Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; May 28, 2017)

Actor Rajesh Khattar who has also been a voice artist for more than a decade, dubbed for Jack Sparrow in four films of the Pirates Of The Carribean franchise in Hindi. But in the fifth one, Arshad Warsi replaced Rajesh as the voice of Johnny Depp’s character. While Rajesh has no issues about Arshad dubbing for it, he was shocked to see the reaction on social media. “I had no idea people took it so seriously. Captain Jack is known in Hindi in my voice, so people on Facebook and Instagram reacted adversely to the change. Dubbing has become big now with dubbed versions of Baahubali doing so well,” says Rajesh.

He recalls instances of being called to dub for Naseeruddin Shah and Irrfan Khan for their Hollywood films in Hindi. “I would tell them to get a no objection clearance from the actors, only then I went ahead,” he reveals.

He adds that now even big actors like Varun Dhawan, Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra are dubbing for the Hindi versions of Holly films. “In Captain America: Civil Wars Varun lent his voice for the captain and I dubbed for Tony (Iron Man). I will be his voice in Spiderman Homecoming, too,” he says. He feels the business of dubbing needs to have an organised sector. “With Netflix here, more shows will be dubbed to reach as many as eyeballs as possible. The problem is this is an unsung sector,” rues Rajesh and hopes it will be rectified soon.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (released in most countries as Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) is entertaining and embellished with some great scenes and performances but still fails to reach to the level of the first 2 parts, which were the best in this franchise. One of the best things about the film is its length (129 minutes), making it the shortest film of the series. The first half moves very swiftly and is just excellent. Jack Sparrow’s entry scene and the sequence that follows are crazy and are bound to bring the house down. The interest sadly dips a lot in the second half but thankfully picks up during the grand, dramatic, climactic battle. Johnny Depp as usual is terrific but one wishes he had more crazy and hilarious antics to exhibit, like in the previous editions. Also, the scenes where he’s sloshed were quite over the top. Javier Bardem is too good and his evil look works well. Geoffrey Rush impresses the most this time. Kaya Scodelario is confident while Brenton Thwaites is decent. Their chemistry however is not as great as Will-Elizabeth or Jack-Angelica. All in all, this is a film for worth watching especially for all Pirates fans.

P.S.: I never found the end credits in these series worth it but the one in this part is an exception. Do wait patiently for the credits to roll – it will be worth it!

My rating - *** out of 5!