DHISH-KAAON!

If you’ve ever seen an Indian film produced before 2000 (and in many cases even after that, and possibly even today) which featured one of those classic shoot out scenes between the police force (usually featuring a dashing police officer with a paunch and a disproportionate number of havaldars) and a smuggler/ drug lord/ bandit-in-the-forest/ good-guy-who-the-police-hated, you would undoubtedly noticed the peculiar sound effects attached to gun shots, especially in case of bullets fired from the police inspector’s pistol.

It went something along the lines of “Dhish-Kaaon”, which does sound indeed peculiar when put into perspective.

Now, the gun shots fired in Hollywood movies falling in the time period, made using similar technology, featuring similar sequences featured basically only the “Dhish-“, but missed out the comet tail of the “-Kaaon”. Also, if you ever heard a gunshot being fired, you’d notice that the tail was missing from the overall sound effect. Which brings us to the question: Where did the “Kaaon” originate?

Now, my guess is that the first director who ever wanted to film a gunshot (and you’ll be surprised how late someone thought up of this idea, directors during the first couple of decades of Indian films couldn’t get beyond poor landless farmers being oppressed and twins being separated in religious festivals)probably took out a gun, went far far away from any town to avoid any chances of shooting someone (with a gun, not a camera), into the hills, and fired a shot just to see how it sounded. And Viola! He heard a “Dhish-Kaaon” little realizing that the “Dhish” was the gunshot, and the “Kaaon” was the echo of the shot against the hills. And the dimwit recorded the entire thing.

Anyways, thanks to his error of judgment and ignorance of Doppler’s Effect, the “Dhish-Kaaon” became a trademark sound, almost a brand identity for gunshots in Indian cinema, and has ruled the auditory aspects of every violent scene that Indians could create in almost a hundred years of film making.

And today, in spite of newer and better technology, education in the film industry and shooting ranges within cities, the “Kaaon” lives on, forever haunting every “Dhish” incorporated in Indian films.