30 years ago, the film that was Mr India hain, Mr India hain, Mr India hain
Shemaroo
OOPArts, or Out-of-Place Artefact, coined by American naturalist T Sanderson, describes an archaeological object of such sophistication that it seems improbable that it was created in the period to which it belongs.
Examples include the pyramids, Stonehenge and Antikythera that appear too advanced for their parent civilisation. Mr India can rightfully stake a claim in this list for being an objet d’art that faithfully reflects the 1980s and yet defies the era by being far superior.
Hailed as India’s greatest superhero outing, the film completes 30 years on May 25. And the reason this sci-fi classic continues to entertain the audience is perhaps because it was crafted with absolute fearlessness.
Eeww Eighties!
The 80s were thorny times to be making such epic sagas. An unstable economy and lack of film-funding had displaced originality. Video piracy had invaded India. Traditional theatre audiences were declining and popular cinema was catering to the lowest common denominator.
The good was few and the bad so bad that it forever defamed this decade in our collective consciousness. That a film like Mr India breathed in such creative vacuum shows the extraordinary audacity of its cast and crew.
The legendary Salim-Javed fashioned a modern day tale of an invisible man. Producer Boney Kapoor managed funds to create an abundant spectacle while Shekhar Kapur ensured that the final outcome was a fun film which still had enough gravitas. The film’s posters even challenged piracy by announcing that it was "a cinemascope wonder to be seen only on the big screen".
Gore no more
A frustrated Yash Chopra had called 80s cinema "the saturation point of violence".
The decade had witnessed Operation Blue Star and Indira’s assassination. Anti-Sikh massacre and the mid-air bombing of Kanishka. Heart-warming then that Mr India keeps all the "maara-maari" to a minimum. Anil Kapoor as Arun is hardly the quintessential hero who can single-handedly vanquish a troop. That his machismo is solely dependent on the invisibility gadget subverts the traditional notion of the omnipotent Hindi film hero. Sridevi’s stronger screen presence in the film is further emasculating and had even made reviewers jibe that the film should have been called "Miss India".
The violence is further negated by the tone of the film which is pure comic strip. When the invisible Arun saves Seema, or when the flying Hanuman kicks the gora’s butt, it’smore amusing than agonising. Not to forget the casino sequence where Sridevi’s iconic Charlie Chaplin act overshadows all that "dhishum-dhishum".
Umm…bilical
While Mr India challenges most of the pitfalls of 80s cinema, it never completely disowns its pedigree. We still have one-dimensional characters. Arun, Seema and team are all good while Mogambo and company are all evil.
The film also uses children to manipulate emotional responses from the audience. The decade was dreadful for Bollywood fashion too. While Mr India is not able to escape the fluorescent epidemic, it does something clever. It makes Arun and Mogambo (and almost all other men) don a singular uniform. This not only creates a signature look, but also keeps any shocking male couture at bay. It is Sridevi who goes through maximum costume changes and much of it is thankfully restrained. That "Kaate Nahin Katte" is firmly entrenched in Bollywood Hall of Fame owes as much to the monochromatic blue saree as it does to her orgasmic moves.
"Hawa Hawai", however, has the diva in blinding gold and ostrich feathers. This raucous outfit while no less legendary, has apparently become a motif at drag soirees!
Realpolitik
It is, however, in the politics of Mr India that its genetic link with the 80s is most apparent. As the youngest PM, Rajiv Gandhi was being hailed as "Mr Clean". Hence Mr India opens with an honest minister (played by Surabhi-fame Siddharth Kak in pristine white). Unlike 80s cinema, where the domestic politician is the reviled figure, the evil in Mr India is an outsider symbolising India’s tenuous international policies.
Mogambo’s violence also chillingly foreshadow the era of terrorism that was slowly making its way. This was an age of transition and socio-economic dualities. And yet it was still a largely innocent world where pigeons at the Gateway of India had not been fenced yet. India was still part child and part adult. And that’s precisely what Mr India is.
Cent percent adolescent
Although billed as comic strip of a movie, it addresses grim issues that are still relevant. Scenes where the kids starve while Teja feasts on excessive food, metaphorically investigate class war. References to arms-trafficking hint at the rising D-Company while drug smuggling scenes tell you why the Narcotics Control Bureau had to be established in 1986. In examining such concerns, this puff piece evolves into a social document.
Mr India further displays this duality in its narrative. While positioned as a children’s film, it gradually shifts tone. The movie’s first song celebrates childhood innocence while the last song celebrates lovemaking in the rain. This Blakean progression captures Mr India’s growth as the film attains puberty between these two songs. That Sridevi occasionally wears two-tone costumes or that Daga and Teja are perennially dressed in black and white may well be a Freudian slip denoting this duality.
The invisibility gadget or Mogambo’s robot also reflect India’s new-found love for technology. Mobiles and laptops were still years away, but televisions and telephones had arrived. Hence, Anu Kapoor’s never-ending tryst with wrong numbers!
The 1980s India was breaking into pimples and Mr India captures this definitively.
Today a Krrish, Ra One or Flying Jatt are constantly trying to emulate this classic. While there is constant buzz now for a Mr India sequel, it poses too many questions.
Will it be a celebratory retelling or a generation leap?
How will Anil and Sridevi reprise their roles? Which actor can take Mogambo’s legacy forward? And which filmmaker has that perfect pair of red glasses to give Mr India a metrosexual sensibility and yet retain that vintage heart?