Hanuman Returns

Hanuman Returns (animation)
Direction: Anurag Kashyap
Critic rating: ***

Okay. We're learning, we're learning. On the one hand, desi animation is getting better, replete with desi monsters and green goblins who are somewhat stylish and Hollywood-like. And on the other, there's that delightful humorous touch which is the essence of Hollywood animation films.

For starters, you have a Hanuman as a mischievous little kid who pledges to come back to his earthly mom whenever she needs him, because he's confident he can ‘manipulate' Bhagwan for a trip to Dharti . And if that's not cheeky enough, there's a chimp who talks like Shah Rukh, a bad guy who guffaws like Gabbar and a snake wand that seems to know some of Harry Potter's tricks. Engaging stuff.

Of course, the final product is a complete kichdi , partly Hollywood, partly Bollywood, shaken and stirred with dribbles of Indian mythology. But the smartest trick of them all is that Al Gorian twist in the end where doomsday becomes a synonym for global warming and environmental pollution and Hanuman descends in his kid avtar to save Planet Earth from all the plastic and the greenhouse gases that have turned it into a furnace. The desi version of D-Day being a demonic Rahu-Ketu who are swallowing all the fresh air and letting the earth burn up like a volcano. Hanuman, when he's not taming the village bullies, takes on the demons and becomes a hardcore climate warrior, telling all the kids to go green, keep the earth clean.

After the Kafkaesque No Smoking, director Anurag Kashyap goes in for a bit of detox and gives the bachchalog a fitting sequel to Hanuman. Are we seeing the emergence of an Indian Superman series?