How I Won Shaktimaan’s Heart

Can’t believe the 20th anniversary of the Mein Bhi Banoonga Shaktimaan Contest is around the corner. Raise your hands if you remember Ankur Zade’s Maut Ke Moonh Se Vapsi winning the first prize among 10,000 short story entries. No search engine result will direct you to him because the contest was held during the prehistoric pre-Internet takeover. But it was exceptionally memorable for me, since the second-prize winner was none other than yours truly.

It is an honor to have been chosen by Mukesh Khanna, the legend who had portrayed Shaktimaan in India’s first ever superhero television series. And now, I would like to share with you the story behind how my name wound up being listed on Doordarshan as a contest winner.

A weakened Shaktimaan wakes up in captivity and is about to witness something horribly unholy...

Let us rewind my life to the 1980s.

The ‘Big Bang’ that spawned my imagination originated in Kuwait. Just like every Non-resident Indian child who sought comfort in television, I tuned in to Magnum, P.I. (1980-88), Knight Rider (1982-86), The A-Team (1983-87) Airwolf (1984-87) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94). Please forgive me if I had never perceived any symbolic undertones back then – I was too young to understand the evolving social or political trends! Rather than deliberately forming opinions, I was unconsciously letting these TV shows ignite my creativity.

In the very same decade, epic movie trilogies including Star Wars and Superman came full circle. Once again, I was a single-digit kid, completely unaware of the polarized reviews, so try telling a child in my position to look the other way during a decisive lightsaber duel between a father and his son or when an indestructible man with the gift of flight walks through fire without getting burned. Nor will I deny how much I enjoyed Shahenshah, in which Amitabh Bachchan, a stalwart of Hindi feature films, was cast as a vengeful vigilante traumatized by the suicide of his father who was falsely accused of accepting a bribe.

Let us now fast-forward to the early 1990s.

The first Gulf War meant a dramatic change in my lifestyle. My ancestral home in Kerala provided shelter, but I was cut off from all the movies and shows that had transported me to wonderful worlds without potholes. Of course, Street Hawk and Space City Sigma sped by the small screen of Doordarshan. Then my tastes started evolving, when the local flavors started rubbing off on me, and the Siddique-Lal director duo made me fall in love with Malayalam cinema.

Moving to New Delhi a year later was just as difficult as transitioning from Kuwait to India. The culture was completely alien to me. But it also meant getting to indulge in newer guilty pleasures. Who needed otherworldly concepts when Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan wooed my family with their onscreen charisma?

That was when Batman ambushed me. After being nearly scared to death by the 1989 movie on VHS, I braved through the dark aisles of a cinema hall for my first English motion picture experience: Batman Returns (disclaimer: my elders had accompanied me that day). And I absolutely loved it! I never understood why a lot of my school seniors and some of my classmates could not digest the film. But I’d rather talk about Batman: The Animated Series. I was fine with it being dubbed in Hindi because the DD Metro television channel had subjected Superboy to the same treatment.

My admiration for the adaptations of DC Comics material made me raid Attractions, a bookstore in South Delhi which sold weekly and monthly issues of various superheroes.

Meanwhile, I did not have enough of Batman, ergo my fondness for the 1960s series starring Adam West at a time when Star Plus was still airing English programs. In the process, I developed an appetite for Small Wonder and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Star Trek show starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley was also pretty engaging, but my father cut that out, asserting that I was excessive with my viewing. But I was still able to squeeze in the occasional Thor, The Incredible Hulk along with Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

Everything came to a grinding halt when I shifted back to Kerala. No more DD Metro. Star Plus switched to Hindi soap operas. It took years before Star World restored nearly everything I had grown to love, right down to Star Trek: The Next Generation. And one had to travel several miles by public transportation to buy comic books.

But what was I going to do for entertainment until then? For quite some time, I had resorted to drawing my own comic books. This went on till mid-1997, when Shaktimaan’s teaser trailer was released on Doordarshan. I gave the TV series a chance because it featured a familiar face from The Great Maratha and Chandrakanta shows: Mukesh Khanna. I also recalled enjoying his performance in the lead role of a Hindi movie which was from before his stint in Mahabharat. Don’t ask me the title – I was too young to remember.

So, with enough curiosity sparked by his presence in Shaktimaan, I took the plunge with its pilot episode. It was love at first telecast. The effects at the time do not hold up against the likes of some of Rakesh Roshan’s science fiction movies, but they were way more convincing than Ra.One. What ultimately mattered was that Shaktimaan created television history. Its impact was so tremendous that even Pogo TV had aired reruns dubbed in English.

