Superhero movies are not a new thing in India. They have always been around, but have not quite been able to make that dent in the market that will finally be able to make their presence felt. Superhero films probably represent one of the avenues where Hollywood, or, for that matter, every other movie industry has fared better in raking the moolah or even be critically acclaimed.
This is perhaps surprising when you come to think of it. After all, Bollywood has always glorified it’s hero. A stereotypical hero is nothing short of a DC or Marvel character. He wrestles his way through obstacles and beats up goons by the dozen and in the end, saves the day and mostly also manages to get the girl. The crisis and the end result remains the same but the treatment is perhaps where it gets a beating.
When talking about a Desi Superhero one of the first movies that comes to my mind is the 1989 film directed by Ketan Desai which was produced by his father, Manmohan Desai. Let me remind you that in the Bollywood history of who’s who, Manmohan Desai stands out as one of the heavyweights with a success rate of almost 65 per cent. Loosely translated, he was a hit machine where there were flops abounding in the industry at that point of time. The script was penned by K.K. Shukla and Salim khan. Although the movie tried to incorporate the superhero equation as the added flavor to sweeten the pot. It relied heavily on time-tested formulas to make it work and in the end we had the quintessential naach-gaana and the brothers separated at birth to bring the characters back to the stable. The fact that it had Amitabh Bachhan playing the titular role in Toofan was the rope you needed to bind the entire package and make a hit out of it.
