Mr. India (1987 film)

File:Mr India (61).jpg

Film poster

Mr. India is 1987 Indian science fiction Bollywood film directed by Shekhar Kapur, starring Anil Kapoor in the title role, Sridevi as his romantic interest and Amrish Puri in one of his most famous roles, as villain Mogambo.

Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.[1]

Plot

The film opens on the island of the main villain, Mogambo (Amrish Puri in one of his most-remembered performances; the character of Mogambo is loosely modeled on the Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld). Two henchmen, Teja (Ajit Vachani) and Daga (Sharat Saxena) arrive by chopper to meet him. Teja and Daga report their progress on their subversive activities against India (mainly selling weapons and armaments to anti Indian terrorists, and starting clandestine gambling — illegal at the time in India — dens all over the country). Mogambo is portrayed as the brilliant yet insane General whose goal is to take over India. He asserts his domination over his little kingdom (by commanding four soldiers to leap into a pit filled with concentrated acid: a certain death) and utters, with satisfaction, his signature line Mogambo khush hua (Mogambo is pleased!), when his lackeys obey his orders without question.

The island of Mogambo is modeled after the island of Dr. No; it is a self-contained colony with advanced communications and weapons and laboratories to build various hi-tech subversive devices; and Mogambo sits on his throne in the island, monitoring the evil perpetrated by his henchmen all over India and hoping to someday conquer India entirely. All his subordinates know the formal salute: "Hail Mogambo!" (with the accompanying Hitler-like gesture); this underscores his complete authority over his minions.

Next, the film introduces Arun Verma (Anil Kapoor). Arun is an orphan; his present occupation is that of a street-walking violinist; he also rents a large (and mostly run-down) old place overlooking the beach where he houses a dozen or so orphaned children (aged 5-12 approximately). He takes care of them with his cook-and-caretaker Calendar (Satish Kaushik). Arun is generally poor and owes rolling debts to the local food merchant Maniklal (Harish Patel) and is perpetually overdue on rent towards the landlord Roopchand (Yunus Parvez). In spite of these practical problems, Arun tries to look on the bright side, whistles a happy tune, and generally has a grand old time with Calendar and the kids.

As time goes by, Calendar gently reminds Arun that cost of running the home continues to rise and they need to supplement Arun's meager takings as an ad-hoc violinist. Arun agrees and decides to rent out the seafacing room on the first floor. When he goes to the local newspaper to run an ad for the room, he meets Seema Sohni (Sridevi) and after an amusing incident between them, ends up signing her on as a tenant. (Seema prefers a quiet location, specifically without kids anywhere, so she can work; Arun, in his haste to secure an income stream, artfully covers it up.)

When Seema ultimately discovers the kids, she feels betrayed and gets angry; but when she sees Arun's plight and the nobility of his cause (for the kids), she warms to them and eventually becomes friends with everyone.

The film takes a turn at this point when Arun suddenly receives a mysterious letter from Dr. Sinha (Ashok Kumar). The letter reveals a powerful secret connected to Arun's late father, Dr. Verma.

Dr. Verma had invented an invisibility device.

With the directions in the letter, Arun, accompanied by one of the older kids, Jugal, enters his father's laboratory and finds the device. The device is in the shape of a large gold watch and worn just like one; when it is activated, it makes the wearer invisible to the naked eye. The invisibility "cloak" is pervasive except for one flaw: when red light is focused on the wearer, he becomes visible. (Thus, shining a red lamp on the subject, or, viewing the subject through a red lens — like red glasses — makes the invisible subject visible again.)

Arun and Jugal decide to keep the secret between them. Around this time, Seema follows an anonymous tip to a lavish party hosted by Teja and Daga. The party includes a cabaret-style song (performed by Seema under the guise of a Hawaiian dancer). Her cover is blown and she is nearly shot by the criminals when an invisible apparition shows up, knocks the bad guys around, and rescues her.

As a result of this, and after some more similar appearances by Mr. India, Seema discovers she is strongly attracted to him (not knowing about Arun, of course.)