Though Diamond and Raj Comics had enough characters to fill a lineup a la the Avengers, X-Men or Justice League, Shaktimaan was the first genuine attempt toward creating a superhero platoon for Indian viewers. Years of foundation-laying within Khanna’s fictitious universe led to team-ups in later episodes.

Khanna plays the titular character, a yogi with two personalities. One minute he stands tall as the champion for truth in the avatar of Shaktimaan, and the next he exudes childlike innocence while walking the streets as the buck-toothed Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri. It is just as well that he takes up photojournalism because his work would capture the ways of city life, something alien to him because he had spent all his childhood in the desolate Himalayas.

The plot is set during Kali Yuga, an era when the human race descends to base levels thanks to the rising influence of the malicious Tamraj Kilvish (Surendra Pal), bearing the torch of righteousness is the Suryanshi sect. Residing in the Himalayas for the past few millennia, they train young Gangadhar in Kundalini Yoga to control the six passions of the mind, activate the seven chakras of the body, and master the five elements of life. Once he possesses the strength to make the last stand against the forces infecting the world around them, he works hard to keep his body, mind and soul free of corruption while bringing spiritual balance to the cosmos.

Is this Shaktimaan's twin brother? Only time will tell...

Following Gangadhar’s first public appearance in his yogic form, it is Geeta Vishwas, a reporter working alongside his down-to-earth self at ‘Aaj Ki Aawaz’ (a daily newspaper), who knights him with the title of Shaktimaan.

People look up to him, but is this really Shaktimaan who is threatening to spread chaos in the world?

Quick question: Do you know Dolly the sheep? Ian Wilmut had appeared on the cover of The Week magazine in the mid-1990s in connection with the cloning of a sheep and that the ‘newborn’ was named Dolly. I mentally filed away the news story till the Mein Bhi Banoonga Shaktimaan Contest was announced. How could I resist the chance to pen a tale revolving around the theme of cloning? Isn’t it worthwhile to tell the story of how science helps duplicate a righteous man like Shaktimaan but not his virtues?

A newsreader breaks the news that Shaktimaan is causing worldwide destruction, but can this be true?

The final cut of the story arc based on my entry featured Geeta Vishwas’ reputation as an honest journalist being destroyed when a clone of Shaktimaan’s, engineered by one of Tamraj Kilvish’s minions in the scientific community, undoes the yogi’s good work with acts of violence in broad daylight. 

Shaktimaan finally confronts the impostor, a clone who had broken the faith of millions of people.

Even though Geeta (Vaishnavi) knows the real Shaktimaan was in captivity the whole time and that he finally defeated his duplicate in hand-to-hand combat, the world loses its belief in him.

Will Shaktimaan defeat his clone in this epic standoff?

It has been nearly 20 years since I won the second prize for Shaktimaan Vs Shaktimaan, and I have been telling quite a few stories since then. The English-speaking world has also slowly started recognizing the potential of India as a source of endless inspiration.

When I see Stan Lee’s Chakra in bookstores, I can’t help but think of a similarly powered Shaktimaan, the true pioneer who had strived to inculcate civic sense in those who grew up in the late 1990s. He taught us to never surrender to our darker passions. And Mukesh Khanna still inspires me to never quit writing.

Look! Out There, Downtown! It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Comic Con India!

Adrenaline coursed through my brains while I marched towards the venue of … wait for it … Bengaluru Comic Con 2017! 

Joining the lineup of excited volunteers who would watch over us for two days was none other than Walter White AKA Heisenberg (it was just a Bryan Cranston poster but, boy, his tough attitude could not be caged in a two-dimensional image). Yes, I plead guilty of being a fan of Breaking Bad. What are you going to do? Arrest me? It will not change my convictions for that show. 

Soon I was in the presence of Princess Leia, or rather, a Star Wars: The Last Jedi poster featuring the legendary character. I did shed a tear or two back home for the late Carrie Fisher, and now was my chance to observe a minute of silence in her honor. Realizing she would have wanted nothing but entertainment for her fans, I was determined to fulfill her wish. 

Lurking around dark corners of the venue, stalking the children (well, not really), was the infamous Pennywise. No matter how much I tried to avoid him, he kept surfacing to haunt me, so I faced my fear and photographed the cos-player. I didn’t see much of him after that (thank goodness). 

