India’s first superhero
mypajama.com is all about storytelling. Stories and essays are published at an alarmingly infrequent rate. Subscribe with RSS or via email.
Just thought I should clear some things up. I saw the posters to Hrithik Roshan starrer Krrish and noticed he was being called India’s first superhero. Before him it was Shaktimaan who was labelled thus. Even Spider-Man India got to be called India’s first.
Superhero myth or even comic books in general have never been any part of India’s public consciousness. But I must bite my lips, cut through the hoopla and say that a fact is a fact.
In thousands of small towns and villages across the country there are fan clubs devoted to Raj Comics heroes. The Raj comics stable is led by one Nagraj. He was initially a very Mr Walker-like (The Phantom - overcoat - globetrotting - etc.) character. Then they stationed him in a city called Mahanagar (hindi for metropolis - seriously!) and gave him a more contemporary feel. His area of interest shifted from global terrorism to family feuds and monster-slaying. While the early stories dealt with his exploits in the respective underworlds of America, Italy, Japan and the like, these days he stays put in his city and let’s trouble (usually in the form of power-hungry superbaddies like his own uncle Naagpaasha, or his minions) come to him. He even has an alter ego - that of a mild mannered public relations officer.
Story quality, in Raj comics has been steadily going downhill these last few years. They are more juvenile now than they were when I was in third grade. But I digress.
Nagraj, however was not the first one. Only one deserves that title. You may not remember him. He was Fauladi Singh. A super-android, space dweller and keeper of planet earth (if I remember correctly). The following however is what the Diamond Comics website describes him as.
Alien invasion has left mankind in a lurch. Who will save mother earth? Bingo! Here comes FAULADI SINGH, armed with the most sophisticated gadgets up to his teeth, with fellow robots and super-computers, he delivers a mighty blow to evil alien and saves the earth. FAULADI SINGH is a robot with human feelings. Created by brilliant scientist Dr. John, he is capable of such daring feats, which will leave you in a state of dejavu.
Yup! That’s it. Word for word. Copied and pasted (Deja Vu?? Was there someone before him?). But don’t let this give you the wrong idea. Fauladi Singh stories, even in those days, were extremely well-written (given the fact that the same publication absolutely massacred the English editions of Chacha Chaudhri).
I think this post has the look of a mythbuster. So be it. Busting things is not my style though. I prefer to call it a pointer. Now you know it was Fauladi Singh! Well it sure as hell isn’t Krrish!
Update: This conversation continues at The Comic Project
Posted on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at 3:42 pm and filed under comics, characters.
Do you believe in destiny? Click here to read a random post.
I publish new stories and essays with alarming infrequency. To stay updated, subscribe to the RSS feed or get email updates.
Nice block.. And really like your theme
Clean and neat.
And this post is also very good and pretty informative!
Thanks aJ. I can take no credit for the theme. Though I guess I do deserve a few points for good taste.
And I am glad you liked the post. I can take credit for that
Keep coming back.
[…] Shaktimaan or Krishh? Vijay points us to the first ‘real’ superhero of India. […]
well,
wat the makers of Krrish meant is that its India’s first onscreen superhero….if u r looking at superheroes in stories…then we have many super heroes in our mythology…like HanuMan as Arshad Warsi says in the flop Life ho to aisi
Hey I am looking forward to Krrish. If nothing else, it will be interesting.
I was just poking the ‘first ever’ tag.
What was Mr. India (Anil Kapoor) I wonder…
hey - what about ’supremo’? the short-lived superhero who was, basically, amitabh. here’s an ad about him from ‘tinkle’:
http://www.vishalpatel.com/features/tinkleads/tinklead06.htm
forgot to mention: supremo comix were written by none other than gulzar…
Hey I didn’t know that! Thanks a lot err… master (let’s settle for that shall we?).
There was also a short lived and little known ‘brother’ of Fauladi Singh called Deva. But that’s a story for another post.
I love you all!!!
Vishal - thank you so much for putting up that scan. I also
have a Supremo ad in one of the old Tinkles!
I can’t believe I’m 30 years old and gawking.
and Fauladi Singh is probably the only superhero with a moustache, no?
You forget Mandrake the magician Fadereu! Tony ‘Iron Man’ Stark has a moustache too. Also, there was a Raj Comics witch hunter superdude called ‘Gagan’.
There’s always Dr. Strange of course.
Wsn’t Nagraj stationed in “Rajnagar” rather than “Mahanagar”?
Rajnagar was their poster-city. Nagraj was there too first. But now it’s protected by Super Commando Dhruv. Mahanagar is next door to Rajnagar though.
Have you people forgotten the portrayal of Amitabh Bachchan as Supremo, the super hero?
It was Indrajal Comics that brought out the series.
I did.
But The Intellectual Masturbator brought it to our notice. I think it was Star Comics.
I rememebr fauladi singh. Good job on the blog man!!
Certinaly the Fauladi Singh was first and other catched up very late. It was published soon after Diamond start publishing Rajan Eqbal and Motu Patlu and some other indian series apart from Pinki and Chacha Chaudhari.
