The Indianness of Tarzan

He speaks Hindi, shows ambivalence towards civilisation and mostly prefers to retain his jungle ways

A poster of Zimbo.

For a long time, I didn’t know that Tarzan was not ‘Indian’. As a child, I believed he belonged to the Indian jungles and travelled from there to other parts of the world. In fact, for most part of my childhood I thought the Indian actor Hemant Birje was Tarzan. Our films have rather resourcefully integrated Tarzan into our collective imagination. In fact, a few of the early Tarzan films, up to the 60s, were instrumental in not just ‘Indianising’ him but also creating a whole new genre of ‘jungle’ films.

The very first of these was Toofani Tarzan made by Wadia Movietone in 1937 with John Cawas playing the eponymous role. Interestingly, Cawas was acknowledged as Indian Eddie Polo in Toofani Tarzan, clearly demonstrating the popularity of Hollywood’s silent era action star among the Indian audience.

Rosie Thomas in her book,

Bombay Before Bollywood: Film City Fantasies, points out that though the film definitely borrows from Johnny Weissmuller’s

Tarzan, the Ape Man (which, incidentally, was a huge hit in India)

, it is very much an Indian story.

Tarzan’s father is a scientist who works in a jungle and lives there with his wife and child. In his makeshift lab he creates a potion for immortality. He hides the formula in an amulet, which is tied to his son’s neck. Soon, tragedy strikes; lions kill the scientist, and his son, with the help of their ape-manservant, escapes in a hot air balloon with their pet dog, Moti. His mother gets left behind; overwhelmed by shock and grief she loses her sanity. The balloon crashes in a lake, but everyone survives.

Romance and comedy

Even though Wadia’s film borrows from the original, especially Tarzan’s encounter with his lady love Leela,

Toofani Tarzan is Indian at heart. So there are characters like the evil Biharilal, a scientist, who lusts after Leela and wants to steal Tarzan’s amulet. There are the usual comic sub-plots, misadventures and emotional moments, when Tarzan is reunited with his grandfather and his mother regains her memory.

Indian at heart

Toofani Tarzan became the prototype for the future Indian Tarzan films, all of which were low-budget masala entertainers. Wadia also made Tarzan an Indian man and never again was his Indian-ness challenged. He always sang and danced and spoke fluent Hindi before the interval.

Zimbo (1958), starring Azad, is a remake of Toofani Tarzan with Azad making a much better Tarzan than Cawas. Perhaps, the reason behind choosing Azad to play Tarzan was his resemblance to Weissmuller . He did many Tarzan films, most of which are now unavailable.

There were many interesting titles like Tarzan Aur Jalpari, Tarzan and Hercules, Tarzan and Delilah, Tarzan and Captain Kishore, to name a few.

But most of these films had no connection with each other when it came to the stories. For example, in Tarzan Aur Jadugar (1963) , Tarzan is referred to as the king of the beasts, who lives in the forest of fairies, and of an evil sorceress who wants to control it. In Tarzan Aur Jadui Chirag (1966) , Tarzan is a prince who is left to die in the wilderness — the evil minister’s scheme to usurp the throne. He is raised by animals and one fine day finds Aladdin’s magic lamp in a lake.

Even though the stories and contexts vary, the basic idea of almost all Indian Tarzan films is a clash between the pristine ape-man and modernity. In most cases, Tarzan shows ambivalence towards civilisation and prefers to retain his jungle ways.

Good boy

In Tarzan and King Kong (1965) , with Randhawa in the lead role, the story is a clear clash between the urban world and the evil junglees practising human sacrifice.

Tarzan is the good, pure jungle boy moving between these two polarised worlds.

In Tarzan Comes to Delhi (1965), Dara Singh leaves the forest and comes to Delhi to get back a stolen necklace. He refers to himself as “Tarzan, King of the Jungle.” This film is different from all the others; for the first time Tarzan moves out of the jungle, only to restore its harmony and return home.

Tarzan films have also had an implicit strand of sexuality. The wilderness allowed a certain ‘uncivilised’ sexual space, even though Ronnie Parciack has defined the Indian Tarzan, with no facial or body hair, as rather feminised.

Even though I don’t agree with this viewpoint, I find it compelling that Tarzan has the ability to cross socio-cultural boundaries, and work beautifully as a flexible concept with a global appeal. And that definitely allows him to be an Indian.

Aditi Sen is a historian based in Queen’s University, Canada. Watching old Bollywood films keeps her going.