CURIOUS HISTORY OF A HIGH-FLYING MOVIE GENRE THAT FAILED TO TAKE OFF IN HINDI CINEMA
The superhero genre may be the most profitable in the world right now, but Bollywood has mostly taken missteps over the years.
That is why most can’t name any film beyond Mr India or Krrish when it comes to great Hindi cinema superheroes. But this week’s big-budget Bollywood release Brahmastra is hoping to change all that with a special-effects laden spectacular about a young man able to manipulate fire, who takes on dark forces of evil. Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan and Nagarjuna headline a film that could potentially be a game-changer for Indian cinema. One of the main reasons for this is because Bollywood has got it horribly wrong for so many decades and this could be a turning point.
The first famous caped crusader of Hindi cinema appeared in 1935 action movie Hunterwali, which saw stunt heroine Fearless Nadia playing a masked vigilante. The successful film spawned a sequel and a series of similar movies with a high-jumping heroine. Other stars not being able to do similar acrobatics meant the exciting genre got stifled.
Then with invisible man movies Mr X (1957) and Elaan (1971), Bollywood added a sci-fi element to the extraordinary hero. Both films were surprisingly ground-breaking for the time but couldn’t kick-start the craze of superheroes. Reasons for this included high costs involved with special effects and the lack of ideas.
Producer-director Rajkumar Kohli decided to make something music-loving Hindi audiences could connect with by looking at Indian mythology for his 1976 film Nagin and delivering what was essentially the first anti-superhero. The story of shape-shifting cobra, able to transform into a beautiful woman and going on a revenge mission, became one of the year’s biggest blockbuster hits. The lead protagonist transformed in the same way a superhero would and had deadly powers. Nagin had a huge star cast, akin to what is seen in successful superhero films today. This would inspire other successful snake-inspired films and smash hit TV serials. Perhaps wrongly, it was not seen as part of the superhero pantheon but ticked those same boxes.
Action being the dominant genre during the 1970s and Amitabh Bachchan the biggest star by far led to an interesting innovation in the early 1980s. The short-lived comic titled Adventures of Amitabh Bachchan saw him have a superhero alter ego named Supremo. The comic, which ran for two years, became hugely popular and saw him go on various superhero
adventures.
The popularity of the comic, available in both Hindi and English, combined with superheroes taking off in Hollywood with films like the Superman franchise, led to Bollywood producers trying to get some of the high-flying action.
Unfortunately, a lack of budget and ideas led to a series of heroes in camp costumes that were cringe-worthy and unintentionally funny.
Jackie Shroff played a Zorro-like character in a mask in Shiva Ka Insaf (1985), which was billed as Bollywood’s first 3D film. Unfortunately, the film had ropey special effects and a silly costume, which is what happened with other bad films of that era. This included Amitabh Bachchan box office disasters Toofan (1989), which was a rubbish crossbow-wielding Hawkeye-type of hero, and the Arabian Nights-inspired Ajooba (1991).
Meanwhile, Dharmendra attempted a Batman-style vigilante character named Teesri Adalat in the film Khatron Ke Khiladi (1988), which was a surprise hit despite his ridiculous costume and lack of any superpowers.
The Tu Mera Superman song in Dariya Dil
For the 1988 film Dariya Dil, Govinda and Kimi Katkar dressed up as Superman and Spiderman in laughable costumes for the song Tu Mera Superman. That song has widely been ridiculed across social media in recent years.
Superman
But the genre hit rock bottom in Bollywood with the truly awful Superman (1987). An unofficial remake of the 1978 Hollywood film of the same name, it destroyed an iconic superhero with a silly costume that looked like novelty pyjamas, awful special effects, and a wooden lead actor, who generated laughs instead of excitement. Silly comedy, musical numbers, and horrible sets made this an absolute stinker. The naughty producers even lifted a few clips from the Hollywood original.
The popularity of romance and comedy in the 1990s killed off the superhero genre from evolving (and not being laughable).
Govinda attempted to reignite it with Maharaja (1998), where he played a hero who could control animals. Unfortunately, he looked more like a comedic Crocodile Dundee than any kind of hero.
Just when audiences thought the science fiction genre was over, Koi Mil Gaya (2003) took everyone by surprise and introduced the first alien into Hindi cinema. The Rakesh Roshan-directed blockbuster was a significant game-changer because of the great special effects and hit sequel Krrish (2006), which introduced the first proper Bollywood superhero and correctly ticked all the boxes. This was followed by the less successful Krrish 3 (2013) and a fourth instalment is on the way. Muscle bound hero Hrithik Roshan playing the role added credibility to it.
Krrish 3
Alag (2006) tried introducing a paranormal aspect to the genre, but largely failed due to the poor choice of leading man and ropey screenplay. That momentum was halted badly by epic disaster Drona (2008), which intended to kick-start a franchise and merchandising. But the film was so bad that it did huge damage to the superhero genre and largely killed the career of lead star Abhishek Bachchan.
Ra.One
Shah Rukh Khan attempted to add a new element with the ambitious Ra.One (2011), but the interesting idea, unique superhero, and impressive special effects were let down by awful writing that didn’t make much sense. The film and any hope of a franchise died.
Marvel legend Stan Lee co-created Indian superhero Chakra: The Invincible, which premiered on TV in 2013, but it was short-lived and didn’t make that intended big leap to movies.
Zokkomon (2011) offered something new with a kid superhero, but poor directing, and a lack of marketing made this a wasted effort, despite it having the right intentions. Other efforts like Mr X (2015) and A Flying Jatt (2016), were visually decent, but again let down by bad writing and directing.
Children’s film Sniff (2017) and vigilante action-drama Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (2018), interestingly, offered a new dimension with decent enough efforts, but just didn’t attract audiences.
All these hits, misses, and horrible misfires have led to Brahmastra. The mega-budget movie has been eight years in the making and has the kind of special effects never seen before in Indian cinema. If the film succeeds, then its effect will be transformative, but if it fails then it’s back to the drawing board.
The actor’s evolving style from youth to maturity getty images
Aamir Khan embracing vintage looks with classic charmgetty images
Bold and dramatic changes defining Aamir Khan’s careergetty images
From rugged to refined Aamir Khan’s versatile appearancesgetty images
Memorable film moments showcasing Aamir Khan’s unique stylegetty images
Aamir Khan’s blend of classic and contemporary fashiongetty images
Aamir Khan’s dedication to authentic character portrayals getty images
Cinematic milestones reflected in Aamir Khan’s on-screen imagegetty images
A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5