Toonpur Ka Superhero tells the story of a Bollywood
actor who is suddenly pulled into a world of living cartoons. From the
premise, it sounds like it’s going to be Who Framed Rajiv Rabbit,
and it is, sort of, if you replace Bob Hoskins with Ajay Devgan and
swap out Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse for a bunch of characters that
nobody has ever heard of.
You might think that Bollywood superstar Aditya Kumar (Ajay Devgan) has it all, but look closer and . . . well, you’d probably still be right. He has fame, fortune, a loving and only slightly crazy wife named Priya (Kajol), and two beautiful children. The only cloud on the Kumar horizon is Aditya’s relationship with his son Kabir (Ameya Pandya); Kabir is so upset about his father missing the school’s track and field day again that he stomps off the track in the middle of his race, and later accuses his father of being a “fake hero” who lets his stuntmen do all the work.
Now, if this were an American movie, then the dad (probably played by Tim Allen) would have forgotten all about his son’s sporting event until the very last minute, leading to a desperate race across town only to arrive a second too late. Not here, though; Aditya does everything he can, short of throwing a diva tantrum and storming off the set, to see his son run, he just doesn’t quite make it. That’s one of the nice things about this movie; the adults consistently behave like adults.
Meanwhile, the cartoon inhabitants of Toonpur have a problem. Ever since the good king Tooneshwar was overthrown by his treacherous general Jagaaro, the good hearted Devtoons have been oppressed by the mischievous Toonasurs. The Devtoons need a hero, and one of their number, a young Bollywood fan named Bolly, suggests his favorite action hero, Aditya Kumar.
The Devtoons send a couple of their number into the real world to kidnap Aditya. They do, and once he realizes that he’s in Toonapur . . . well, you could probably write it yourself. There are a few crazy cartoon hijinks, and Aditya comes to care for his new cartoon friends, leading them to battle and finally facing Jagaaro in a video game which has all the excitement of watching your little sister play Tomb Raider.
The inhabitants of Toonapur are all original characters, created for this movie. The Devtoons are all based on Bollywood stereotypes – there’s the aforementioned starstruck Punjabi boy, the overbearing filmi ma, the lazy policeman, the meek South Indian accountant, the perpetually lovestruck damsel, and so on. The Toonasurs are a bit more varied – they’re mostly stock Bollywood thugs, but they do have a Sumo wrestler, a caveman, and a shameless Jessica Rabbit ripoff.
The problem with the Devtoons isn’t that they’re new characters, it’s that none of them are particularly interesting. It’s like watching a movie about the supporting cast of a Bugs Bunny short. They don’t act like cartoons, they act like . . . well, like a random assortment of Bollywood stereotypes. In the fight scenes, it’s Aditya who takes advantage of cartoon physics.
The sole exception, the one cartoon character who actually behaves like a cartoon character, is Rubdoot, cartoon god of death (the name’s a pretty good pun) and Aditya’s biggest fan. (Sorry, Bolly.) Rubdoot is genuinely loony, and his big scene is a high point, but he doesn’t get much screen time at all.
It’s a shame that the cartoon world is so bland, because the scenes set in the real world are actually pretty good. Aditya is written as a grown up who’s trying to do his best, rather than as an arrested adolescent who needs to recapture the wonder of something or other, and he displays a great chemistry with his film family. Ajay Devgan is one of nature’s great straight men, but he needs someone else to deliver the punchlines, and that doesn’t happen here.
You might think that Bollywood superstar Aditya Kumar (Ajay Devgan) has it all, but look closer and . . . well, you’d probably still be right. He has fame, fortune, a loving and only slightly crazy wife named Priya (Kajol), and two beautiful children. The only cloud on the Kumar horizon is Aditya’s relationship with his son Kabir (Ameya Pandya); Kabir is so upset about his father missing the school’s track and field day again that he stomps off the track in the middle of his race, and later accuses his father of being a “fake hero” who lets his stuntmen do all the work.
Now, if this were an American movie, then the dad (probably played by Tim Allen) would have forgotten all about his son’s sporting event until the very last minute, leading to a desperate race across town only to arrive a second too late. Not here, though; Aditya does everything he can, short of throwing a diva tantrum and storming off the set, to see his son run, he just doesn’t quite make it. That’s one of the nice things about this movie; the adults consistently behave like adults.
Meanwhile, the cartoon inhabitants of Toonpur have a problem. Ever since the good king Tooneshwar was overthrown by his treacherous general Jagaaro, the good hearted Devtoons have been oppressed by the mischievous Toonasurs. The Devtoons need a hero, and one of their number, a young Bollywood fan named Bolly, suggests his favorite action hero, Aditya Kumar.
The Devtoons send a couple of their number into the real world to kidnap Aditya. They do, and once he realizes that he’s in Toonapur . . . well, you could probably write it yourself. There are a few crazy cartoon hijinks, and Aditya comes to care for his new cartoon friends, leading them to battle and finally facing Jagaaro in a video game which has all the excitement of watching your little sister play Tomb Raider.
The inhabitants of Toonapur are all original characters, created for this movie. The Devtoons are all based on Bollywood stereotypes – there’s the aforementioned starstruck Punjabi boy, the overbearing filmi ma, the lazy policeman, the meek South Indian accountant, the perpetually lovestruck damsel, and so on. The Toonasurs are a bit more varied – they’re mostly stock Bollywood thugs, but they do have a Sumo wrestler, a caveman, and a shameless Jessica Rabbit ripoff.
The problem with the Devtoons isn’t that they’re new characters, it’s that none of them are particularly interesting. It’s like watching a movie about the supporting cast of a Bugs Bunny short. They don’t act like cartoons, they act like . . . well, like a random assortment of Bollywood stereotypes. In the fight scenes, it’s Aditya who takes advantage of cartoon physics.
The sole exception, the one cartoon character who actually behaves like a cartoon character, is Rubdoot, cartoon god of death (the name’s a pretty good pun) and Aditya’s biggest fan. (Sorry, Bolly.) Rubdoot is genuinely loony, and his big scene is a high point, but he doesn’t get much screen time at all.
It’s a shame that the cartoon world is so bland, because the scenes set in the real world are actually pretty good. Aditya is written as a grown up who’s trying to do his best, rather than as an arrested adolescent who needs to recapture the wonder of something or other, and he displays a great chemistry with his film family. Ajay Devgan is one of nature’s great straight men, but he needs someone else to deliver the punchlines, and that doesn’t happen here.
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