Ra.One - or why Bollywood cannot do sci-fi

by Shiv Visvanathan One of the intriguing questions that the release of Shahrukh Khan’s film Ra.One raises is why is there no genre of science fiction in India. India has always been open to the detective novel. Satyajit Ray created Professor Shanku partly modeled on the physicist JC Bose as a Bengali sci-fi hero. But the only well-known Indian character in science fiction is a French creation. Jules Vernes’ Captain Nemo, in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea was a character from the 1857 war of independence. It is almost as if sci-fi is a variant of a myth we do not need. Our early attempts at creating one were muted. The only great idea was ET, which Steven Spielberg allegedly exploited from a Satyajit Ray scenario. Other efforts in that direction resulted not so much in the creation of sci-fi as a discourse but a search for a superhero. Films like Drona, _Krrish_were all examples of this. [caption id=“attachment_118924” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One is now another successful variant of science fiction.Reuters”]  [/caption] The first successful attempt at sci-fi was Rajinikant’s Robot. But it is not quite sci-fi. Rather it is an attempt to domesticate the robot into everyday society. Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One is now another successful variant. Science fiction aficionados raised on Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert’s Dune Chronicles or the Matrix might shrug it off but it is here to stay. Ra.One is also an acknowledgement that we do not look for Superman or Batman but for the Superhero, who is really the Bollywood hero, extrapolated and magnified into a techie fantasy. Ra.One has been panned as a children’s delight. It is, in one sense, an attempt to combine two eras of childhood. The first is Shahrukh’s own world of the comic book, the era that gave us Dell comics and Superman. The second is the world of the video game. A combination of the two imaginations gives us Ra.One as an example of two generations talking to each other and creating a hybrid mix of memories. But Ra.One is also something more. It is Bollywood in love with sci-fi. It is a marriage of two great soap operas where Bollywood encompasses sci-fi. Ra.One becomes an additional repertoire in Shahrukh’s roles rather than a genuine sci-fi genre. The old question about the three Khans is relevant here. Asked apocryphally, what would each one do next, the reply was that Aamir would invent a new story, Salman would continue being himself and Shahrukh would create a new spectacle for himself. Ra.One is just that. The movie reeks of stereotype. The hero is a Tamil geek, a computer whiz called Shekhar Subramaniam. Thick in Tamil accent, a coward at heart, Shahrukh plays cliché to irritating perfection. Shekhar is a man who wants to be a hero to his son but only according to his own framework of values. By a series of transforms, Shekhar becomes G.One fighting Ra.One. The onomatopoeic rendering makes them Ravan and Jeevan; the mythological implications are obvious. One can condemn this as cliché but I guess one needs cliché to help create the familiar. Bollywood is at its best with cliché. It can domesticate sci-fi through the usual stereotypes where a video game becomes a larger than life battle of Good and Evil. The Manichaeism is stark. There are no secrets in the hero’s past, no Krypton, no spider bites; sci-fi is just an extension of a costume ball called Bollywood. Actually there are two fantasies being played out. One is the fantasy of technology and evil. The other is the fantasy of the beautiful woman, enacted with zest by a gorgeous looking Kareena. The message is clear. If you cannot be a super machine, you can still fantasise about a beautiful woman. Kareena’s two dance sequences provide just that dream world. There is a third world of fantasy plugged into the movie. Ra.One seems to have franchised into the world of brands. Consumerism as desire and sci-fi fantasy become two layers of the modern imagination. Once you have your Volkswagen and your Blackberry and your Cinthol spray, being a superhero emerges as the next level of the game of life. Sci-fi as a genre usually creates great villains, especially monsters depicted as aliens. Our sci-fi villains are only extensions of the Bollywood mind. Six pack biceps redone electronically create a villain who is mild in terms of the Bollywood myth. However, he is a protean creature, able to enter other people. He begins as a Chinese professional, enters Kareena for a while and then reincarnates himself, only to be destroyed. Ra.One is good entertainment but it lacks the zest of Rajinikant’s Robot. Robot’s sense of artifacts, villainy and humor was deeper. In fact, in the movie, it is the robot that provides human interest and evokes our sympathy. Rajini was at ease as the robot. Somehow, Shahrukh looks contrived. One senses he would rather be a comic book character than a mutant in a videogame. There is a gem of an encounter between the two heroes. When Rajini enters, Kareena recognises him and simply acknowledges him as superhero. The Robot spells out his identity in mega hertz and enacts a typical Rajini mannerism with his goggles. Shahrukh’s attempts to imitate the master are endearing. The train scene in Ra.One is another subtle tribute to the Robot. There is one interesting vignette. Children seem to feel that villains are far more interesting persons. The child in the movie tells the father that if he created a game where the villain does not lose, it would be a sensation. There is somehow a sense that villains are not just larger than life but more attractive. Imagine a _Ramayan_a where Ravan remains undefeated. There is a sense that technology adds to the quality of evil while goodness, by remaining modest, loses its sense of drama. It is limp. The modern Prometheus is the villain with the taboo technology. This quiet observation might be the most memorable line in the movie, a reminder that evil in its techno-incarnations somehow appears attractive and desirable. That might be the challenge for Ra.Two. Shiv Visvanathan is a Social Science nomad.