With eye-popping special effects and smart gadgetry, slick camerawork and mind-bending stunts, Indian cinema has been trying to ape the Hollywood superhero in the recent crop of films like Krrish, Robot and now Ra.One. The template is quite obviously borrowed, but the intent is to prove that we can be as good as them, if not better, when it comes to creating an onscreen extravaganza. However, long, long ago, in much simpler times, Dara Singh played indigenous superhero without much paraphernalia; he needed just his hands to stop an aeroplane. And long before G.One (SRK’s character in Ra.One) could discover his hidden powers, Fearless Nadia aka Mary Evans, a former ballet dancer and circus artiste, cut an iconic figure in early Indian cinema as the female avatar of Robinhood.
By and large, our heroes have never really needed to play a superhero. They have always been one. Period. They can jump from buildings, run with trains, brave countless sprays of bullets and fight a dirty dozen or more single-handedly. In fact, some of Bollywood’s earliest attempts in the genre failed miserably, Return of Mr Superman, for instance, an obscure 1960 film where Jairaj played Clark Kent/Superman in a diving gear-like costume. Few would have heard of, let alone seen The Indian Superman (1987), a rip-off of the original with Puneet Issar in the lead, Dharmendra playing his father and Kimi Katkar doing a Lois Lane. Our nearest equivalents of superheroes have been Bollywood’s idea of Robinhoods. So there was Dilip Kumar in several disguises in Azaad (1955), Dharmendra as the good-hearted thief in Jugnu (1973) or Amitabh Bachchan decimating villains with a cross-bow in Toofan (1989). Some other true-blue superhero films:
- Mr X in Bombay (1964): In which Kishore Kumar plays poet and an invisible man. The SFX, considered great for its time, were more fun and comic than awe-inspiring.
- Jai Bajrang Bali (1976): Dara Singh plays ultimate mythological superhero Hanuman to perfection
- Shiva Ka Insaaf (1985): Clad in a leather costume, Jackie Shroff avenges the death of his parents, that too in 3D
- Mr India (1987): Anil Kapoor is the kind Arun bhaiyya, who looks after a bunch of orphans, gets seduced by a uber-sexy Sridevi and has a bracelet that turns him invisible to fight the invincible Mogambo of the “Mogambo khush hua” fame
- Shahenshah (1988): Amitabh Bachchan is both bumbling inspector and heavily armoured, greying vigilante Shahenshah
- Shaktimaan (1997): Mukesh Khanna plays the title role of Superman-inspired Shaktimaan in the popular TV serial
- Krrish (2006): A sequel to the hit movie, Koi...Mil Gaya, it has small-town boy Hrithik using his superpowers to fight evil scientist Naseeruddin Shah
- Drona (2008): Abhishek Bachchan is warrior on a mission to save the universe and guard cosmic energy
- Robot (2010): Dubbed version of Rajnikanth Tamil blockbuster Endhiran.
