Superhero lacks Disney delights
Movie name:
Zokkomon
Cast:
Darsheel Safary, Anupam Kher, Majari Fadnis, Tinu Anand
Director:
Satyajit Bhatkal
Rating:
Take a cute and good-hearted orphan, subject him to some Harry Potteresque step-motherly treatment, then lead him to a loving godmother and a smart godfather. What will you get? Yes, a score-settling, flying destroyer of all things evil.
That pretty much is the route our evil-exposing miniature superhero takes in Zokkomon.
Kunal (Darsheel Safary) has no parents but has an evil Chacha (Anupam Kher) and an inheritance of Rs. 75 lakhs. Chacha removes Kunal from his Dehradun school and brings him to his village in the hills where he controls the minds and lives of all residents with the help of an ash-chucking pandit. Chacha also runs a school where children are caned by duffer teachers. Kunal makes friends, but he hates it here.
Chacha has been siphoning off government money meant for library, laboratory et cetera for years. He is finally caught and when jail seems imminent, he decides to “lose” Kunal, declare him dead and take his money. The plan is successful, but Kunal is rescued by a spunky home-less girl, Kittu (Majari Fadnis), and the two become family.
But fate has a grander plan for Kunal. Kittu and Kunal get separated, Kunal returns to Chacha’s village where he is taken for a bhoot and has to seek refuge in the nearby bhoot bangla. There he finds a gruff scientist who has a grudge against Chacha and his cunning ways. Magic Uncle (also played by Anupam Kher) and Kunal hatch a plan.
Magic Uncle trains Kunal and works on creating a superhero dress and super-cool gizmos so that he can fly, slash stuff and appear and disappear at will. Kunal, of course, is maha chuffed.
The day of reckoning arrives. Zokkomon, in a shiny maroon spandex body-suit, his eyes blaring and body hovering, gives darshan to school kids and provokes them against Chacha. Kids become his fans and do as he says. They fix the school, their teachers and start telling their parents that black cats don’t bring bad-luck. With each flying mission, Zokkomon further unravels the Chacha-pandit duo and lifts the village a bit more out of the dal-dal of superstitions. Soon there is light, enlightenment and happy children in happy families.
Though Zokkomon arrives under the banner of Walt Disney, it doesn’t deliver the delights and joys we have come to associate with all things Disney. Its story is convoluted, its evil characters neither dramatic nor loathsome enough, and its action sequences lack punch, finesse and humour. Darsheel is adorable when sad, but not thrilling when flying and fighting evil. His superhero just whooshes around throwing boomerangs. Anupam Kher is better as Magic Uncle.
Kids of today won’t be mesmerised by Zokkomon. I, however, was mildly entertained by an evil man presiding over an illiterate education empire.
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