8 replies to this topic

[Jeff007]

"Khaista"

Bond explains to Kara that "Khaista" means beautiful in Afghan. There are two official languages in Afghanistan. Pashto and Dari. By saying "Afghan" is like saying that "this is what this word means in American" instead of english. You don't speak England you speak English. Not sure why the writers would choose to use the word "Afghan".

If there are any language experts out there people maybe you can help to clear this up.

I believe that "Khaista" is pashto so the proper line should be, "It means beautiful in Pashto." Perhaps this would confuse audiences as to what country they are in?

Some trivia I found in searching this: In the early draft of the script the word changes.

Bond: Sohani
Kara: What does that mean?
Bond: It means beautiful in Afghan.

[MkB]

Just watched TLD for the first time in years, and this line struck me too!

You're perfectly right, Jeff007. Bond should have said "It means beautiful in Pashtu". I did a quick research, and yes it seems "kaishta" is Pashtu for beautiful, and it seems that it's written like that: ښائسته (for what it's worth )

And for the record, it looks like the writers were right to change their early draft, since "sohani" means "beautiful", but in Urdu, the language spoken in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. A good spy needs to know his geography, Mr. Bond!

Don't ask for more, I'm no language specıalıst

[pgram]

Interesting little piece of trivia. Well done...

Still, I think that not only the audiences would be puzzled, Kara would, too. And if he had to explain all this, during the romantic scene of the film, it'd definitely destroy it. Therefore, he could be excused for oversimplifying.

[Double-0-Seven]

Interesting piece of trivia. This is one of those little things that has gone unnoticed in my multiple viewings of the film. I never thought much of the line, as I was unware of the spoken languages.

[Jeff007]

Just watched TLD for the first time in years, and this line struck me too!

You're perfectly right, Jeff007. Bond should have said "It means beautiful in Pashtu". I did a quick research, and yes it seems "kaishta" is Pashtu for beautiful, and it seems that it's written like that: ښائسته (for what it's worth )

And for the record, it looks like the writers were right to change their early draft, since "sohani" means "beautiful", but in Urdu, the language spoken in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. A good spy needs to know his geography, Mr. Bond!

Don't ask for more, I'm no language specıalıst

Good research, MkB on the Urdu orgin.

[sark]

When I saw the title of this thread, I knew this is what it was about. I agree that explaining the different languages spoken in Afghanistan would have ruined the moment. It's as forgivable as people referring to "Chinese" as a language.

[marygoodnight]

[quote name='Jeff007' date='26 August 2008 - 06:29' post='907744']
"Khaista"

Not sure why the writers would choose to use the word "Afghan".

I believe the writers knew what they were doing.That part of the film was in Afghanistan and it would have been the right words for the script,either Pashto and Dari (Afghan Persian, Farsi) would be considered the....AFGHAN LANGUAGE


Pashto & Dari Persian is the national languages of Afghanistan, Pashto was declared the National language of the country and Dari has always been used for business and government . These languages are from the Arabic Alphabet.

[byline]

When I saw the title of this thread, I knew this is what it was about. I agree that explaining the different languages spoken in Afghanistan would have ruined the moment. It's as forgivable as people referring to "Chinese" as a language.

True, I think this was the bottom line: simplifying things for the average viewer. If he'd taken time to explain the term, then of course that would've completely derailed the film. And in film, especially, it's more important to show than tell. It may not always be completely factual, but sometimes, to tell a story, you need that verbal shorthand to keep from getting bogged down in the details.

[Joey Bond]

They sort of did this in TMWTGG too. When Bond first gets in the car with Hip's two nieces, one was speaking Thai and the other was speaking Chinese. And the Thai girl repeated the same phrase twice.