I am a big fan of Comic book characters and superhero movies. I have watched pretty much all the superhero movies from 'Superman 1' to the latest 'The Dark Knight Rises' and for a long time wondered, if Indian cinema could come up with a good superhero movie, but it has been quite a disappointment.
About my title question, Why do i ask this question now ?
Well, there's yet another Indian superhero movie coming up in a short while. This time in Tamil called "Mugamoodi" (tamil for Mask) with Jeeva (spelled as Jiiva) as the lead. so i thought i'll talk about the Indian superheros and reasons for their miserable failure in the past. I thought i'll explain this in a comprehensive manner like a origin story ( you know with the intro, background, villains etc).
First of all, you may ask, why Indian cinema should even care about superheroes. It's simple. cos, we literally created the damn thing... with our epics, the larger than life heroes with actual super powers. The Pandavas are quite similar to the Avengers in some ways... Krishna = Thor, Bheema = Hulk, Arjuna = Hawkeye, Draupathi = black widow??
Ok jokes apart. we still are a culture who have a lot of fantasy,magic and out of world stuff in our literature over a 1000 years, so this superhero thing should be a piece of cake for our movie makers. isn't it? Yet, they Fail miserably.
Let me first introduce you to our Indigenous superheros..
1. Indian Superman - yes, to my wonder.. there was an Indian superman played by Puneet issar (same guy who played bheema in mahabharata tv series)
2. Toofan - Big B's first movie about an Indian superhero.
3. Shahenshah - Another Amitabh bachchan movie about a Batman style vigilante.
4. Ajooba - the Big B's third take on an Indian superhero. Even after his two failures, he really gave it a shot at it.
5. Shaktimaan - Indian Television's First and only Superhero.
6. Drona - It was now time for the Small B to take a stab at the superhero genre.
7. Krrish - Hrithik roshan's masked vigilante, was the Odd one out, why, cos it was a super hit.
8. Ra.One - SRK's incredibly horrible self proclaimed superhero movie (there are many reasons why it should not be one).
Although, many said Rajnikanth's Endhiran (robot) was a superhero blockbuster. i wouldn't agree. Endhiran was a science fiction, not a superhero movie.!
Out of 8 Superhero characters only 2 managed to get some name and fame. Shaktimaan was very famous at the time it aired, but it looks like a hilarious spoof of the superhero genre, if you watch it now. (I found it the same way as a kid as well, never liked him) but the other one, Krrish managed to score good points with a fantastic casting and a original character with some decent script(the movie was a bit ripped off from 'Paycheck').
I used to think, Indian cinema didnt have the money and technology to create good superhero movies, but after movies like Endhiran and Ra.One, which were far technologically advanced i knew things have changed, we have the resources and budget to produce a superhero blockbuster. so that's not the problem here. then what could possibly be stopping Indian Cinema from producing a decent superhero character?
There are 3 possible reasons, i would like to put forward.
1. Conviction:
In the Movie, 'The Avengers'. Agent Coulson says to Loki before his death that he'd never win because he lacked Conviction. This fits perfectly for our Indian superheroes. they lack conviction, a sense of purpose like their American counterparts. Batman fights against street crime since his parents were killed by it. Superman has lost his home planet, so he tries to save his foster home from being destroyed by evil, Spiderman realizes that 'with great power comes great responsibility' and fights crime than earning money with it in spite of being a poor college student.
Our Indian superheroes on the other hand, Lack it. the sense of purpose for becoming a greater power. Our superheroes merely seek revenge for their personal sufferings. Toofan takes revenge on his father's killers. Krisshh fights the bad guy cos his father was held hostage by him. Shahenshah is a Cop who cannot handle the responsibility of being a cop, yet fight crime in disguise and G.one is a Video game character (enough said).
Batman, Spiderman Iron man etc, get their Conviction from personal sufferings, but it turns into a larger purpose where as our Indegenous ones fail to convert the revenge into a larger purpose of saving the world.
2. Larger than Life Average Heroes:
Our Indian movies always portray a larger than life hero who can Fight without any prior learning experience, smash 10-15 baddies in a single punch, speak punch dialogues, which is a non violent way of killing bad guys or even make a Train behave like your pet puppy (this scene from a telugu movie is epic, if you haven't seen it yet, it's a shame; search "balakrishna train scene" in youtube and watch epic awesomeness)
Even the greatest superheroes can't do the things an average day to day life hero does in Indian movies. So when a average hero can do it in civilian clothes, why need a costume, fancy name and powers. that's just unnecessary expense rite?
3. Originality:
G.One (from Ra.One) is a video game character who's sole purpose is to protect a kid from evil villain.. It's 'Terminator 2' without the futuristic feel and Arnie's style. Toofan is basically batman someone who takes revenge on the people who kill his father. Shaktimaan is a complete ripoff of Superman except he's that not an alien. Heck, i dont even know what Drona's story is. it's that bad.
It's probably the main reason for the failures. Lack of a genuine script. The Ripoffs in the name of so called Inspirations are just ruining the essence of being a superhero. why can't they come up with a fresh script and origins instead of being a mere ripoff of the american comic book characters in a silly way.
It's not as hard as it seems to create an Indigenous superhero. we have a plethora of mythological characters, stories, and ideas, which could be adapted to make a bad ass superhero. yet, we fail to do so.
Why?
Lack of Creativity?
Laziness?
Movie Makers Addicted to ripping off from originals?
I don't know, I wonder if we can even get any justification for that from our film fraternity. I just hope at least Mysskin and Jiiva give us a Good Indian Superhero with the upcoming movie "Mugamoodi" !
