Indian Superheroes 1

The credit for the idea behind this post goes to my good friend, Vineet Roy. Check out his blog here. Anyway, his latest post talked about how pathetic Smallville (TV Series) is. I have never really seen it, but after reading his post and the wikipedia page on Smallville, I don't think I even want to. I thought to myself how over-hyped these Marvel Comics heroes and DC Comics heroes are. Then I looked at the comics available in my country. When I was a kid, my parents didn't allow my mind to be "polluted" by "these silly unrealistic comic books". The only one I was allowed to read was one called Chacha Chaudhury. My parents, especially my father, encouraged me to read books and not comics. I respect him for that and thank him from the bottom of my heart for that. You're the best, Dad :-) Anyway, as I was saying, I checked out the superhero comics available in India. What I found was AMAZING, to say the least. Most of these comics are printed in Hindi, which (in case you didn't know) is India's most widely spoken language. So, I came across the masterminds behind these Indian superheroes, a company called Raj Comics. As I read more and more about their different superheroes, I realized how much better some of them are than their Western counterparts. I realized I HAD to share this wonderful world of Indian comic book heroes with all of you and thus this post. I must admit, of course, that I had gone through these comics MUUUUUUUUCH before this post. I had my first "experience" when I was in college and some guy brought a few of these comics on his way back from home. I still remember how much demand there was for those 2-3 books worth INR 60. It was amazing. The other reason why I am writing this post is because I was discussing about Indian comics with Vineet and he suggested that there should be a post on them in one of our blogs, and then said that he wanted me to do it instead. Thanks Vineet for letting me have the honour :-) Now, I give you some of the most important Indian superheroes, followed by a comparison with their Western counterparts. I haven't described them as that would take up a lot of space and time. Instead, I've put wikipedia links on their names. All you need to do is click the name and you can read the "Plot Summary" on wikipedia to know more about them :-)

1. Nagraj (Snake King) - Nagraj is very similar to Superman. He has the timid alter ego who can't be recognised just because he has a different hairstyle, wears a suit and glasses. He comes from a royal family while Superman was the son of an alien scientist. He even wears his underwear on the outside of his pants! BUT Nagraj is muuuuch different from Superman. Firstly, he doesn't wear a cape and fly (and "Thank God!" for that). The secret of his power isn't the fact that he's from another planet (Seriously, bullets would NEVER bounce off your chest even if you're on Jupiter :| ). Instead, the secret of his power is microscopic snakes in his blood instead of White Blood Cells (WBC) (Did I hear you say "Antibodies" and genetic engineering?) The only thing that weakens him is Serum (Anti-venom) and not a piece of his home planet. (Imagine a piece of Earth that could not only weaken you, but also kill you if encountered on another planet. Note to astronauts: Wipe your boots clean before you leave Earth.) The interesting part about Nagraj is that he wasn't always the nice guy, like Superman. He was initially a contract terrorist, before he was enlightened by a sage, so he knows what exactly a criminal mind is like. In addition to this, he is the real immortal. He is considered ageless. So, though Superman may eventually die someday and be replaced by his son (as shown in the movie, Superman Returns), Nagraj will never die and so will never need to be replaced. (He can choose to have sons nonetheless ;-) ) The best part of Nagraj, I save for the last. Nagraj can go INVISIBLE!!! (Beat that, Superman!) Though he can do it for only 3 seconds by breaking his body into atomic particles (using his microscopic snakes), but still, INVISIBILITY baby! Woohoo!

2. Super Commando Dhruva - Ok, so I couldn't really find a Western counterpart for Super Commando Dhruv. The nearest I could get to get to was Beastmaster, a TV character who could communicate with animals telepathically and see what they saw. I'm sure there is a superhero who is like Dhruva. I just need to search a little more. So, all I'm going to do is praise Dhruva here, without comparing with any other superhero. Dhruva is a simple guy. He is probably the most realistic of all Indian superheroes. The only superpower he has is that he can communicate with animals, and even that has a valid reason. He was born and brought up in a circus. This also explains his agility. Dhruva's greatest power is his quick thinking. He is known to use everyday objects around him to outsmart and capture the villains. The only hi-fi gadgets that he uses are his Star Line, Star Blades and Star Transmitter, which aren't that great if you look at them. Like all superheroes, he wears his underwear on the outside. Dhruva has no special weaknesses, he is a normal human being who bleeds when cut and feels pain when punched. The best part of Dhruva is that he NEVER kills the villains, unlike most superheroes. He always captures them and hands them over to the police. (Name ONE Western superhero who doesn't take law into his/her own hands) Thus, he is actually GOOD for kids. He teaches them that anyone can be a superhero and that eventually it's the police who should decide how to punish a villain. I don't remember seeing a single Western superhero who does this EVERY SINGLE TIME!

