At the peak of his popularity in the 70s, Amitabh Bachchan
was everywhere. From films to commercials to even in politics, the 70s and the
80s belonged to Big B, long before he was even christened with that name. I’m a
90s kid, so although I did did miss out on the “angry young man” phase of the actor’s
career, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness his “comeback” – with stellar performances
in films like Mohabbatein (2000), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), Aks (2001),
Black (2005), Sarkar (2005), Paa (2009), Piku (2015), and many more. Such was
Bachchan’s popularity in the late 70s / early 80s that, as I learnt recently, he even had a comic book series under his name, where the actor would double as the vigilante Supremo. For almost two years, India Book House, under its comic book imprint
Star Comics, published The Adventures of Amitabh Bachchan, which saw
stories such as “The Lost Idol”, “Treasure Island”, “The Hijack”, and the
one I stumbled upon recently and the one that sent me down this rabbit hole, “The
Impostor”.
The comic book opens up with a handwritten note from Bachchan himself, thanking the young readers for their concern for his health. I assume this book was published after the actor’s near fatal accident on the sets of Coolie (1983). The pages on the copy I found have faded a bit, but from what I could make out, Gulzar was the “Script Consultant” on this series – yes, that Gulzar! – and a horde of writers and artists were responsible for this particular issue: Pammi Bakshi, Mohan Swaminathan, Anuradha Vaidya, Milind Mulick, Balasaheb Mandke, Shakun Chavan, and Pratap Mulick. Pammi Bakshi is credited as the “Editor/Author”, so I did a little digging. Apparently, she developed the series for India Book House, convincing Bachchan on the sets of his film Pukar (1983) to lend his name to the comics. Bachchan’s co-star in that film, Randhir Kapoor, had tagged him “Supremo” and the moniker seemed like a memorable name for a comic book character.
We are introduced to Sunil Saxena – “the prominent businessman who also has a fine record for philanthropy” – and his evil epic sideburns. In his defence though, epic sideburns were extremely popular at that time in India. We had just learnt about Elvis, you see. Three panels into his introduction and you can already tell something is fishy about this guy – it doesn’t matter that he just made a 100k donation to the Sevashram Children’s Home!
The story switches gear and we witness a daylight robbery. A gang of men with machine guns, matching uniforms, and their faces covered with handkerchiefs, storm into the State Bank Downtown branch on a busy morning. The robbers are led by Supremo himself!
Now, this was the first time I had seen Supremo in action and, um… let me just say I was taken aback. In my humble opinion, that is a terrible costume. I’m told Bachchan himself approved it from the many designs Pratap Mullick – legendary Indian comic book artist, best known for his run on Nagraj – had sent to him; which only begs the question: Why? I get that the character was heavily influenced by The Phantom, but not everyone can rock a pink unitard. That too with a loincloth over it. I hope that pendant has some interesting history. Maybe, in true Bollywood style, it was the aakhiri nishaani of Supremo’s mother? But more than that, I hope he can see in those ridiculous… sunglasses?
Incidents of Supremo and his minions popping out of a red van like jokers out of a clown car and robbing banks, jewellery stores, etc. increase day by day. The police are baffled how “the staunchest crime fighter” they knew could turn to a life of crime. Meanwhile, Bachchan learns of the “sensational” news while shooting for a film in Kashmir. Immediately, he applies for a leave for he must investigate who is smearing mud to his good name, as we Indians say. And because he has better workers’ rights than you and I do, his leave is approved instantly.
The Phantom influence on Supremo is far more prominent than I had thought, for Supremo too has his own private island with various animals living
in harmony à la “The Ghost Who Walks”. But The Phantom is not the only classic
comic book character Supremo takes inspiration from. Batman has his Robins,
Supremo has Vijay and Anthony. Yup, Vijay and Anthony are named after two of Bachchan's most famous roles.
Anthony dresses way better than any kid I’ve ever
known, to be honest.
To learn more about his impostor, Supremo goes undercover as a journalist to interview the guards at the banks and jewellery stores that were robbed recently. His disguise looks less like that of a journalist and
more like that of Matches Malone, the criminal guise Batman uses to infiltrate
Gotham’s criminal world from time to time. clown bandit car was parked. He takes a sample of the mud and goes to the Central Soil Research Institute, hoping that the scientists there will help him with further analysis of the red mud.