We got a sneak peek of LoSs4A2, whose artwork is a tribute to Japanese Manga. 

Sailesh Gopalan exuded a boyish charm while explaining the nuances of his world of Brownpaper Bag. 

Just as Sumit Kumar of Bakarmax spoke about comics and cartoons having less number of followers, a few sitting in the crowd got on their phones and joined his fan-base. A few strokes of encouragement go a long away. 

East Meets Australia: Abhijeet Kini (Abhijeet Kini Studios) and Gavin Aung Than of Zen Pencils fame shared the stage and their thoughts on the comic-book medium. 

Scott Hampton (The Upturned Stone) got candid during the Q&A, especially when it came to the significance of symbols in artwork, comic book or otherwise. He remembered having once opposed the idea of illustrating a woman being branded with the Nazi symbol, underlining the need for an artist’s belief to match a writer’s principles. 

You cannot talk about the history of animation in India without mentioning Bahubali. It stands tall like a landmark, creating a turning point for many writers across the length and breadth of India. 

Sharad Devarajan and Jeevan J. Kang of Graphic India are geared up to unravel the epic Bahubali in uncharted directions. 

Amar Chitra Katha was the big bang that birthed the modern Indian comic book. Executive Editor Reena Puri and Art Director Savio Mascarenhas recited the company history and announced the arrival of their very own superhero - Wingstar! 

Anant Pai, the face of Amar Chitra Katha, would be proud to see his creations graduating with flying colors, winning millions of hearts in the new millennium. 

Eager hands shot up during a quiz contest hosted by Sanjana Kapur, Assistant Editor, Amar Chitra Katha. 

It was tempting to buy these action figures, but there are so many of them! Which do I fall for first? 

Ever since Wonder Woman's solo cinematic debut in 2017, she has taken her place among the lineup of action figures once dominated by Batman, Superman and Spider-Man. 

This cartoon proves the relevance of Alfred Hitchcock even in this day and age. His brand of quiet yet chilling thrillers may have been murdered by the loud summer blockbuster movies of the 1970s and thereafter, but comic-book creators won't let crime fiction die that easily in their line of work. 

Robots, cyborgs, synthetics and replicants ran amok in the 1980s, with the Terminator and RoboCop dominating the scene. These action figures are mementos of a great era of science fiction films. 

Batgirl is the heroine we deserve, not the one we see much of, though. 

Marvel and DC Comics share one showcase. Between Thor's hammer, Deadpool's swords and Batman's boomerang, criminals stand no chance of winning against the competition. 

Walter White and Jesse Pinkman do all the cooking, we have all the fun! 

Did you hear? Archie got a makeover. 

Let's put a smile on our faces already! 

From Left to Right: Brown Paperbag, TBS Planet Comics, Bakarmax, Holy Cow Entertainment, Saumin Suresh Patel, Abhijeet Kini Studios and ICBM Comics 

I ran into Oswald Cobblepot. Remember him? Good old Oswald from Batman Returns? Don't tell me you still call him the Penguin. He was polite enough not to bite my nose when I asked to take his picture. This cos-player did the Danny DeVito part so well, I sometimes wonder whether it was really him under all that makeup. 

While Abhijeet Kini was sketching Angry Maushi, he emphasized on the need for the new generation to consider the comic-book medium for a vocation, starting with attending such annual conventions and understanding the rewards of working towards such a platform for creative talent. 

The child who received this illustration from Kini was happy to let me photograph it. 

Zafar Khurshid (ICBM Comics) and Chew writer John Layman reflected on how writers are pigeonholed into churning out material in current demand as opposed to experimenting with newer ideas and growing as creators. They also discussed the danger of others taking over creative properties developed by the original writers, to which Layman says that readers can be presented with a choice between replicas and the masterpiece. 

As the echoes of Comic Con India 2017 fade away, though not from the hearts of passionate comic-book subscribers, let us look forward to the Ghost of Comic Con Future. 

Charles Dickens: The Ultimate World Builder

As a boy, I used to read abridged versions of Charles Dickens' works. I would finish each one in the half hour I got in the school library.

While transitioning into high school, we had to learn an abridged version of A Christmas Carol. Its fantasy elements caught me by surprise.

When I went to college, A Tale of Two Cities was in our syllabus. More than the reading of the book itself, the passionate and compelling lectures of Mr. Oommen Mathew, my English teacher, made me a die-hard Dickens fan.

