A typical mid 90’s Sunday afternoon:
Mom tried to wake me up and me being the sleepy child I was
(read I am) tried to avoid her and go
back to deep slumber.
All of a sudden, I hear something. Something which I have
been waiting to hear for the past one week.
“Jungle Jungle Baat
Chali hai Pata Chala Hai, Chaddi Pehen k Phool Khila Hai Phool Khila Hai”
This tune was enough for any 90’s child to wake up from deep
slumber to total attention in a matter of seconds. For it was Mowgli time.
Parents those days did not have the luxury of a YouTube to
play their kids’ favourite show and get them to do what they want them to. They
had no other option but to rely on the box type TV (was fortunate to have a
color TV at home) which telecasted only Doordarshan.
This show was the talk of the town. It was every kid’s
favourite show. Every kid secretly wanted to be Mowgli.
It was a gripping one hour for me and all the other kids at
home. Those days the families were huge and differences small. I think that is
why they called them joint families.
Though the childhood
child superhero Mowgli was my favourite, I really liked Balu (the bear) too.
Balu was like my cool funny uncle who would always support me and was very fond
of me.
Bageera was the scary black cat but I knew he was Mowgli’s
friend and was not scared of him. It was funny how when I watched the show with
my cousins, I thought how I was Mowgli and my cousins the rest of
the wolf cubs. I am sure all other kids saw themselves as Mowgli.
There were other characters too like Mowgli’s mother, the
Sarpanch whose name funnily was Akela (alone).
The most feared character was “ShareKhan”. The mere mention of his name would send a chill down
the spine. I guess the makers did not want to scare kids back then because they
always made it evident when ShareKhan would appear. The background score would
change, the other animals ran helter skelter, the plants started moving…and
ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
There he was. The mighty and feared ShareKhan. I remember
how I used to hide behind my mother as soon as he appeared on screen. His only
motive was to get rid of Mowgli and everybody else’s was to protect him.
It was an hour of amazement, an hour of unity, an hour of
brotherhood and for the parents, an hour of making their children do what they
want them to do. Thought the show lasted for an hour every week, the after show
at home where I and my cousins would impersonate Mowgli and all other
characters lasted for another couple of hours.
There was one problem though. Everyone always wanted to be Mowgli.
However, somewhere in the race to grow up and be something,
the love for Mowgli was lost.
Fast Forward to 2016:
On a typical workday when colleagues were discussing usual
stuff post lunch, a colleague happened to mention that “The Jungle Book” was
being made into a movie and would hit the theatres soon.
Almost immediately, I logged onto YouTube and saw the
trailer. Random thoughts about Mowgli (the show) ran through my
head. Though I immediately remembered Balu and Bageera, the other names were
hard to remember and I had to Google them.
As it turns out, the love for Mowgli was not lost, it was just misplaced.
The Movie:
April 10th Sunday, IMAX with a coke and Pop Corn.
From a naughty kid being forced to eat food while watching a
cartoon on a box TV to a man wilfully eating popcorn with coke and getting
ready to watch a movie in 3D, times have surely changed.
This wasn’t meant to be a movie, this was meant to be me
reliving an important part of my childhood. It was indeed Mowgli time.
The movie was a celebration with people (mostly
90’s kids with their kids) hooting and clapping for each and every
character’s introduction.
Sharekhan’s introduction scene still did send chills down
the spine and lots of Goosebumps. Balu
and Bageera were still the same with especially Balu being the funny one.
Overall the movie was amazing and the 3D effects were out of
the world.
It felt like I was living my childhood dream and infact living
with my Favourite Childhood Child Superhero, Mowgli, in the Jungles.
The movie ended with the iconic picture of Mowgli,
Bageera and Balu relaxing on the tree much to the delight of the
audience who burst out hooting and clapping.
Best part of the movie:
Apart from the 3D effects and the amazing performance of Neel
Sethi (Mowgli), the following scenes really got me thinking:
First, when Bageera and Balu discuss sending Mowgli
to the man village to save him from ShareKhan, Balu says,
“Let’s not send him. They will ruin him. They will make him a man.”
Second, when Mowgli goes to get the Red Flower
(Fire) from the man village, he sees what men are all about.
The screenplay shows men quarreling, looting, drinking and
gambling. Mowgli just looks at them, takes the Fire and runs back to
avenge Akela’s murder.
Mowgli played with my imagination then, Mowgli plays with my
imagination now.
