Indian Superman Movies We Hope You Weren’t Aware Of
If they are telling you India has only recently started toying with the idea of costumed superheroes, they are wrong. If they are telling you India’s idea of flying superheroes is limited to Hanuman, they are wrong. If they are telling you Bollywood’s Superman adventure is limited to the coked up Govinda and Kimi Katkar song “Tu Mera Superman”, they are terribly wrong.
Although it is only natural to watch that song video, where the dream sequence begins at a departmental store, and wonder why there’s never any hallucinatory drug to be found at the stores in your locality, there are wackier things Bollywood has done to the DC comics superhero.
Not one or two but three Superman movies were made in Bollywood, and they are all so good because they are so bad.
This Superman won’t fly
In the year 1960, two Superman movies were made in Bollywood — one by Mohammed Hussain, the other by Manmohan Sabir. Both starred P. Jairaj as hero, and while Hussain took away the title Superman, Sabir had to settle for the ambiguous Return of Mr. Superman (not quite the Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II case here). But Sabir’s film perhaps remains the more popular of the two, catching film bloggers’ fancy on and off.
Return of Mr. Superman, with as much mister-ed respect, is a usual superman story of a kid being discovered by a farmer, his growing up to be a journalist and, of course, the messiah. As Bollywood would have it, he spends his time dancing and singing with his version of Lois Lane, portrayed here by Shiela Ramani. Except for when there’s trouble, then, as blogger Todd Stadtman puts it, “[he] dons his Superman garb and takes to… well the nearest anonymous-looking rural location for some pretty uninspiring fisticuffs with some amateurish stuntmen.”
There’s no copying the Superman costume though, perhaps because of the expenses it would incur. Jairaj had to remain content with aviator’s cap, swimmer’s goggles (?), cover-alls, and what looks like a monkey cap. Interestingly, this Superman doesn’t get to fly till the end of the movie.
Here’s the complete movie for you
Superman’s Bollywood love story
From the IMDB description of this 1987 version, Superman, you know your superhero did finally adapt to the Bolly culture:
After growing to an adult and learning about his origins and powers, he goes to the city in search of his school sweetheart, Gita, who has become a newpaper reporter. At the same time, Verma, Shekhar’s rival for Gita’s affection in their school days, has gone on to become a crime lord and general super-villain. Verma has hatched at plan to become rich by devastating part of India with natural disasters, then buying up all of the abandoned land. Will Superman/Shekhar be able to put a stop to Verma’s evil plan? Will he win Gita’s heart? Will he keep his double identity a secret?
A more star-studded venture, this one had Puneet Issar in the lead, with Dharmendra playing his real father and Ashok Kumar the foster. The cast also included other known Hindi cinema actors like Jagdeep, Ranjeeta Kaur, Bob Christo and Guddi Maruti. Shakti Kapoor had to be the villain (Verma, the evil planner).
The movie is as bad as the title of this YouTube clip from it
It’s renowned for stealing actual special effect footages from the 1978 Richard Donner movie Superman.
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(h/t Todd Stadtman, Will Silver)