Even now I remember him pointing out a student's spelling mistake without naming him (or her), "Whoever wrote Dicken's should be shot."

During a sabbatical I had taken from writing, I went on a movie-viewing spree. I spared none of the classics that were aired on television. In the months leading up to the theatrical release of Casino Royale (2006), I went on a Bond marathon. In the same year, I got a rare chance to see a 1968 musical titled Oliver!

This was the fourth time Charles Dickens had an impact on my life. I look forward to a fifth.

This is Dennis Thorne Speaking...

Hi, I'm Dennis Thorne. You can call me Dennis. 

I wish I had the luxury of choosing my path, but if I did, I would have probably ruled the world by now - I don't think you'd like that. To know more about me, you need to hear this story, no matter how unbelievable it may sound. 

Let's get some of the obvious things out of the way, such as I was born in New Eden, the Capital of the United New Eden Commonwealth. If you've been paying attention to your history classes, you would know everything about our country’s history, but let's not get into writing volumes on the two Water Wars and the reason why New Eden was built. But there are things that your teachers or parents don't know, and even if they did, they wouldn't tell you. There were two races of scientists rivaling each other to prove something to the world. One person begged to differ: my father. But before I was born, he was taken away from me. 

While growing up, I had very few friends. I did enjoy popularity very briefly after acting in a play I wrote titled ‘Robin Hood: Tales From Sherwood’. But I never counted on the rash actions of my best friend Patrick which made me walk away from the limelight for good. Despite my efforts to help him beat his transmit addiction, he joined a terrorist syndicate called Terrortech. I even stood up to a transmit smuggler for the guy and nearly died. 

Patrick didn't show the courtesy of visiting me when I had fallen into a coma. But something else happened during the two-week hospital stay. The doctors were giving up. Their prognosis drove my mother and a family friend to use top-secret technology to bring me back on my feet. I got back on my feet, all right. I could even stand in midair. My body was stronger than ever before, so it sounded like a good idea to help Patrick once more. 

I made a mistake, again. 

My fight against Terrortech had more casualties this time. Many civilians died, including poor Patrick. I don't know who was guiltier, Terrortech or me. 

After the tragedy, I knew I had to be more careful during future missions. Joining forces with my mother, a retired General in the Solar Guardians, we learned how to use my abilities wisely. For our private war on transmit smuggling, we traveled a lot, with my mother instructing me the whole time. 

There are also some things I haven’t told you about my past. Yes, everyone knows what happened when I was twelve. At age thirty, I became famous, but not as Dennis Thorne. However, that is just the tip of the iceberg. There were eighteen dark years that molded me into the man that I am today. If you have it in you, come follow me as I take you deeper into my life story. 

What's in Storage for You?

Copyright © 1986 by DC Comics 

I've been raiding my room for comic books for the past one month. Ever since my review of The Dark Knight Returns appeared in The New Indian Express, I've been picking my brain on how to analyze artwork, themes, cultural impact and cross-media relationships in other graphic novels. For example, TDKR influenced every cinematic adaptation that has been released since 1989. 
Coming up - an Elseworlds tale titled Superman: The Dark Side. 

What Does 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' Signify?

Are you counting the days till July 18, 2008, to see The Dark Knight? Or are you counting on this adaptation of a prominent DC Comics property to fail despite the success of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005)? Bryan Singer, after scoring a home run with Superman Returns (2006), is also a good horse to bet on considering his work on the first two X-Men movies which were too good to let the third one lag behind in box-office returns, Brett Ratner or no Brett Ratner.

If you are a hardcore superhero-movie fan, there are some things you need to know but are afraid to ask. The Spider-Man trilogy (?) has ended without losing too much respect. Fantastic Four (2005-07) may have risked far too much by going the sitcom route. There is no sign of Hulk (2003) and the Daredevil-Elektra duology (2003-05) going any further. The Punisher video game (2005) has highlighted the flaws of the 2004 movie. Kirk Jones has replaced Wesley Snipes in the role of Blade in a 2006 television series whose future just might be uncertain. Michael Jai White has certainly moved on from Spawn (1997) because he has been listed as a character in The Dark Knight. Which leaves us with only Batman to look forward to. 