The invisible phantom reveals himself to be an ordinary (i.e. supposedly representing an aam Hindustani or average Indian man) man with a new profession, fighting crime, and a new name, Mr. India.

Mr. India shows up in a few more situations and busts some small time criminal activities; in each case, the adversary is one of Mogambo's men. Mogambo is enraged and intrigued by the "invisible man". One of his mad scientists, Mr. Fumanchu, informs him that they nearly acquired the device when Dr. Verma invented it many years ago, but it slipped into oblivion when Dr. Verma hid it and died without revealing its location. Mogambo is also concerned about his grand plan: he has four large ICBM-like missiles on the island, targeting the four principal metros in India; he plans to take out the cities, hold the security of the nation for ransom and demand his fee: dominion over India.

Mogambo's computer-aided intelligence teams inform him of Mr. India's exploits; in particular, they point out Mr. India's specific actions (against the gambling den) that aid Arun verma and his hapless waifs. Mogambo issues an edict: prepare to bomb various densely populated localities all over India and bring the orphans and their no-good caretakers (Arun, Calendar and Seema) to him. As a result, one of the bomb attacks claim Arun's youngest (and most loved by all) child, Tina, and the entire lot of them is brought before Mogambo.

Mogambo threatens and tortures them to get them to reveal Mr. India's true identity and the location of the invisibility device. He nearly drops one of the kids into the acid pit when Arun reveals the alter-ego. But Arun dropped the invisibility bracelet somewhere in a previous scuffle and cannot become invisible to prove it to Mogambo. Frustrated, Mogambo orders the lot of them into the dungeons.

They all escape from the dungeons and break into Mogambo's throne room. Mogambo flees into the missile control room with Mr. India in hot pursuit. Mr. India deactivates the device and Arun Verma, enraged (at the thought of Tina and countless innocent victims of Mogambo's evil), stands before Mogambo. After a prolonged scene of hand-to-hand combat, Mogambo lays dying and Arun is off to save the rest of them. Mogambo opens a floor panel and prematurely activates his four large missiles: they will now detonate on the island and raze the entire island into the sea. As Mogambo finally mutters "Hail Mogambo!", Arun and the gang chopper out of the island in the very nick of time. Mogambo and all his henchmen are consumed by the missiles.

The film ends with a welcome back party for Mr. India, now a national hero. (His identity remains secret to the kids and Seema; Arun Verma presumably starts a family with her.)

A sequel "Mr.India 2" is in the pre-production stage . Reprising their roles are Anil Kapoor and Sridevi (who makes a comeback after a 10 year hiatus). Two new characters will be played by Aftab Shivdasani (who was in the prequel as a child artiste) and Preity Zinta (who is said to be this generation's Sridevi).

Cast

• Anil Kapoor .... Arun Verma
• Sridevi .... Seema Sohni
• Amrish Puri .... Mogambo
• Annu Kapoor .... Mr. Gaitonde (Editor)
• Satish Kaushik .... Calendar
• Aftab Shivdasani.... Jugal (orphan)

Trivia

• The film was very successful in India, and led to a number of knock-off superhero films including an unlicensed Indian version of Superman.[2]. and a Batman inspired Amitabh Bachchan starrer Shahenshah. Interestingly enough, years later director Shekhar Kapur would be one of the names rumoured to possibly direct Warner Bros.' ill-fated Superman Lives project.

• Amrish Puri was cast in the role of Mr Mogambo to a large extent because of the amount of international media attention that he had achieved from his role as Mola Ram (one of the lead roles) in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; around the world, Mr India is one of the best known Bollywood films of all time.

• The movie gained Amrish Puri much fame due to his convincing performance as an evil megalomaniac. Following its release, Amrish Puri was offered a role of a similar nature by many different directors.

• "Mogambo Khush Hua", the catchphrase used by Amrish Puri in his role as Mogambo, was voted one of the best movie lines in India.

External links

• Mr. India at IMDb
• Mr. India at SPICE