“Kabira khada bazaar mein, maange sabki khair / Na kahu se dosti, na kahu se bair.” Literal: “Kabira stands in the marketplace, wishes everyone well / Not friends with anyone, not enemies with anyone.” Official subtitle: “Kabira stands in the crowd, wishing well for all / No friendship with anyone, no enmity with anyone.”
This is serviceable but loses the poetic meter and the bazaar (marketplace) as a metaphor for the world. Worse, the playful song Balam Pichkari —full of sexual innuendo and Holi festival references—is flattened: yeh jawaani hai deewani english subtitles
These are functional equivalences. However, when Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor) says, “Main udna chahta hoon, Naina. Par tu mujhe zameen se chipka deti hai,” the subtitle reads: “I want to fly, Naina. But you keep me grounded.” Here, the translation is near-perfect, preserving the metaphor. The greatest challenges arise with Hindi idioms. Consider the dialogue when Naina (Deepika Padukone) confronts Bunny: “Kabira khada bazaar mein, maange sabki khair /
“Balam pichkari jo tune mujhe mari / To seedhi saadi chhori sharabi ho gayi.” Literal: “Beloved, the water-gun you shot at me / Has turned a simple girl into a drunkard.” Subtitle: “The water gun you shot at me, my love / Has made a simple girl go wild.” Par tu mujhe zameen se chipka deti hai,”