Unlike Superman, whose portrayal by Christopher Reeve has been so iconic that he needed to be replaced by a talented impressionist named Brandon Routh, a definitive characterization of Batman is not possible. Reeve's Superman once had a kindred spirit in Adam West's Batman when it came to sporting bright colors while fighting crime, but with the entry of Michael Keaton, the black-and-white film-noir era was back in vogue. Everything was gray and dark in the Gotham City that Keaton's Batman had inhabited, except the leading lady's apartment and the antagonist's costume. Val Kilmer and George Clooney - two brilliant actors whose unique approaches to the caped crusader have been criticized - were merely guinea pigs in the failed experiments to bring color into Batman's world. Christian Bale is the latest entrant in this 'beauty' contest, and since he did not stink up Batman Begins the way Ben Affleck did with Daredevil, the only variable that can save or sink The Dark Knight is the Joker, played by Heath Ledger. Will he live up to Jack Nicholson's legacy? July 18, 2008. 

Elsewhere, somewhere in India, I have in my hands the graphic novel that had inspired the 1989-97 Batman movie franchise, titled The Dark Knight Returns. I may not be fortunate enough to own copies of Year One, The Killing Joke and The Long Halloween, which form the basis of most of those movies, but The Dark Knight Returns will give me company for now. 

Wow! This book features the Mutant Leader (he looks a lot like Bane...), Two-Face (but what happened to his face?), the Joker (and catatonic?), Catwoman (she could use a diet and some exercise) and Superman (why is the all-powerful Clark Kent taking orders?) !!! Do I dare dream of a team-up between Christian Bale and Brandon Routh in the near future? 

In the time that studio executives make up their minds I might as well conduct a semiotic analysis of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and pen a dissertation. The question is - where do I start? The book is laden with an ocean of symbols that could signify a galaxy of possibilities. 

What sets Batman apart from all the other superhero-movie franchises? And why is The Dark Knight Returns rehashed over and over again for the silver screen? Very simply put, it is not an origin story. 

Superman, X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Daredevil, Elektra, The Punisher, Blade and Spawn rely heavily on their origin stories. As the narrative progresses in a sequel, we relate less to them. There is only so much you can expect from a godlike humanoid, a pantheon of mortal titans, a gifted yet frustrated citizen, a powerful family that stays together, a raging monster, a blind maniac, a weapon-wielding avenger, a psychotic murderer, a bloodthirsty vampire-slayer, and a devilish angel. 

There is a truly Shakespearean quality to Batman / Bruce Wayne when you divide his tragic life into the acts of a play. Young Bruce loses his parents to a mugger's bullets in Act I. By Act II, Wayne is determined to lead a dual life - as a billionaire playboy and a vigilante. Through the course of Act III, he fights criminals of all shapes and sizes while dodging the police. In Act IV, Wayne's cause is put to the ultimate test by a few adversaries who do not play fair. And Act V resolves everything for Batman's tormented soul, one way or another. 

We are okay with letting the other heroes continue their quest indefinitely, but a part of us wants Batman's suffering to end, and on that note, let me start my research into the 1986 comic-book miniseries that will, hopefully, give him closure. 

An Arabian Knight in Shining Satire

You must have sat down to read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia or the more recent Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Guilty pleasure is written all over these pages. Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl have given us an occasional eccentric fantasy character or two to fire our imagination, too. 

Rewind a little further, beyond Robert E. Howard (whose Conan is iconic both in the literary form and the Arnold Schwarzenegger iteration), to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and stop at the folk tales from the Middle East, some of which I had learned at the primary-school level. Perhaps you are familiar with the 1990s Disney movie adaptation titled Aladdin. Over a decade before the titular character had wooed Princess Jasmine, Indian actor Dharmendra had portrayed Ali Baba in a live-action film based on another story in One Thousand and One Nights, otherwise known as Arabian Nights. 

While interning at a leading newspaper in Bangalore, I had discovered my penchant for satire. Given that I had once tried my hand at illustrations but failed to render even a single funny image, I had focused more on developing the language for humorous situations. I can thank Reader's Digest for inspiration and all the impressionists who had ever appeared on Cinemala, a television program famous for its portrayals of the influential politicians of Kerala. 

You must be wondering what connection there is between fantasy and satire. Aren't the two genres chalk and cheese? Maybe to the casual reader. The answer is simple: fantasy can be used to disguise who you are satirizing, thus giving it a more universal quality. 

Thus was born Arabian Knights, in which Aladdin and Ali Baba struggle to make sense of the scams and scandals in the political arena. There are very limited copies of this forgotten anecdote out there in the world. Chances are you will find them through word-of-mouth, the way you seek out most folk tales. Or ask a genie to bring it to you...