Toofani
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The first Indian jungle talkie is entertaining still
Toofani Tarzan (1936)
This film is historically important as the first Indian jungle talkie and is now an interesting camp, curio to watch, if nowhere near the sophistication and polish of its closest model, 'Tarzan and His Mate' (1934). Whereas the pre-production code American film was startling in its sexual suggestiveness (and still is, being to all extents and purposes the last treatment of the Tarzan story for grown ups), 'Toofani' is more coy. It replaces the risque nature of the Weismuller-O'Sullvan jungle home-building with the sexual circumspection demanded by a very different, Indian, market. At the same time it retains an eye-opening fidelity to the racist stereotypes of the series, demonstrating just how much else the Indian film-makers were determined to carry over from their popular, imported originals.
The film begins with Leher's (the future Tarzan's) initial release into the wild, through (even by the standards of this genre) a far-fetched series of events. Tarzan's father is a scientist working deep in the jungle to discover the 'Nectar of Immortality'. This MacGuffin is no sooner produced in a flask than he, and the camp, is attacked by lions, who kill the scientist, drive Tarzan's mother Uma mad, yet allow the child hero to escape via a conveniently tethered hot air balloon, (having been rescued by the strange creature used as a laboratory assistant).15 years later,Tarzan's grandfather
enters the jungle, having heard of the ape man, in order to bring him back to civilisation. Accompanying the old man is the alluring Leela, his adopted daughter and Biharilal, an arrogant white hunter, down to monocle and moustache. Along the way they recruit an inept guide called Bundle. Soon Biharilal spots that Tarzan unwittingly has the Nectar of Immortality's secret in a locket around his neck, while Tarzan whisks Leela off to the trees and savage cannibals are on the warpath..
Assembling a convincing story line from so many disparate elements would tax the skills of any scriptwriter, and it is to 'Toofani Tarzan's credit that the result is reasonably entertaining. Presumably the basic elements of Burrough's original were known sufficiently well to permit baroque variations on a theme, and audiences probably grasped the ludicrousness of such plot-stuffing as much as we do. The passing of time has left some parts laugh out loud funny, notably Moti, the unsubtle, strange simian-man now Tarzan's companion. (A guilty pleasure this, depending on how one views his impersonation of the human.) The hunter's attempts on the nectar are predictable and make for the movie's last stand off, but a narrative covering so much ground ensures that the role of this dull villain is relatively minor, mostly confined to taking pot shots at the hero.
Bundle, the official comedy relief, is more taxing to modern eyes, although there is amusement to be gained as the bungling native fights off fat females, gets chased by beasts, or struggles with ridiculous piles of luggage. Minor comic talent Bandal who plays Bundle, seems to have modelled his performance on Stan Laurel. He goes so far as to mimic the American's hair twiddling, expresses a similar male 'cry', even once taking a short vertical jump before running off screen (a comic characteristic Laurel abandoned as his career moved on). One is reminded irresistibly of the greater comedian's work in such films as 'Roughest Africa' (1923). In fact Indian cinema frequently held a particular affection for silent comedians: Raj Kapoor, for instance, was often indebted to Chaplin. And with its sparse dialogue and thrills-and-spills finale in the cannibal camp, 'Toofani Tarzan' itself could easily have opened a decade earlier.
Tarzan of course is made of suitably stern stuff, and John Cavas's portrayal is convincing, even though some of the back projection utilised during his creeper-swinging is obtrusive. There are some surprising moments of gore as he battles men and animals, wounds oozing and so forth, bringing nature red in tooth and claw largely unfamiliar in the Hollywood product of the time. Tarzan's famous yell is different too, perhaps as a result of copyright problems, Weismuller's famous and multiple toned cry here replaced with a single-pitched utterance. His growing curiosity, then excitement, and final pawing of Leela during their time together raises suggestions that a sensual epiphany is in sight for the ape man, but in the end the closest they come to love making is a brief rub of noses. Leela is remarkably unabashed and confident in what she wants for a Bollywood heroine, and her surrender to Tarzan's embraces after initial resistance undoubtedly has sexual overtones. However Maureen O'Sullivan's celebrated 1934 Jane has the skimpier outfits, and her tree house with Tarzan is much more of a love nest than the straw amongst which the morally constrained Indians gambol.
Tarzan's mad mother,Uma, is a peculiar archetype. Driven mad by the lion attack and the original disappearance of her son snatched away in a hot air balloon, she wanders in and out of the action, punctuating the misfortunes of others with shrieking laughter, a Lady Macbeth of the Vanrajpur forests. Her demeanour is only matched by her extravagant outfit, with giant skulls stitched to the shoulders. Unusually, epitomised by madness and betrayal as it is here, motherhood is not held sacrosanct. Tarzan is invited back into the family through the aegis of his grandfather while his mother is beyond redemption. Instead of maternal sympathy, she provides something of a cackling chorus to Tarzan's woes, her eventual fate never in doubt.
The world of 'Toofani Tarzan' is one recognisably imported wholesale from Hollywood, complete with arrogant white hunters and superstitious blacks. With an all-Indian cast, this gives proceedings a peculiarly surreal and naïve flavour. Given that the film was produced under hegemony of the raj (English rule not ending until a few years later) there is no obvious attempt to smuggle in irony, or to parody the racism which attended colonialism. And in replacing Tarzan's chimpanzee companion with the disturbing simian-man Moti, the result is disturbing.
Recently restored from the sole surviving print and complete with the original tinting (with 'matte effects in co operation with with Mino the Mystic' no less), Toofani is well worth catching as late night viewing. It is some way less of a masterpiece that it's restorers optimistically claim: more of peculiar museum piece from the early Bollywood jungle, still largely unexplored by critics in the West. It was directed by J B H Wadia by the way, and not the name that IMDb give.