Do you agree with my post? or have something else to say? either way, please leave your comments below !
About my title question, Why do i ask this question now ?
Well, there's yet another Indian superhero movie coming up in a short while. This time in Tamil called "Mugamoodi" (tamil for Mask) with Jeeva (spelled as Jiiva) as the lead. so i thought i'll talk about the Indian superheros and reasons for their miserable failure in the past. I thought i'll explain this in a comprehensive manner like a origin story ( you know with the intro, background, villains etc).
First of all, you may ask, why Indian cinema should even care about superheroes. It's simple. cos, we literally created the damn thing... with our epics, the larger than life heroes with actual super powers. The Pandavas are quite similar to the Avengers in some ways... Krishna = Thor, Bheema = Hulk, Arjuna = Hawkeye, Draupathi = black widow??
Ok jokes apart. we still are a culture who have a lot of fantasy,magic and out of world stuff in our literature over a 1000 years, so this superhero thing should be a piece of cake for our movie makers. isn't it? Yet, they Fail miserably.
Let me first introduce you to our Indigenous superheros..
1. Indian Superman - yes, to my wonder.. there was an Indian superman played by Puneet issar (same guy who played bheema in mahabharata tv series)
2. Toofan - Big B's first movie about an Indian superhero.
3. Shahenshah - Another Amitabh bachchan movie about a Batman style vigilante.
4. Ajooba - the Big B's third take on an Indian superhero. Even after his two failures, he really gave it a shot at it.
5. Shaktimaan - Indian Television's First and only Superhero.
6. Drona - It was now time for the Small B to take a stab at the superhero genre.
7. Krrish - Hrithik roshan's masked vigilante, was the Odd one out, why, cos it was a super hit.
8. Ra.One - SRK's incredibly horrible self proclaimed superhero movie (there are many reasons why it should not be one).
Although, many said Rajnikanth's Endhiran (robot) was a superhero blockbuster. i wouldn't agree. Endhiran was a science fiction, not a superhero movie.!
Out of 8 Superhero characters only 2 managed to get some name and fame. Shaktimaan was very famous at the time it aired, but it looks like a hilarious spoof of the superhero genre, if you watch it now. (I found it the same way as a kid as well, never liked him) but the other one, Krrish managed to score good points with a fantastic casting and a original character with some decent script(the movie was a bit ripped off from 'Paycheck').
I used to think, Indian cinema didnt have the money and technology to create good superhero movies, but after movies like Endhiran and Ra.One, which were far technologically advanced i knew things have changed, we have the resources and budget to produce a superhero blockbuster. so that's not the problem here. then what could possibly be stopping Indian Cinema from producing a decent superhero character?
There are 3 possible reasons, i would like to put forward.
1. Conviction:
In the Movie, 'The Avengers'. Agent Coulson says to Loki before his death that he'd never win because he lacked Conviction. This fits perfectly for our Indian superheroes. they lack conviction, a sense of purpose like their American counterparts. Batman fights against street crime since his parents were killed by it. Superman has lost his home planet, so he tries to save his foster home from being destroyed by evil, Spiderman realizes that 'with great power comes great responsibility' and fights crime than earning money with it in spite of being a poor college student.
Our Indian superheroes on the other hand, Lack it. the sense of purpose for becoming a greater power. Our superheroes merely seek revenge for their personal sufferings. Toofan takes revenge on his father's killers. Krisshh fights the bad guy cos his father was held hostage by him. Shahenshah is a Cop who cannot handle the responsibility of being a cop, yet fight crime in disguise and G.one is a Video game character (enough said).
Batman, Spiderman Iron man etc, get their Conviction from personal sufferings, but it turns into a larger purpose where as our Indegenous ones fail to convert the revenge into a larger purpose of saving the world.
2. Larger than Life Average Heroes:
Our Indian movies always portray a larger than life hero who can Fight without any prior learning experience, smash 10-15 baddies in a single punch, speak punch dialogues, which is a non violent way of killing bad guys or even make a Train behave like your pet puppy (this scene from a telugu movie is epic, if you haven't seen it yet, it's a shame; search "balakrishna train scene" in youtube and watch epic awesomeness)
Even the greatest superheroes can't do the things an average day to day life hero does in Indian movies. So when a average hero can do it in civilian clothes, why need a costume, fancy name and powers. that's just unnecessary expense rite?
3. Originality:
G.One (from Ra.One) is a video game character who's sole purpose is to protect a kid from evil villain.. It's 'Terminator 2' without the futuristic feel and Arnie's style. Toofan is basically batman someone who takes revenge on the people who kill his father. Shaktimaan is a complete ripoff of Superman except he's that not an alien. Heck, i dont even know what Drona's story is. it's that bad.
It's probably the main reason for the failures. Lack of a genuine script. The Ripoffs in the name of so called Inspirations are just ruining the essence of being a superhero. why can't they come up with a fresh script and origins instead of being a mere ripoff of the american comic book characters in a silly way.
It's not as hard as it seems to create an Indigenous superhero. we have a plethora of mythological characters, stories, and ideas, which could be adapted to make a bad ass superhero. yet, we fail to do so.
Why?
Lack of Creativity?
Laziness?
Movie Makers Addicted to ripping off from originals?
I don't know, I wonder if we can even get any justification for that from our film fraternity. I just hope at least Mysskin and Jiiva give us a Good Indian Superhero with the upcoming movie "Mugamoodi" !
Do you agree with my post? or have something else to say? either way, please leave your comments below !
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