The Hindu reported about film star Anshuman Jha, a Bollywood actor who’s turning one of his films into a comic (and there was a previous example in the past year or so), and what some of his influences were, and unfortunately, these seem pretty cheap:
In 2023, actor Anshuman Jha, an unlikely candidate to shoulder a superhero franchise, snuck behind a hoodie to play the role of Arjun Bakshi, an animal trainer-turned-vigilante who saves a striped hyena from poachers in the indie action film Lakadbaggha (directed by Victor Mukherjee).
The film had a muted theatrical release, but proved a better draw on streaming. Its themes of environmentalism, animal welfare, and citizen activism stayed with Jha, who has now extended the film into a multi-media franchise, starting with a comic book but extending into sequels, merchandise and video games. The makers are calling it the Animal Lover Vigilante Universe.
Recently launched in Mumbai by actor John Abraham, honorary director of PETA India, the Lakadbaggha comic book amalgamates diverse influences, from Tintin to Bruce Lee. The creators see this as an opportunity to instil values of animal welfare in young minds through an action franchise. “When you see someone harm an animal, you really want to beat them up. This fulfils that fantasy,” says Abraham, who has two rescued dogs — Bailey and Sia — at home.
Look, it’s great if he nursed some dogs back to health, but compared to issues like Islamic terrorism and communism, it’s still much to easy to produce a comic or even a movie about saving animals when innocent humans are also important. Why, even Tintin’s a rather obvious choice for inspirations drawing from comics, when there’s surely other fare, European or otherwise, that could make a good draw too.
No doubt, there’s plenty of comics in India that make for great reading, but something like this that’s motivated by cheap ideas doesn’t demonstrate the best potential to be found in comics from the far east. And this is even being turned into video games? Even that medium could be better served if more creativity and courage were put to use.
Lakadbaggha is hardly it, IMO.
Originally published here.
English (US) · 