Postcolonial Responses to the Western Superhero: a Study Though Indian
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ISSN 2249-4529 Lapis Lazuli An International Literary Journal WWW.PINTERSOCIETY.COM VOL.5 / NO.1/SPRING 2015 Postcolonial Responses to the Western Superhero: A Study though Indian Nonsense Literature ANURIMA CHANDA Jawaharlal Nehru University ______________________________________________________________________________ Abstract The idea of a super-being has always existed in mythology/religion and the folklores of most cultures. However, the superhero figure, as we understand it in the modern sense, literally began with the birth of Superman in the American comic book industry around the 1930s during the time of the Great Depression. It has grown up in stages but has always been regarded as having set a standard model for the genre. India, too, was influenced by the immense popularity of the genre in the west and introduced them in the country through the Indian comic book industry. Beginning with translations of the western modes, followed by close imitations, it finally developed its own superheroes known for their marked difference from the central model. There 68| P a g e VOL.5 / NO.1/SPRING 2015 also exists a third bunch of superheroes under Indian Nonsense Literature, who neither emulate nor resist the western central model. Instead, they use their inherent subversive nature to bring about a rupture in the dominant centre by challenging its sanctity. My paper attempts to read this phenomenon through the nonsense superheroes of Putu and Vivekas the Great, to show how they bring about a collapse of the circle itself and do away with the centre-margin divide. Keywords: Superhero, Comic Books, Nonsense Literature, Centre, Margin ______________________________________________________________________________ Introduction It was with great confusion that I had walked out of Krrish 3 - the second instalment of Rakesh Roshan's Krrish superhero movie series. I was still not sure what exactly his powers were? The superhero fiction along with the archetype of the superhero, as we understand it in the modern sense, was established by American comic books from the 1930s to the 1950s. That does not mean that the comic book publishers invented the superheroes. It was rather imported from similar images of the super-being that has long existed in mythology/religion and folklores and had also seeped into literature. However, it was the change in the economic and the material condition that propelled the introduction of such figures as a definite type within the American culture, which marked the official beginning of this genre. More specifically, it was Superman, who introduced the archetype of a superhero - including the caped costume, a strong moral code, a secret identity to keep and an origin story. On top of that, the presence of enemies was also considered integral to the existence of the superhero, be it in the form of forces of nature, a corrupt system or foreign invaders. 69 | P a g e Lapis Lazuli An International Literary Journal Krrish has successfully internalised all these characteristics. He has a definite origin story which began with Koi Mil Gaya, where a boy with brain disabilities - incurred in a car accident - is healed by his friend Jadoo (which means magic) an extraterrestrial being. One does not realise the extent of these transferred powers until he becomes a father himself, where his able-bodied son inherits the powers that give him superhuman capabilities. On his first appearance, he can take giant strides, talk to animals and can lift heavy objects. The second movie, takes it a step further as we see Krrish doing a little of everything. However, he seems to be caught in between two opposite modes - one of emulating its western model and the other of departing and individuating. Caught between these two polarities, Krrish emerges as an exercise in improvisation, with an inconsistent show of invincibility and vulnerability. Why does he fly in some cases but chooses to jump in others, can comfortably lift the weight of an aeroplane in one but struggles to lift a truck in another, is beyond ones understanding. All in all, he emerges as a bad cross between a variety of sources, assimilated together both from the centre as well as the margins. In closely following the growth of the Indian superheroes in the last few decades, from the likes of Krrish to Shaktiman, Captain Vyom to G-One - they emerge as sites of a marginal cultural production, mimicking and aping modes in the west. There has been a definite attempt at introducing Indian elements, like that of yoga in Shaktiman, the allusion to Vishnu's avatar Krishna in Krrish's name and the anglicisation of Vyom (which means the sky) and Jeevan (which means life) in G-One. However, it could be argued that the margin has never been able to completely escape the pull of the centre in spite of growing sensitivities and