Last week, I read a post at Shekhar Kapur's blog about a scene in the film Mr.India - the cockroach scene. Shekhar Kapur explains here how this scene was shot, why it was difficult for Baba Azmi to get the shot right. It was a fascinating story to read and I thought, many of us would have watched Mr.India, but wouldn't it be nice to bring back memories of this fantastic film like my memory was refreshed? In comic style? :-)
Old timers at TCP would recall that a similar post had come up - the "Chandni O Meri Chandni" post from December 2005. (Newcomers - please take a peek at that it if you can). It was a depiction of the Bollywood hit "Chandni" from Chandni's perspective in 16 pictures of Sridevi and it got several interesting reactions. Having seen magazines in the 90s that had pictorials of films, I figured it would be fun to post more on the same lines. But I never went through it.
The intention of giving Mr.India the "TCP treatment" sounded OK and even easy, but Mr.India would need more than 12 pictures to tell the story and I realised that it will be a "little" bigger than the Chandni post. Within the first hour, it was clear that this wasn't going to be a "little" bigger. I had completely underestimated the scope, the effort and the skills required. Without any storytelling or script writing knowledge, there was no way to go further. I considered postponing this to another day and scan a comic instead, but by now I was too curious to see how this was going to turn out.
And the result is a representation of one of the best films made in Bollywood in the 80s - Mr.India - in comic style. You can call this a comic remake as we seem to have run out of scripts in Bollywood.
Part 1 of Mr.India - The Comic Book, is now ready for publishing. It has 20 pages and part 2 will be posted in 2-3 days with another 20 or so pages. I have tried to best interpret the scenes as I saw them, edited some stuff out (Sridevi's adorable Charlie Chaplin impersonation), removed the context of some scenes to speed things up and used dialogues wherever it made sense.
Hope you enjoy this TCP Original - my attempt to recreate Mr.India in comic style. And do let me know what you think - your comments are extremely important.
Cast & Credits for Mr.India:
Anil Kapoor, Sridevi, Amrish Puri, Satish Kaushik, Ashok Kumar, Sharat Saxena and others
Directed by: Shekhar Kapur
Produced by: Boney Kapoor
Story by: Salim - Javed
Cinematography by: Baba Azmi
Music by: Laxmikant - Pyarelal
Lyrics by: Javed Akhtar
Songs by: Kishore Kumar, Kavita Krishnamurti, Alisha Chinai, Anuradha Paudwal, Shabbir Kumar
P.S: 2nd part will be up this week.
P.S: Comic World is up to comic #99. Please cheer him on as he reaches a major milestone - Comic # 100.
28 comments:
Whoooooo first :)
Oh great work TCP :) And yes, one of the most fantastic movies ever.
Cloudy khush hui
Oh No, Rapidshare is in the shitlist of my office internet. Can't access. Is it a CBR file? Why not host the images somewhere? Picasaweb/flickr etc?
I did a comic about Mr India too. Well, about Mogambo actually. Will check this out from home then...
The Bollywood seem to have been inspired many of the Pulp Magazines, to build Comics on them.... Would read them at leisure.. Thanks for the unknown comic TCP.
And also, thanks for those warm words in the other post. I don't know whether your link would help aggregate the user visit... but it will certainly be a right step to bring in more readers to my humble blog. thanks again.
Rafiq Raja
ÇómícólógÝ
Nice effort indeed,similar to those comic published by Diamond comics where whole movie story was told in comic format.
Once upon a time i too was a ardent reader of those 'filmy' comic which initially used to be published in Black-White but occasionally in color also of some special movies.
The very first such color movie comic published by Diamond comics was of film 'Tezaab' in 1988,and i was thrilled to read this explosive movie in whole color.
Thanks for kind words about Comic World.
.....forget to add some more inputs.
1.Mr.India was the last movie written together by writer duo Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar before parting on to their own ways.
2.In this movie actor Aftab Shivdasani and choreographer Ahmad Khan worked as a child artist.
3.Anil Kapoor had preserved that coat with utmost care which he wore in this movie and considers it as his lucky charm.
@cloudy: any suggestions to improve are welcome :-)
@saad: It is a PDF, forgot to mention that but also uploaded to other sites. Mediafire, skydrive, etc. along with the images. I will also post a link to that Mogambo comic in the next post as a "different take" to Mogambo :-) ok?
@Rafiq Raja: It is an interesting promotional tool and also a medium to get a film out to people who can't afford it? Keep up the good work on comicology
@Comic World: But didn't know Diamond comics did it, haven't seen one since the early 90s. And thanks for some interesting trivia about Mr.India. I will use it in the next post. Salim-Javed going their own ways after this movie - didn't know that either.
@Comic World: Keeping the blog running the way you have done is an amazing achievement and I couldn't let it go recognized at mine. Looking forward to more
TCP: Infact the parting boundary between writer duo was laid itself after "Shakti"(82') before they formally declared their 'separation' somewhere around 84-85'.
Javed was all set to absorb the 'shock' as he already had proven himself as successful lyricist (Silsila-81') and was keen to take the alternative career,but it was for Salim to prove himself which he ultimately did by Naam(86') after sitting idle for 2 years.
Javed too tried his writing skill sans Salim by Main Azaad Hoon(89') but it was clear that the magic was surely got bisected.