3. Doga -Doga is the most ruthless superhero ever produced by Raj Comics. He is literally kickass! The only Western superhero I found to be like Doga was The Punisher. Just like The Punisher, Doga became a superhero because his family was killed by goons. The other similarity is that both of them ABSOLUTELY HATE crime, no matter how small it is. Their punishment is usually the same, instant death sentence. Also, both of them use heavy arsenal to fight crime. How is Doga different from The Punisher then? Well, for starters, Doga doesn't have a lawmaker background. Doga is better physically as he is a body builder and martial arts expert. Unlike The Punisher, he wears a costume (Yes, the underwear is on the outside) and a dog mask. This makes sense actually. If I knew the face of the guy who kills ruthlessly, won't I either lock him up (if I was the police) or get him killed (if I was a villain)? So, The Punisher roaming around with no mask to hide his identity is basically a stupid idea. Then, there's Doga's superpower. He can communicate with dogs, which is a pretty reasonable idea as the popular Hindi saying, "har gully ka kutta" ("dogs of every lane") itself shows how big India's dog population is and how they bear witness to every crime committed. I would say the best part of Doga is his ruthlessness. He takes the whole superhero persona to the extreme, where the good guy is literally the bad guy's worst nightmare (But nowhere connected to Mr. Freddy Krueger though). As wikipedia claims, he is slowly becoming the most loved Indian superhero (Violence sells in India too :-D )

4. Tiranga(Tri-color) - And here is India's reply to Captain America. Tiranga wears a costume which is a tri-color (Indian flag). His cape is the Indian flag. He is VERY patriotic and punishes whoever insults the country in any way. How does he differ from Captain America? Well, for starters, he doesn't have ANY superpowers (He definitely cannot fly. The cape is there so that when he stand on top of a building, his fluttering cape looks like a fluttering Indian flag. Innovative, eh? :-D ). He wears a bi-colored mask and not a stupid mask with wings on it. The best part about him is that unlike other superheroes, he doesn't wear the typical underwear on the outside. Instead, he wears a traditional Indian underwear called a langot over his costume (Talk about patriotism to the core :-P )

5. Bheriya(Wolf-man) - Though many people would like to compare Bheriya to The Astounding Wolf-man, the only similarity between them is that they are wolf-based superheroes. While Wolf-man is a werewolf, Bheriya is from a tribe of wolves who could walk upright and wear a pair of trousers and have a wonderful hairstyle. He only protects his forest and it's residents. The best thing about Bheriya is that unlike all other superheroes, he doesn't he have an alter ego. Instead, he has a completely different entity known as Kobi, who is a much more violent version with Superpowers.

6. Parmanu(Atom) - As the name suggest, Parmanu can very easily be connected with Atom. Both of them wear similar costumes and have similar powers. They use the power of atoms to fight villains. While they are VERY similar, there are differences nonetheless. The first one I would say is that Parmanu is VERY realistic, compared to Atom. He uses the power of the atom to fight villains. His most famous weapon is the atomic blast. All this seems very believable to me, at last. What I don't understand is how a man can shrink himself and others "using atomic power", like Atom does. That is something Parmanu neither attempts to nor needs to do. The best thing about Parmanu is that he flies, and that too without a cape! Now, that's harnessing atomic power right there. He also keeps an eye on the whole city not by just flying over it, but by placing cameras all over the city and connecting them to a robot who tells him every time a crime is committed somewhere. (Talk about technology! How's that for common sense?)

I've realized that this post has become too long and I'm just halfway through. Besides, it's 2:45am here and I need to get some sleep. So, I'm dividing this post into two parts and will continue the second part of this post later. Keep looking forward to it. The best is yet to come ;-)