I checked, and although we don’t have a Central Soil
Research Institute, we do have a Central Soil Salinity Research Institute in Karnal, Haryana. So yeah, close enough.
As it turns out, Supremo’s hunch was correct! That “peculiar
kind of mud” is indeed not found in the city. With the help of a detailed soil
map, Supremo learns that that special kind of red mud is found on the northern
outskirts of the city, in a thickly forested area.
Supremo goes back to island to plan his next course of action, which although turns out to be just driving his car around looking for red mud, it gives us this glorious scene of Vijay and Anthony fishing by the lake where even though Anthony has his trousers half folded and his shirt off, he still has his top hat on. This is the coolest kid I’ve ever seen!
Eventually, they stumble upon a house in the forest. Given that it was pink in colour, I don’t see why it took them so long to find it. I mean, yeah, I get it, it’s deep in the jungle and everything, but it’s painted pink! After taking out the security, Supremo and Robins Vijay & Anthony sneak into the house only to walk straight into Impostor Supremo™ and his henchmen, who look suspiciously similar to Jethalal and Bulla.
Our heroes are locked in a room where the door is “electrically operated” but the “switch is outside,” while the bad guys walk away, presumably to rob another bank. Never to succumb under pressure, Supremo quickly hatches a plan to cause a short circuit, thereby unlocking the door to their cage. While Supremo replaces the fuse so they can have some light to investigate this pink house in the middle of the jungle, Vijay and Anthony discover the robbers’ plans. Since they are laid out in simple treasure hunt map style, Supremo and Vijay & Anthony waste no time in uncovering Impostor Supremo™’s next target: The head office of the Indian Bank!
Alas, Supremo is too late and, back in the city, Impostor Supremo™ has already taken hostages inside the bank and is making ludicrous demands to the negotiators outside. When Supremo finally does arrive on the scene, I was hoping for a who is the real Supremo? dilemma, but the police, and especially the Chief of Police, are quite trustworthy of Supremo. They will recognise “the staunchest crime fighter” anywhere!
With only half an hour at their disposal to meet the robbers’ demands, the Chief of Police, in his infinite wisdom, lets a vigilante take control of the operation. Supremo’s plan? He is going to switch off the lights in the bank building and the police will then storm in, shooting anyone standing.
That… does not sound right.
Right?
What?!
Supremo races to the top of the adjacent building, where he luckily stumbles on a “thick coil of rope”. I wonder what he would have done if he hadn’t found the rope. He has no superpowers, so he can’t fly off the edge of the building or jump across tall buildings in a single bound. Clearly, planning is not one of Supremo’s superpowers.
Supremo makes a loop of one end of the rope and tries to throw it around a pipe on the roof of the bank building, but since he is no cowboy (and he has no superpowers), he fails. Repeatedly. For ten minutes.
Fortunately, Supremo’s pet falcon, Shaheen – based on the falcon Allarakha from Bachchan’s film Coolie (1983) – arrives just in time to prevent Supremo from embarrassing himself further in front of the onlookers below.
After a “deathly journey” across the road, “about three hundred feet from ground level,” Supremo reaches the roof of the bank building. He descends cautiously and makes a quick assessment of the situation, instructing Shaheen to fly around the robbers to distract them while he throws a note to one of the hostages, asking them to “lie flat on the ground” when the lights go out. It would seem that Impostor Supremo™'s minions are worse shots than Stormtroopers because none of them could shoot Shaheen down!
Supremo then proceeds to locate the main switch and has a little déjà vu.
True to their word and unlike any police I’ve ever known, the cops storm in as soon as the lights go off. Safety of the hostages be damned, shoot anyone left standing!
Nonetheless, all’s well that ends well is what we believe in here in India. Now that the Impostor Supremo™ had been caught it was time to unmask him, Scooby Doo style.
Voilà!
I told you. Those sideburns were evil.
The story ends rather abruptly, with the Chief of Police thanking Supremo, but not Vijay & Anthony. Will we see friction in the family in the next issue? The comic does end with Anthony leaning on Supremo’s car, possibly breaking the fourth wall, staring directly into our souls and probably up to some nefarious scheme.
So, perhaps we will see some friction in the family indeed. But, then again, considering that the series halted publication years ago, maybe not.
***
A slightly reworked version of this post was featured on the Brown History Newsletter. You can read the piece here.
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