Interesting fact about Mr.India is that it was lying with writer duo 'unsold' from several years as nobody was interested in making a film over 'comic' story.Boney Kapoor dared only after when it was offered to him at 'throw away' price comparing a normal Salim-Javed market price.
....and finally Diamond Comics did published a several hundred of such movie comic before putting a brake to the series somewhere in late 90's.
good show - more power to you.
Hey TCP, I am just back from a lambi chhutti and U took me with a pleasant surprize with this post of Urs...Its lovely..
Well Comic World's Trivias are really brilliant, but D'u know the film was actually written with Amitabh Bachchan in mind but once he refused to be invisible in his Super Hero film, the film remained unsold for sometime, Javed sahab changed the Protagonist's name from Vijay to Arun and rest as we all know is History. Read my detailed blog post on on screen Indian Super Heroes - http://2nfactory.blogspot.com/2008/07/understanding-superheroes-indian-way.html
Hope U'll like it.
@Comic World: Thanks for even more trivia. I have seen Main Azaad Hoon (it copied Meet John Doe) and I liked it.
@Mr. D: Thanks :-) I don't believe we have met here before. Welcome to TCP
@Toonfactory: Glad that you liked it :-) Surprise element is always fun no? I am going to compile the info you gave and CW's info and put it up in the post for Part 2, which will actually be the full comic. Ah yes. I recall reading this post. Let me link to it in the next post. hehe "Tu meraaaa Superman..."I have this song from my 80s collection
I had never seen a filmi comic before. I guess diamond comics came after my time.
Loved this comic. Mr. India always makes me smile. Mogambo always make me Khush. I like the images and graphics. Very well chosen.
I am totally lattoo over the Chandni comic. That was so hilarious and tongue in cheek. I was laughing out loud. Please make some more like this. Im thinking you should do a series of these with all the bollywood stars. How fun would that be!
@AKNYC: I hadn't seen the Diamond filmi comics either but had seen filmi comics by another publisher. Don't recall who.
Glad you loved this comic. Thanks :-)
The Chandni comic was actually not intended to be funny. But that's how everyone sees it - as long as it has a positive effect, I am a happy guy.
I was a huge Sridevi fan as a teenager and I thought she was classy in Chandni, especially when she is all restrained after her breakup with Rishi Kapoor. Hated her voice though.
That's a good suggestion, I will give it a shot and see if trying to be intentionally funny works :-) And if it doesn't, I will still have fun.
Thanks
Hello,
My name is Venkit amd my e-mail is svjathi@hotmail.com. I have a good collection of Indrajal Comics and I have started digitizing them. I checked your list and I have scanned some comics which have not been postd by you or Chandoba.
If you can post them free, I am willing to send them across to you.
Can you please let me know how I can send them across to you? I have premium membership in Rapidshare. Please do send me a note to svjathi@hotmail.com
Thanks,
Did you create the comic yourself, TCP? Jhakaas!!
@Venkit: That's an excellent idea. I must warn you that I am a little slow in posting, so if you can be patient, I will be happy to post. We can even call you VenKit Walker ;-)
Every comic posted here is free...no charge to you or me or to the readers. Look around - no ads either. Will write to you and we will work out how to proceed. I also suggest you look at the comic blog list on TCP and one of the sites has a list of comics already posted but I don't know how updated it is.
@TGWB: Jhakaas hehe. If only I could find a DVD of Andar Bahar now ;-) Thanks :-) Feel free to spread it around - the comic or the link to TCP. I wouldn't mind more visitors.
@TGWB: Yeah, screenshots, dialogues, the descriptions - all TCP
Venkit here.
Thanks for your reply. BTW - what are you doing at 3:45 a.m?
I have perused the various lists and started scanning only those which are not on-line.
Get back to me and I can start sending them to you.
BTW - I liked the VenKit Walker stuff!
Thanks,
@VenKit: This ghost doesn't sleep ;-) I am not in India, hence the 3.45 AM post and the blog is also set to IST. You don't sleep either? :-)
Another thing - if you can send the comics to me, you can also start blogging yourself no? There are already a few good ones that are active and it would be nice to have another blogger join in. Happy to help you set up if you like and equally happy to post on TCP.
Tell me something - how long have you known about TCP? When/how did you land up here?
Great work TCP !! Cheers ..... Have a gud Eve !!
Never knew such comics existed! Sounds like a lot of fun :)
Mogambo khush hua :)
Wish you a very Happy & Prosperous New Year :)
@Rahul Viswanath: Thanks :)
@IHM: Kya? Didn't know? :-) Lots of fun and lots of work but work can be fun too. Thanks for dropping by.
FIST... no FIRST... no ME FIRST!!!!!!
@AKNYC: haha well done :-)
Mr India is a film tailor-made for comic adaptation. Or should that be "graphic novel"? Anyway enjoyed the bits I could see, as I've been fond of both comics and Bollywood.
@Sucharita: Filmy comic is a good compromise :-) Yes. Mr.India was tailormade for that. And bringing bollywood in this format has been fun.
Great minds think along the same lines! I have reviewed several fillums in comic-book style simply because they cried out for it :)
Here's one: http://memsaabstory.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/maha-badmaash-1977-part-1/
Also did Shikari from 1963 that way :)
@Memsaab: Loved the link :-) Gotta blogroll you soon
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