You know that feeling you get when you see a little boy sticking his tongue out and drawing hideous shapes and figures without a care in the world. Now in his head, the kid thinks he's an artist. So what do you do? Tell the kid he will never be an artist or just encourage his continued assault on art?
Watching Toonpur Ka Superhero evokes exactly that dilemma. You don't want to be brutally honest because, well, we all know animation is still in its nascent stage in the country and can do with a little encouragement. But it's just that I am not sure if I can sit through even one more minute of Toonpur Ka Superhero , let alone one whole attempt like this.
Would this have been more palatable if say Pixar had animated this very script? Hell, no. Simply because Pixar or any other international studio financing an animation film always makes sure that the script absolutely deserves to be made into a movie and is inspiring enough to work without the presence of any star charisma and purely on the merit of the characters created digitally.
So we can't really blame the animation alone. This is hardly a story worth even telling your kids, let alone taking them for it to watch it unfold. You remember that commercial about a stunt man lamenting the fact that the hero is walking away with all the glory of his hard work?
Well, Toonpur Ka Superhero begins exactly with a similar scene and the hero misses his kid's race. That's it. The kid calls him a fake hero. And our leading man is hurt.
Lucky for him, some toons kidnap him because, well, they are his fans and want him to fight the bad guys. And he gets a chance to play hero. So we have Ajay Devgn take on race stereotype cartoons now. And, wow! He can wind them up any which way, kick them around and beat them black and blue! Duh! He is bigger. Anyway, if toons can't die or be killed, what's the point of this film?
The only time a serious conflict crops up is right at the end when human life is at stake and the director turns to a video game format to resolve it all. So much for creativity.
Our children are not stupid. They get better fare on TV. Till the day we begin telling smarter stories to kids, our animation films are going to resemble the work of that little boy with his drawing. Just sad.
Toonpur Ka Superhero
Genre: Animation
Director: Kireet Khurana
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Kajol
Storyline: A movie star is kidnapped by toons who need him to fight their battles.
Bottomline: Only for kids between two and four years old, and strictly only if they belong to the Devgns.