This film is historically important as the first Indian jungle talkie and is now an interesting camp, curio to watch, if nowhere near the sophistication and polish of its closest model, 'Tarzan and His Mate' (1934). Whereas the pre-production code American film was startling in its sexual suggestiveness (and still is, being to all extents and purposes the last treatment of the Tarzan story for grown ups), 'Toofani' is more coy. It replaces the risque nature of the Weismuller-O'Sullvan jungle home-building with the sexual circumspection demanded by a very different, Indian, market. At the same time it retains an eye-opening fidelity to the racist stereotypes of the series, demonstrating just how much else the Indian film-makers were determined to carry over from their popular, imported originals.
The film begins with Leher's (the future Tarzan's) initial release into the wild, through (even by the standards of this genre) a far-fetched series of events. Tarzan's father is a scientist working deep in the jungle to discover the 'Nectar of Immortality'. This MacGuffin is no sooner produced in a flask than he, and the camp, is attacked by lions, who kill the scientist, drive Tarzan's mother Uma mad, yet allow the child hero to escape via a conveniently tethered hot air balloon, (having been rescued by the strange creature used as a laboratory assistant).15 years later,Tarzan's grandfather
enters the jungle, having heard of the ape man, in order to bring him back to civilisation. Accompanying the old man is the alluring Leela, his adopted daughter and Biharilal, an arrogant white hunter, down to monocle and moustache. Along the way they recruit an inept guide called Bundle. Soon Biharilal spots that Tarzan unwittingly has the Nectar of Immortality's secret in a locket around his neck, while Tarzan whisks Leela off to the trees and savage cannibals are on the warpath..
Assembling a convincing story line from so many disparate elements would tax the skills of any scriptwriter, and it is to 'Toofani Tarzan's credit that the result is reasonably entertaining. Presumably the basic elements of Burrough's original were known sufficiently well to permit baroque variations on a theme, and audiences probably grasped the ludicrousness of such plot-stuffing as much as we do. The passing of time has left some parts laugh out loud funny, notably Moti, the unsubtle, strange simian-man now Tarzan's companion. (A guilty pleasure this, depending on how one views his impersonation of the human.) The hunter's attempts on the nectar are predictable and make for the movie's last stand off, but a narrative covering so much ground ensures that the role of this dull villain is relatively minor, mostly confined to taking pot shots at the hero.
Bundle, the official comedy relief, is more taxing to modern eyes, although there is amusement to be gained as the bungling native fights off fat females, gets chased by beasts, or struggles with ridiculous piles of luggage. Minor comic talent Bandal who plays Bundle, seems to have modelled his performance on Stan Laurel. He goes so far as to mimic the American's hair twiddling, expresses a similar male 'cry', even once taking a short vertical jump before running off screen (a comic characteristic Laurel abandoned as his career moved on). One is reminded irresistibly of the greater comedian's work in such films as 'Roughest Africa' (1923). In fact Indian cinema frequently held a particular affection for silent comedians: Raj Kapoor, for instance, was often indebted to Chaplin. And with its sparse dialogue and thrills-and-spills finale in the cannibal camp, 'Toofani Tarzan' itself could easily have opened a decade earlier.
Tarzan of course is made of suitably stern stuff, and John Cavas's portrayal is convincing, even though some of the back projection utilised during his creeper-swinging is obtrusive. There are some surprising moments of gore as he battles men and animals, wounds oozing and so forth, bringing nature red in tooth and claw largely unfamiliar in the Hollywood product of the time. Tarzan's famous yell is different too, perhaps as a result of copyright problems, Weismuller's famous and multiple toned cry here replaced with a single-pitched utterance. His growing curiosity, then excitement, and final pawing of Leela during their time together raises suggestions that a sensual epiphany is in sight for the ape man, but in the end the closest they come to love making is a brief rub of noses. Leela is remarkably unabashed and confident in what she wants for a Bollywood heroine, and her surrender to Tarzan's embraces after initial resistance undoubtedly has sexual overtones. However Maureen O'Sullivan's celebrated 1934 Jane has the skimpier outfits, and her tree house with Tarzan is much more of a love nest than the straw amongst which the morally constrained Indians gambol.
Tarzan's mad mother,Uma, is a peculiar archetype. Driven mad by the lion attack and the original disappearance of her son snatched away in a hot air balloon, she wanders in and out of the action, punctuating the misfortunes of others with shrieking laughter, a Lady Macbeth of the Vanrajpur forests. Her demeanour is only matched by her extravagant outfit, with giant skulls stitched to the shoulders. Unusually, epitomised by madness and betrayal as it is here, motherhood is not held sacrosanct. Tarzan is invited back into the family through the aegis of his grandfather while his mother is beyond redemption. Instead of maternal sympathy, she provides something of a cackling chorus to Tarzan's woes, her eventual fate never in doubt.
The world of 'Toofani Tarzan' is one recognisably imported wholesale from Hollywood, complete with arrogant white hunters and superstitious blacks. With an all-Indian cast, this gives proceedings a peculiarly surreal and naïve flavour. Given that the film was produced under hegemony of the raj (English rule not ending until a few years later) there is no obvious attempt to smuggle in irony, or to parody the racism which attended colonialism. And in replacing Tarzan's chimpanzee companion with the disturbing simian-man Moti, the result is disturbing.
Recently restored from the sole surviving print and complete with the original tinting (with 'matte effects in co operation with with Mino the Mystic' no less), Toofani is well worth catching as late night viewing. It is some way less of a masterpiece that it's restorers optimistically claim: more of peculiar museum piece from the early Bollywood jungle, still largely unexplored by critics in the West. It was directed by J B H Wadia by the way, and not the name that IMDb give.
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- FilmFlaneur
- Dec 8, 2002
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