THE KING IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE KING.

CONDOLENCE:

Last week was a sad day in comic land. Personally I am not a big fan of comics and absolutely hate slapstick, which comics by the very virtue of their medium usually have to be. Most of the popular ones irritate me.

Garfield; too smug, Wizard of Id; repetitive, Andy Capp; 1 dimentional, Non Sequitar: Too long (anything with over 50 words is a story not a cartoon strip) and so on and so forth.

However there are 2 that I absolutely adore. Calvin & Hobbs and Dilbert.

Last week Dilbert's Pointy-Haired Boss made his most solemn announcement - Asok the Intern is dead. The IIT educated supergeek with telekinetic powers, who charmed millions of readers with his innocence and geekiness, is dead.

"I am sad to report that Asok the Intern died during a test of our moon shuttle prototype," the evil cartoon boss announced. "Before he left, he put a sample of his DNA in a jar," the Pointy-Haired Boss added. "His plan is to reincarnate into his own clone."

That however, initially seemed doubtful, as Carol, the crazy secretary, had used the jar to store her candy.

Before he was sent to space on a prototype shuttle with a co-pilot who just 'happenned' to be a little bit 'grim', Asok had made his first appearance in March 1996 seven years after Dilbert was launched, and even though Dilbert's creator Scott Adams has never ever mentioned his nationality, in the website’s character sketch he does mention that “Asok is common name in India where it is spelt Ashok”.

Not only was Asok a geek he was utterly lovable as even the vilest characters in only Dilbert can be.

Today morning he has been cloned/reincarnated and is feeling a little nuts and you have to check out the strip to find out why exactly, or should I say why literally. Suffice it to say that the little dusky Indian intern has become caramelized, sorry, Americanized.

So Asok is Dead. Long live Snickersok

Speaking of cartoons, the animated movie is big business in Hollywood.

Shrek, Toy Story, Ratatouille etc have made huge bucks and so why should India lag behind. In the beginning the ‘animated’ movies were downright embarrassing and looked like they were sketched (drawn is too strong a word) by children. Initially underestimated as children’s movies the success of Bal Hanuman and Bal Ganesh and Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish (which were a success only due to the kids dragging the parents to the theatres) Bollywood has now woken up to the potential of animated movies.

Yashraj Films had teamed up with the biggest player in this genre, Walt Disney Studios and is making the first big budget feature length film titled Roadside Romeo.

The trailors of it are out and it is about a dog (voiced in true Hollywood tradition by a ‘star’ Saif Ali Khan in this case) who wants to be an actor. The clip is about his audition for a movie and like the proverbial hindi actor, Romeo dances, sings and recites soliloquies - both dramatic and comedic. The animation seems to be of very high quality and Saif’s unique Winchester School accented voice is quite apt to give character to the dog who is quite aptly named Romeo. It doesn’t hurt that current squeeze Kareena is voicing the canine love interest.

I don’t know how the preview was released in India but here in the UAE it also had English subtitles. And therein lies the interesting part as the English subtitles were not only different but in fact classic Hollywood quotes. Check out the difference between what Romeo says and what the subtitles read.

Romeo: Mere paas bungla ha gaadi hai bank balance hai, tumare pass kya hai ? (Amitabh Bachchan - Deewar)
Subtitle : I could have been someone, I too could have been a contender… (Marlon Brando – On the Waterfront)

Romeo: Senorita, bade bade desho mein aise chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain… (SRK – DDLJ)
Subtitle: Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get… (Tom Hanks – Forest Gump)

Romeo: Kitne aadni the? Sardar do. Phirbhi waapas aagaye… Khali haat .. (Gabbar – Sholay)
Subtitle: You want the truth? Yes. No. You can’t handle the truth. (Jack Nicholson – A Few Good Men)

I can’t quite get the reason for that but I am sure the international market is also being targeted. Let’s see how that turns out when the movie releases in Summer 2008. Maybe it is the time for Bollywood to finally emerge as a global player.

More Soon.