Mithun is now a superhero

New comic is inspired by actor Chakraborty and will soon hit bookshelves in India.

Hindi film star Mithun Chakraborty is coming soon — to a bookstore near you.

The singing and dancing sensation of the ‘80s now has a superhero comic book based on him, called Jimmy Zhingchak, Agent of DISCO.

The $6 comic, a collaboration between UTV Spotboy Motion Pictures and Virgin Comics, was released in the US last week and will come to India in a couple of months.

The resemblance is striking. Zhingchak is a swarthy, long-legged secret agent who works for the Department of Internal Security and Covert Operations (DISCO). He reaches into himself to find the “zhingchak” within - on the ethereal, almost disembodied urging of his guardian angel, the “neckless necklace man”, Bappi da — and fights his way to justice.

Dressed in a white, flashy polyester DISCO suit, with gold trim and a heavy locket, Jimmy decimates adversaries, saves the world and even wins himself a bride - all on the dance floor.

Chakraborty is bowled over by the comic. “I was pleasantly surprised that someone decided to create a comic book on me,” he says.

Chakraborty, who has written a warm foreword for the comic, also sees this as one more way of connecting with a younger generation of readers (and viewers) who may have only caught his films on DVD.

The connect, however, was accidental. As Vikas Bahl, COO of UTV Spotboy puts it, “When we started working on the comic, it wasn’t Mithun we had in mind. As we went along, we realised Jimmy was looking more and more like Mithun.” (The name was also a coincidence; Mithun played rock star Jimmy in his hit film Disco Dancer).

After that, the UTV team began to consciously borrow from the actor’s repertoire, putting in catchphrases like “aiee saala”, and equipping Jimmy’s arsenal with a Mithunizer cordless electric guitargrappling gun (created by the Gunmaster of G9 zone) and a Mithunwalk step to outwit his opponents.

The comic is replete with other Hindi film references, dialogues and situations: Mithun’s sidekick-turned-girlfriend is Agent Mala D; his nemesis is Sir John (who looks like the villain from the film Ram Lakhan) and Jimmy even has a separated-at-birth brother, Johnny.

Hindi film stars are ideal comic book material, says founder-president of Virgin Comics Suresh Seetharaman, because they are already larger-than-life. “Anyone with iconic status makes for a good comic,” says Seetharaman, who is also overseeing projects based on Sachin Tendulkar (titled Master Blaster) and actor Priyanka Chopra.

“We believe in using comics as R&D for ideas that can be expanded across other entertainment platforms. Comics can be made into live-action movies, TV series, mobile games, merchandising and a lot of other things. We believe in creating intellectual property that can stand across all platforms.”

This points to a larger trend — of creators looking beyond the comic book at other possibilities. Rakesh Roshan’s Krrish was followed up by a comic book, as was Aamir Khan’s Lagaan.

Bahl says his organisation is going the other way and has an eye on the Mithun comic’s “extendability” into other media. “We would like to follow up the comic with a motion picture, a TV show, an animation series and maybe even a game,” he adds.

Samir Patil, CEO of Amar Chitra Katha agrees. “The real challenge is to take our comic book heroes and try to bring them alive in other ways, through other formats.” That probably won’t be a problem with UTV-Virgin’s Mithun comic.

Like the star he is inspired by, Jimmy Zhingchak lends himself to all kinds of reinvention.
l_ghosh@dnaindia.net