These days when the American TV channels are blooming with superheroes, what has happened to our Indian superheroes that once caught our imagination?
The golden age of Indian heroes is long gone by but the shame is that, in an age when we are creating books, films and documentaries of high stature in the world view, we have not been able to create one such superhero that runs the show simply by itself.
We had at one time Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva from Raj Comics ruling the roost of the Indian comics market, but once the business came in, they started experimenting with characters such as Doga, Parmanu, Tiranga, etc etc etc, the list goes on. The ideas derived from American Superman, Batman, Captain America, and the like. The American characters have sustained their age because of their originality and the brilliant storyline, which sadly their Indian counterparts never really got, and as a result got lost in the heap. I, too, like billions, am a huge fan of Raj Comics and enjoy Indian Comics, but the truth is adaptations never really give the pleasure as the original.
Even, the latest bollywood superhero movies, for example, “krrish 3” had direct adaptations from Mystique, Toad, etc, all characters from America. Though, the series started with the brilliant “Koi MIl Gaya”, but as time went by, it improved by technique but the story lost the touch. I personally hold Amitabh Bachchan’s “Ajooba” a lot higher than “krrish” simply because it had the originality of thought in terms of character but it failed to continue in a sequel and series because the Indian public was not accustomed to such movies. The movie caught attention but never really sustained time. The comic adaptation too “Supremo” written by the legendary Gulzar himself became just a promotional venture of sorts. Many actors donned costumes but failed to leave an impact after that, for example Jacky Shroff’s “Shiva”.
But, probably the most famous Indian vigilante in films till date is “Shahenshah”, though he was not a superhero but still, Amitabh Bachchan’s brilliant voice and acing has made him, if not greater but certainly no less than a superhero. It is still one character which has been, in my opinion, not received the continuation that it deserved.
The TV serials in our country are too busy dealing with silly topics like unrealistic social politics, family ties but have no courage to experiment with something uncanny and unperformed yet? In a country where everyday, something new is being created ad thought of, the problem is not in terms of acceptability but with the creation. The young generation likes TV, the millions who view “Arrow”, “Constantine”, “The Flash”, etc are the examples, if you want to get a crude view, just visit any college, and you will get the idea, the kind of frenzy, which breaks out when a new “Arrow” season comes out.
THE YOUTH is hungry for content, new content, but who will provide it?
Those producers who like to tread on the infallible path of “Saas Bahu Dramas” in the present times? I doubt that.
We have had our fair share of superheroes and villains, but the problem has been that a lot many of them had been just depictions of the American ones in a simple Indian set-up, which in turn did not hold the audience glued for a very long time. But there was one exception; in fact there was one great exception in the above described scenario.
And that was “Shaktimaan”, portrayed by Mukesh Khanna and which has been termed as one of the highest ever viewed television show in the country. “Shaktimaan” showed that we need not look westward for superhero content but could develop it on our own, with our own mythological beliefs. Though the costume was unfitting (which at times was visible, almost invisible then because of the newness that the show brought), but the whole set up was nice and original. The animation was top-notch as compared to the Indian scenario of animation.
People say that the show sort of made the Indian kids believe in the impossible and led them astray by keeping them glued to the television sets, but aren’t it what all those superhero movies made in the west portray and do too?
Although I keep on saying “original”, you should not mistake it to be omnipresent in the whole series. Like all other Indian superheroes, Shaktimaan too had its fair share of adaptations from the west, like the appearance of his love interests Gita Biswas, which resembled that of Lois Lane, and Dr.Jacol being an utter simple version of Dr.Doom, and that Shaktimaan too, in his alias identity worked at a newspaper like Superman and Spider-man. But the tag of “original” can be justified by numerous characters in the whole series, which have a pure Indian origin like Kapala, the witch villain and Kilvish, the ultimate villain of the series, who symbolized the traditional fight against darkness in the Mythology of our country.
The thing which has made the show stick in our minds for so long even after it has lost its cliché is that the show had inspired a generation. It showed that Indian superheroes can exist, and that they can have stories which have been written exclusively for them in their own backdrop. Dinker Jani’s direction was brilliant and so was the Clark Kent inspired Gangadhar, the alias of the great Indian superhero.
With the show, came the typical Indian good manners part in the form of “Choti Choti magar Moti Baatein”, in the form of the very popular segment at the end of each episode. The show showed signs of retaliation against the ongoing menaces like the Drugs business and terrorism, which also was a pretty brave step because no such show then had even tried to show that side of the society on Indian television as of then. There was a time, when Shaktimaan was everywhere, from biscuits to clothes; it was “Shaktimaan” all over. The popularity of Shaktimaan could also be because of the fact that the wounds from communal violence were still fresh then, and a superhero showed as a symbol of unity gained a mass following. Also the 90s were turbulent times, both socially and financially for the country, so the country’s search for a savior ended on the TV screen. “Shaktimaan” emerged as a ray of hope for a generation born in the midst of such hasty times.
Though Mukesh Khanna experimented with another superhero called “Aryamaan”, but the show died out as it could not really gather the same number of fans as Shaktimaan itself. Nobody knew as when and how the show lost its popularity among the children, probably because of the dying storyline or the advanced technology, which was unavailable with the passage of time as the endorsements died out. Another major problem that the show faced was the ageing of its prime protagonist, Mukesh Khanna himself. The producers could not even think of changing the lead actor not because he was the creator but because his face and postures and the general aura had become by then so familiar to the audience that it was impossible to accept another actor as “Shaktimaan”. As for the viewers, there could be no “Shaktimaan”, without the face and body language of Mukesh Khanna. But however, the show did have its troublesome fans too; there were reports of kids hospitalized on trying to imitate the acts shown in the show.
The comic adaptations carried a message from Mukesh Khanna himself at the front page, which helped in the high circulation of the “Shaktimaan” comics published from Diamond Comics. The situation was such that even after watching the show, children would line up near book shops to get their hands on the latest issue of “Shaktimaan”, such was the fan following.
Now, after Shaktimaan, there came many superheroes on Indian television but no one really could carry forward the legacy left by the great show. There were “Virat”, by Mukesh himself, then there was Milind Soman’s space fighter “Captain Vyom”, which I think had a pretty good story but the depiction failed miserably. Shows like “Vikraal”, “Lucky”, “Junior G” came and went but never could get to the benchmark set by “Shaktimaan”, who aptly deserves the title of “India’s first and the greatest superhero”.
With Shaktimaan being re-telecast again on some channels, it just shows how the TV industry has failed to produce another superhero, which could hold the audience as tight as Shaktimaan could. Is it not high time that we, or rather the producers, took a break from their rhetoric shows and give the new India, a new superhero, and an Indian superhero of the 21st century?
I think, it is because the new India is looking out for new and fresh ideas, and what better place to search for an idea than in our country, which is so full of culture, myths and beliefs, and of course which is the land of “Shaktimaan”.