interventions aimed at a smoother exchange between the two. The banal lifts from western superhero genres has 70 VOL.5 / NO.1/SPRING 2015 mostly gone to reveal the continued lack of confidence of cultural productions, especially in the film or television media, in the margins. On the other hand, we have also had characters like Batul the Great, Chacha Chaudhuri, Nagraj, Dhruva, Doga, Shakti, Devi, etc. popularized by the Indian comic industry, who fit into the genre with their own individualistic contributions. Although the comic industry in India, too, began as translations of western narratives, they soon evolved to create characters of their own that relied for the origin myth on Indian mythology and folklore. These characters, popularized by the Indian comic book culture and commonly read by children across the country, show a different and perhaps, a liberating vision of superheroes who are comfortably marginal. While on the one hand they do subscribe largely to the modes of the genre, they do so with a definite otherness, a strangeness which prevents their descent into mimicry. However, among all these various types and kinds, there exists a unique margin within the marginal superhero culture of India, whose function has rarely been taken into account. They are the superheroes of the Indian English Nonsense Literature like Samit Basu’s Putu or Kaushik Vishwanath’s Vivekas. Through an engagement with such varied responses from the margin, where on the one hand we have cultural production aimed at mimicking the west, and on the other hand we have those which seek to insert an otherness, my paper will finally move on to this third category. The paper will aim at reading and decoding the functionality of these nonsense superheroes that have tried to approach the western modes of this genre with a definite individuality of its own. The aim will not be to explore how these superheroes utilise the subversive nature of literary nonsense to undercut the superhero genre. Rather it will attempt to show how in doing so the nonsense superheroes succeed in transcending such dualities and breaking down the centre-margin divide. It is through an exploration of this third response, that I 71 | P a g e Lapis Lazuli An International Literary Journal would like to propose a radically new way of engaging with dominating power structures, neither through concurrence or conflict, but by creating ruptures within this structure to destabilise the circle itself. The Idea of a Super-being The sense of a being much more powerful than a normal human has always existed in most cultures. There have been myths and legends along with various other folkloric characters all over the world which have fed into this whole idea of a super-being. Egypt, for one, is known to have chronicled the exploits of such beings, mostly godly in nature. The ram-headed deity Neph, thought to be the creator of man as well as the other gods with his super human powers, is also believed to be the oldest example of such a super-being to have guarded his identity behind the guise of Cnouphis the potter. The Greek culture's contribution to this genre was with their pantheon of the twelve Olympians, who had won their position by fighting off an even older race of super-gods known as the Titans. All such figures, however, were not gods. Some were humans with immense power who could stand up against the gods. There were others born out of the union between gods and humans - a demigod, who possessed some powers of the god. The figures of Perseus and Hercules, the demigods born out of the Greek culture, also strongly fed into the superhero figures. In fact, Hercules was the prime inspiration behind the creation of Supeman. Other such examples are myriad across cultures, be it the Sumerian semi-divine but mortal King of Uruk or the Persian leader Husheng, Samson the Hebrew hero, China's Hou Chou, the Polynesian hero Mataora or our very own Rama-s and Krishna-s. Even the archangels from the Hebrew lore are considered to have been inspirations, with their individual powers which were used to salvage humanity. 72 VOL.5 / NO.1/SPRING 2015 Apart from this, various other medias also put together the idea of the super-being, building on older archetypes and moving towards newer imaginations. Folklores of various cultures are dense with such figures, prominent among them being the Robin Hood figure from the English tradition, an outlaw, whose prima aim in life was to loot the rich to help the power while protecting his identity behind his costume all the time. There was also a spurt of heroic and villainous characters from what is popularly known as the pulp fiction, cheap editions printed on pulp paper and aimed at the working-class readers. Be it the 'Penny Dreadfuls', the 'Dime Novels', the American short story magazines or the radio serials, there was a gradual build up of the caped crime-fighter in figures of Zorro, the Shadow, Doc Savage, the Spider and other such likes.