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Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, morphs into Pavitr Prabhakar, wears a dhoti and leaps around the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal. Aghast? HEMANGINI GUPTA talks to the brave souls who've undertaken the task
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HE'S EVERYMAN. The boy next door; a low profile news photographer-turned-high school teacher, clumsy but eager to win over the girl he loves, struggling over questions of honesty and justice and using his newfound powers from an irradiated spider to fight evil forces. He could be you or me. And now, the comic book hero Spider-Man really could be you or me. Later in August, Gotham Entertainment is bringing out Spider-Man in his Indian avatar. Christened Pavitr Prabhakar and webslinging from the Gateway of Indian and the Taj Mahal, the Indian Spider-Man lives in Mumbai, is bestowed with magical powers by a mystical person and has a girlfriend called MJ. That's Meera Jain on this side of the Atlantic. The spidersuit is replaced by a (snazzy, may we add) dhoti, worn with a pair of juthis.
Spider-Man in a dhoti? College students from Manipal College Ashfaq Umar and Susannah Macwana can't stop laughing. "I would read it if I wanted to read trash," Ashfaq says. Elaborating a bit, Susannah adds: "I don't think it would be a success. It doesn't really go with Spider-Man. Since India's such a growing place and there are so many different cultures and so many students from different countries, I don't think people will accept it. Spider-Man's been here a while, so totally changing him into an Indian form wont work because we associate Spider-Man with his suit."
Telling people about the desi version of Spider-Man (umm, Makdi Manav?) brings a uniform pattern of reaction: first surprise, then wonder, and finally, a doubtful frown.
Jeevan Kang, studio chief of Gotham, engrossed in transcreating the desi version of the webslinger. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.
Lakshmi Menon is part of the queue waiting to buy tickets to Spider-Man 2, but ask about the upcoming comic and she seems doubtful. "I don't think it would work," she says. "It's like why no one reads the Ramayana and Mahabharata anymore. Unless they get the publicity given to Tinkle or those other Indian comics, no one would read them."
Local superhero
Gotham Entertainment Group, whose office is on Lady Curzon Road, which conceived and developed the Indian version of Spider-Man, is the South Asian publicising licensee for Marvel Comics. They explain that they are not merely dubbing adventures of a New York local into an Indian version, but transcreating. Suresh Seetharaman, COO and Director of Gotham Entertainment, says the company has "taken Spider-Man who is a global hero and made him a local superhero." Pavitr Prabhakar leaps around rickshaws and scooters and has been adapted to the Indian context so that comic book readers in India can relate to him more than they might have to a boy from Queens, New York.
The company will have to battle mindsets like Vandana Shenoy's. This student from PESIT says: "If they could come up with something original, it would be better that just transcreating. Like with films, the Indian version loses the Hollywood touch." Hardcore fans of comic books like Andrew Johnson who works with Dell however, are more receptive to the idea. After the initial response curve (surprise, wonder, frown), Andrew says: "It all depends on the artwork. For instance if you take the American X Men and compare it with the Indian one, then you can see the difference. You can have a good story but it should be put across well."
The artwork is in the safe hands — or fingers — of Jeevan Kang, the studio chief who is handling the desi transcreation. The 25-year-old ex-architect admits this project is one of the biggest challenges he's faced, combining as it does the decades-old personality of Peter Parker with the context of the Indian remake. "I have to maintain the character's integrity with the new take," Jeevan says.
Archetypal underdog
It might help that Spider-Man is Jeevan's favourite comic book character, because of its universality, he says. "He's the archetypal underdog," he says about the angst-ridden Parker, and reassures sceptics that the artwork is of the best quality. "We don't want to come out with anything less than international standards."
The comics should hit the stands in mid-August while the release of Spider-Man 2 is still fresh in public memory. It will be available in English as well as other Indian languages and although the price hasn't been announced, Suresh Seetharaman says, "We are very price sensitive." He adds, "We don't just throw out an idea like that and hope it works, we have done some finding out. We have spoken to many fans who said, `What a great idea!' So we will just have to wait and watch."
This is not the first localisation of the global superhero: Spider-Man also has a local version in Japan, a country crazy about comic books. Gotham Entertainment could just transform the way the world sees the over half-century-old character of Spider-Man, if their recreation with Mumbaikar Pavitr Prabhakar hits bull's-eye. If they remain true to the central theme of Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility", it will be the dhoti-clad villain-basher who will remain etched in public memory as Spider-Man.
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