“Ek baar jo maine commitment kar li…”
It is entertaining when this dialogue comes from Salman Khan, but surprising as well as hilarious when a young Hanuman says it, exclusively in the animated feature Hanuman Da Damdaar, directed by Ruchi Narain. How interesting!
Out of the multiple movies and TV series been made on Mahabali Hanuman, this seems to be ‘hatke’, with a Bollywood twist. You get this from the beginning of the trailer as the narration starts. It is like a teenager – having no knowledge of mythology – narrating a story to a kid. Yes, we are talking about the language used- it’s Hinglish (a mix of Hindi and English).
The 2D animated feature is on Hanuman’s journey from his childhood to adulthood. The trailer gives us glimpses of his adventures in the forest as a child and then of the tall and strong adult, all accompanied by light-hearted humour and dramatic Bollywood lines. A parrot by the name of Popat Sharma is seen recording and reporting the antics of the epic hero.
The animation is neat and has a good feel to it but has nothing extra to offer. What seem catchier are the narration and the dialogues. The characters are designed on the lines of Bollywood archetypes and hence have no originality. The young and cute Hanuman however promises a good experience overall.
The voice cast is laden with Bollywood celebrities and stage artists, which seems apt considering the amount of filminess. It includes Javed Akhtar (Valmiki), Raveena Tandon (Anjani), Makrand Deshpande (Vishrav), Salman Khan (Hanuman), Vinay Pathak (popat Sharma), Saurabh Shukla (Kesari), Chunky Pandey (Tourist Guide), Kunal Khemu (Indra), Sneha Khanwalkar (Sita) and Hussain Dalal (Garuda).
Directed by Ruchi Narain, produced by R.A.T Films and RNB Films, and distributed by Rajesh Thadani, Hanuman Da Damdaar releases on 19 May, 2017.