Seem to be getting a “WordPress database error” if I directly hit on http://www.mypajama.com or http://www.mypajama.com/blog/
What’s that all about?
Must have been temporary.
Works ok now.
And you really must not ‘hit on’ my blog. Find an actual person
I have read a lot of comics and Ido not remember this particular character.
Hey Fat Chick (nice handle BTW). Check out the link. This was wayyyyyyyy back (nearly 16 years).
[…] Reading this post (picked up from Desipundit), I was suddenly transported to an age when the world used to revolve around waiting for the next batch of Raj Comics series to come out. This was before Superman, Spiderman, Batman were known to me; and Tintin and Asterix would have then sound like Greek and Roman philosophers. I had grown fairly bored with the Amar Chitra Katha stack in my house and had completely missed the Diamond comics revolution. So I had jumped straight into the Raj Comics bandawagon - Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Bhokal, Paramanu and later Doga became the super heroes of my childhood. […]
Dear Friend
Yes, Fauladi Singh came earlier than NAGRAJ. in my growing years( i have stopped growing vertically only horizontal growth) i used to read Fauladi Singh eagerly . They were the only one which actually “science fiction”.
Fauladi Singh was “star wars” in Indian settings. He was “mentored” by Dr. John .
Their base was a underground lab on an island in Indian ocean. They also had two robots “bharat” & “antriksh” loosely based on R2 D2 or other way around.
Nagraj came into prominence much later ( due to small marking size of their publisher RAJ Comics- hence the location Raj Nagar!!)
Hope this answers or give rise to further question?
am a little late..but just continuing the thread, anyone remembers the Daddyji character from Madhu-muskaan…they also had Babloo the detective and Paan Singh the travelling adventurer…i love them then…ne takers??
I remember Madhu Muskaan Ankit. But don’t remember DaddyJi. I have a feeling he wasn’t a superhero. I could be wrong.
Vijayendra, Daddiji was a super hero more in the sense of Hawaldaar bahadur being a super hero….Also it was paan singh and Babloo who were the “real” super heroes in the conventional sense….
Daddiji was this perenially troubled fellow who lived with two of his nephews…jojo and headache…i miss that mag man…real funny stuff…
nebody’s a LOTPOT fan here…Ghaseetaraam??
Ghisa-Pita Ram you mean? Of course! Old friend of mine. Incidentally, in the category of superheroes not very superheroic, would you be fine with including Tholaram from Balhans?
You sure Fauladi was the first? I mean, I had read Doga, Lambu-Motu, Agniputra Abhay, Nagraj etc. around the same time as Fauladi.
-PeAcE
–WiTh
—GuNs
Anyone knows when they are bringing Virgincomics in India? We are eagerly waiting as the director shekhar Kapur comments on comics being the next big thing in our country. I hope Virgin lives up to the expectations.
bloodboil: Even I am waiting eagerly. Haven’t seen them anywhere in Mumbai and I am told even Delhi is without them. Hope they hurry.
Yeah, Fauladi singh was b4 Nagraj. In fact, there was another super hero b4 nagraj and dhruv in raj comics. I don’t remeber the name. Vishal or Bahadur? Crappy hero, could fly, wore a yellow jacket or something.
Regarding daddyji, I don’t remember the professor’s name who used to make gadgets for them?
It almost makes me weep that I don’t even know that these comics are published anymore or not.
Please somebody scan all of them, So they live forever. Peace.
Ranjeet: You are correct sir! The one you are talking about was not a Raj Comics hero though. I think it was Tulsi Comics (not sure as usual).
It was a boy called Vishal, who transformed into a mighty being called Vidhwans whenever he uttered the word Kaboom.
It was a sort of desi Captain Marvel, excellently done. The series was short lived and ended, I think, when the publishers closed shop.
The series was a contemporary to Nagraj and Dhruv series. Not older definitely.
Thanks for the bits. You will find tons of scanned stuff at the comic project. Happy browsing!
Really used to like a guy called Shaktiputra - an Indian take-off on Robocop, methinks.
He was a cyborg and his brain, a super-computer, was grafted into his arm.
Then there was good old Super-Commando Dhruv. And I think they were all better than Krrish.
Jim I remember him. The arm detail I didn’t remember. On similar cyborg lines… do you remember Jumboo. His tagline was, “Jumboo is All-Proof”.
They took invulnerability too far.
Whoa, nice article man, never thought anyone would spend time writing so much about Indian Super Heroes.
I am a journalist and I am working on a story. Do you know about groups that like to read and exchange Phantom and Mandrake comics. These comics were a rage in the 80s and are published even today. currently, vendors tell me that these comics disappear as soon as they land at their shops. There are collectors in Mumbai who have trunkful of these comics and who refuse to let anyone know that they have it. Im trying to locate these loyal fans. Btw, they call themselves Phans. Pls reply asap with contacts of such people on anjalirego@gmail.com