This article is inspired by the growing cult of the 'superhero' genre in Indian cinema. Every aspect of life has a rule and all rules are summed up to become laws. We'll see a little later, which law is applicable to us! Hollywood has always been the forerunner in almost all departments of film making. Every art there is an industry by it self. Lets come to the desi situation - here there is just one industry!
I was seeing the trailer of Tamil movie 'Mugamoodi', a superhero based movie directed by Mysskin. Apparently, the superhero lies within us! (he means the public in general). Yeah well that's the formula of a superhero! He is one among us! But what I don't understand is, why should he portray his movie as a superhero movie? Let me put my point across - is anyone who is invincible, a superhero? If you agree, continue reading! (not much to read)
In Hollywood, the movies are inspired by Marvel or DC heroes! Be it Superman, Spider Man, Batman, you name it, they have existed in books even before they came alive on celluloid. Back home, be it Bollywood or (any wood), until a few years back, we had only Shaktimaan (that too on TV) and more recently Krish.
My argument is simple - do we need the superhero genre? Our heroes (in most cases) are not trained fighters. They haven't collided with sources of energy(forget Krish)! Where have they got all these powers from? The only law in commercial Indian movies is that heroes are invincible!
My last Hindi review was Salman Khan's 'Ek tha Tiger'. Although the hero (trained RAW agent) in this movie suffers minor bruises (and just one bullet shot) his enemies receive hard blows and are all killed, while the hero is alive, in fact, immortal! Not just him, from the days of Amitabh Bachchan's purple patch to Sunny Deol's action stint; from Jackie Shroff to Hrithik Roshan, Bollywood has never let its heroes down! (Disclaimer: at least in most cases!)
Lets take an example from down south (there are plenty of demigods here, in fact a Superhero must learn from these guys!)
In Tamil, lets take the case of Vijay. Rarely will you see him at the receiving end. He kicks better than Olympians. A more natural example - Vijaykanth! Man, my vocabulary is definitely weak as I don't have words to describe his 'superheroics'! He has saved India so many times!
In Telugu, lets take the case of Pawan Kalyan. He jumps from helicopters (Puli). Junior NTR, one blow and the bad guy flies over a few hectares away! Mahesh Babu - punches so hard, the pillars break! (Athadu). The list goes on! Heard its worse in Kannada, a whisper and the villain goes kaput!
I want to know how Hollywood directors react - when in spite of villains shooting at our heroes with machine guns and still there is no sign of a bullet piercing; when the villain's henchmen come with big knives to stab, our heroes catch hold of their wrists to see them swelling; when the same henchmen hit our hero, he dusts that off, but when he punches, blood ejects; the list of heroics is endless! To add to the woes is the rerecording of the punches (the bang sound) that makes us drop our jaws with awe- "what a punch"?!
Poor Batman, learnt the hard way (in Nolan's Batman trilogy) and invested in gadgets while Spider Man, got himself stung and practiced creeping on walls (I was waiting to rip these guys, if not for visual effects, they are nothing! At least our heroes sweat it out!)
Why do we need that genre in India? All our heroes are born with super human powers! Everyone has a six pack to flaunt (forget the guys with paunches please) and dozens of punch dialogues to snub his nemesis! Nevertheless, the audience makes Indian cinema, only we are to be blamed! We follow only one law- the hero is supreme!
I was seeing the trailer of Tamil movie 'Mugamoodi', a superhero based movie directed by Mysskin. Apparently, the superhero lies within us! (he means the public in general). Yeah well that's the formula of a superhero! He is one among us! But what I don't understand is, why should he portray his movie as a superhero movie? Let me put my point across - is anyone who is invincible, a superhero? If you agree, continue reading! (not much to read)
In Hollywood, the movies are inspired by Marvel or DC heroes! Be it Superman, Spider Man, Batman, you name it, they have existed in books even before they came alive on celluloid. Back home, be it Bollywood or (any wood), until a few years back, we had only Shaktimaan (that too on TV) and more recently Krish.
My argument is simple - do we need the superhero genre? Our heroes (in most cases) are not trained fighters. They haven't collided with sources of energy(forget Krish)! Where have they got all these powers from? The only law in commercial Indian movies is that heroes are invincible!
My last Hindi review was Salman Khan's 'Ek tha Tiger'. Although the hero (trained RAW agent) in this movie suffers minor bruises (and just one bullet shot) his enemies receive hard blows and are all killed, while the hero is alive, in fact, immortal! Not just him, from the days of Amitabh Bachchan's purple patch to Sunny Deol's action stint; from Jackie Shroff to Hrithik Roshan, Bollywood has never let its heroes down! (Disclaimer: at least in most cases!)
Lets take an example from down south (there are plenty of demigods here, in fact a Superhero must learn from these guys!)
In Tamil, lets take the case of Vijay. Rarely will you see him at the receiving end. He kicks better than Olympians. A more natural example - Vijaykanth! Man, my vocabulary is definitely weak as I don't have words to describe his 'superheroics'! He has saved India so many times!
In Telugu, lets take the case of Pawan Kalyan. He jumps from helicopters (Puli). Junior NTR, one blow and the bad guy flies over a few hectares away! Mahesh Babu - punches so hard, the pillars break! (Athadu). The list goes on! Heard its worse in Kannada, a whisper and the villain goes kaput!
I want to know how Hollywood directors react - when in spite of villains shooting at our heroes with machine guns and still there is no sign of a bullet piercing; when the villain's henchmen come with big knives to stab, our heroes catch hold of their wrists to see them swelling; when the same henchmen hit our hero, he dusts that off, but when he punches, blood ejects; the list of heroics is endless! To add to the woes is the rerecording of the punches (the bang sound) that makes us drop our jaws with awe- "what a punch"?!
Poor Batman, learnt the hard way (in Nolan's Batman trilogy) and invested in gadgets while Spider Man, got himself stung and practiced creeping on walls (I was waiting to rip these guys, if not for visual effects, they are nothing! At least our heroes sweat it out!)
Why do we need that genre in India? All our heroes are born with super human powers! Everyone has a six pack to flaunt (forget the guys with paunches please) and dozens of punch dialogues to snub his nemesis! Nevertheless, the audience makes Indian cinema, only we are to be blamed! We follow only one law- the hero is supreme!
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