Subtitling Parashakthi

Working from home, I've always felt that those who work in the field of entertainment are blessed. I was fascinated, especially, with the back-screen workers like dubbing artistes, technicians for special effects and subtitling writers. I was under the impression that these people would be enjoying their work because they get to watch movies during their work.
So, a couple of weeks back, when I got the offer to do a subtitling job for a company, I was thrilled, to say the least. I jumped at the offer and I was on the job the next day. The first movie I got was Parashakthi. My dream of making a huge name in the field of subtitling, like Sivaji from his first movie, took wings . I began work very enthusiastically and was boasting to people at home that I am getting paid for watching movies. But what a nightmare it turned out to be!
I had to translate every 'ohh' and 'ahh' and I could tell anyone the number of 'Kalyani's uttered in the movie, even in my sleep. I never thought I would be cursing Karunanidhi (non-stop dialogues....only the crow and cuckoo didn't talk) for something other than his politics.
The worst part of subtitling the movie was translating the songs. I thinks it's utter foolishness to try and translate a song, which is generally a play of words that sounds good only in the original language. If saying "Kalyani ran to the edge of her life" was bad enough, imagine the difficulty I went through translating "Ananda Koothadinalum Thandavakone" song in the movie.
I've vowed never to comment about the bad subtitling in movies, ever again, now that I know the effort that goes into it. And next time you watch the movie Parashakthi with subtitles, you know who not to blame!