Black Dog Whisky and World Cinema

It was one of the "speakeasy evenings" when Glen from McCarthy & Co advertising pinged me for a cup of coffee and conversations. That evening I was meeting my friends and few co bloggers at Corniche, Bandra for a relaxing evening to catch up and unwind. The highlight of the day was celebrating Raisa [from my group] return back from her vacation abroad.  

I told Glen about the get together and invited him over to Corniche to join us. After a little no, I can't and I do not drink, Glen finally give in to my insistence and agreed to join us. I promised that no one will force him to sip and to give him company, I too will have a juicy cocktail. He agreed. Yippee!

The evening was getting finer and my friends appreciated that Glen could come over. Seeing Glen, always made the filmi keeda inside me come out in abundance and we spend hours chatting on films and film making over glasses of tomato juices and garlic breads. This was a trait that a lot of my friend knew about us and called us "Filmaanu Bomb", an abridged version of film + parmanu [nuclear] bomb. 

That evening was no different. Majethia was conspicuous by his absence. He was busy chaperoning his younger niece to her newly acquired love- "dessert making" school. 

It was then the topics of film and whisky came together that how in films whisky was a constant props of some big Villains of the yore and how some central characters were often seen hogging a glass in their hands, on screen and off screen. Some people associated it with power, I associated it with style too..while Glen was completely clear about the associations that how he would never like to be associated with either- power or style. Modest people you see.

It was then, Glen asked me if I can up my ante on my filmi language and can tell if Black dog was popular enough to have ever been featured on any film or medium as so.

Challenge? Hmm I love my friends and I hate challenges but once in a while, it is ok to accept few especially if they are related to films. So here's two instances that I can recall when Black Dog was featured and mentioned in our films-

• ·         In the 1988 Bollywood film Shahenshah, Amrish Puri, playing a don named JK, orders Black Dog whisky while watching a female dancer perform an "item number". A sidekick asks him why he favours the brand, to which he replies "Jab bhi mein gori haseeno ko dekhta hoon, mere dil me kale kutte bhaukne lagte hain. Tab mein Black Dog whisky peeta hoon." (When I see fair-skinned beauties, black dogs bark in my heart. And then I drink Black Dog whisky.)

• ·         The origin of the name Black Dog is referenced in the 2006 novel A Twisted Cue by Rohit Handa. The novel's main character Mulkally, likes perpetuating colonial myths and stories, one of which concerned the origin of the label Black Dog. Mulkally claims that the whisky was specially blended and bottled for the Bengal Club in Calcutta - hence "Kala Kutta" (Black Dog in Hindi) for Calcutta. However, Mulkally knows that Black Dog was actually named after a salmon fly

As I finished saying this, the team got exhilarated and calpped in Unison. I turned and looked at Glen, who leaned above his table, stretched a smile and said- Mogambo Khush hua [and winked]

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Disclaimer- This post is for the people age 25 years or above