It's important to note that the title character (Mukesh Khanna) isn't called Shaktiman, he's called Shaktimaan. The double "a" is important, because the name translates to Powerful Mind rather than Powerful Man. Shaktimaan is, as the theme song explains, an ordinary man, rather than the last son of a dying planet. All of his amazing powers (flight, telepathy, super strength, super speed, spinning, shooting lasers from his fingertips, and basically anything else the plot requires) are obtained through the careful practice of meditation and yoga; it's explicitly stated several times that anyone could have the powers of Shaktimaan if they are willing to put in the work.
Shaktimaan's origin becomes increasingly complex and baroque as the series goes on, but the essence always remains the same. He was destined from birth to rid the world of evil, and trained to do so by the Suryanshis, a secret order of monks. His destiny is very clear; Shaktimaan is to fight sin, not sinners. He is to inspire the people with his teaching and his example, rather than just punch bad guys, though there is rather a lot of bad guy punching involved.
Of course, the forces of evil are not going to take this lying down. Evil is personified by Tamraj Kilvish (Surendra Pal), though he's usually too busy reigning in dark Satanic majesty to get personally involved, so he works through a variety of evil minions, the most important being the self-proclaimed great Shaitan scientist Doctor Jackal (Lalit Paramoo), who dresses like an evil hotel bellhop, shouts the word "Power!" at random intervals, and uses his mastery of evil science to create monsters and supervillains and an elixir which can permanently turn people evil. (I am pretty sure he's named after Doctor Jekyll.) Other minions of evil include Catwoman (Ashwini Kalsekar), a witch with the power to change from cat to Nastassja Kinski in Cat People to a woman wearing furry mittens and an unconvincing cat hood, and Plastica, who is made of plastic bags and breathes clouds of deadly poison, but is mostly dangerous because she cannot be safely burned or buried without harming the environment.
Shaktimaan can't superhero all the time, so he has a secret identity: Pandit Ganghadar Vidhyadar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri, though everybody else just calls him Ganghadar. Ganghadar pretends to be a buck-toothed, bespectacled buffoon with an irritating laugh. He's silly where Shaktimaan is solemn, playful where Shaktimaan is pedantic, and not above using his super powers for practical jokes. Ganghadar works for the newspaper "Aaj Ki Awaz", alongside plucky reporter Geeta Vishwas (first played by Kitu Gidwani, then by Vaishnavi Mahant.) Geeta and Shaktimaan have the perfect superhero relationship; they love each other, but because of his vows Shaktimaan is forbidden from individual love and Geeta is determined not to be an obstacle, so the relationship can never be resolved one way or another, instead existing as a perpetual angst machine.
Shaktimaan doesn't do season long arcs, instead focusing on a particular storyline for a few episodes, then quickly moving on. And the stories themselves are
And then there are the special effects. They are bad. They are sub-Tom Baker era Doctor Who at best. And yet after a while they seem to fade into the background. It's like a stage play; the special effects are not trying to convince you, they are just there to indicate what's supposed to be happening onscreen. Perhaps because of that, the show doesn't take shortcuts. If a helicopter is going to explode, if Doctor Jackal is sealing the city in an impenetrable force field, if Shaktimaan is throwing a planet in the path of an oncoming death comet, you will see it. It won't be at all convincing, but you will see it. And perhaps that's what I love about the show; it is pure, unfiltered superhero content, without a trace of deconstruction or irony.
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