts himself,” added Harry Lugun, an economics student of Ranchi College, who watched the Hindi version. “I can follow dialogues better.”
MCA aspirant Birendra Mahto said he watched Bond films for lethal weapons. From bombs to bugs, from a mini rocket cigarette to a submarine, from Walther firearms to wristwatches fitted with explosives, Bond and gang have always had the deadliest toys.
In Dhanbad, BIT-Sindri and ISM students thronged Fame to catch the spy.
“I like Bond as he always fulfils an impossible mission,” said BIT-Sindri mechanical engineering student Abhishek Sharma Acharya. “And his gadgets are completely awesome.”
No one spared much thought for the plot, which global reviewers have gone gaga over. “The action is red-hot,” smiled Birendra.
In Jamshedpur, Shourish Gupta, general manager of Payal Cinema that will screen the city’s only English show from Friday, said they were hoping for a crowd of young and middle-aged Bond buffs. “Bond at 50 is a historic cinematic occasion. We’re hoping for debates on who’s the best Bond. Many can’t look beyond Sean Connery, though Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig have their own following,” he smiled.
May the best Bond win.
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