DVD Review: Return Of Hanuman 
By Joginder Tuteja, March 26, 2008 - 12:52 IST
MOVIE DETAILS
Cast: Animated
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Producer: Percept Pictures Company
Music: Tapas Relia
Lyrics: Satish Mutatkar
THE FILM
How much can a film change tracks from first half to the second half? There have been numerous instances of films arriving at theaters, which have a good start to the story but loose steam mid way. Some films are good till the very end before a shoddy climax kills the impact. Worse, some films are horrible from start to finish. However, Return of Hanuman is a classic case of one of the rarest instances of a film, which is excellent in the first half and downright intolerable in the second half.
First and foremost, let's acknowledge the hard work which has gone into creating the look of the animated characters. Frankly, Return of Hanuman has some of the glossiest characters one has seen in an animated film coming out of India. Whether it is the hero of the film or the demons or the Gods, each of them stand out due to a good visual appeal.
Secondly, the characters and the situations in the first half are truly impressive. The proceedings in heaven and 'shani graha' are truly engaging because the lingo they are shown to be using are contemporary and hence in sync with the current times. Imagine, 'Naarad Muni' breaking into a jig with English forming a part of his vocabulary. Or Gods enjoying on beach side with 'apsaras' serving them Pinacoladas. Or the assistants in heaven using laptops to keep track of the happenings across the universe.
This is not all as evils at Saturn too are shown to be engaging themselves in satire. A 'Shani TV' prominently 'breaks news' about how people on earth are killing each other by themselves, hence making their lives easier as they are no more required as destroyers! In fact, the first 40-50 minutes amaze due to numerous such incidents centered on spoof and satire making one nod in appreciation. One looks at the film in entirety rather than looking for a story, which is based on Hanuman coming to 'prithvilok' and being born in a poor family.
Spoofs aren't restricted to Gods and demons as even our dear old Bollywood and Hollywood aren't spared. Be it Shah Rukh Khan's six pack abs, Himesh Reshammiya's singing style, Gabbar, Matrix, Thakur, Raj Kumar - just about everyone is referred to in Return of Hanuman.
It is the latter portions of the film, which go on a complete downhill route. Talks around volcanos erupting and gloabl warming turning out to be a reality take precedence. Moreover, the comeback of Rahu-Ketu, the prime villains, turns Return of Hanuman into a special effect saga. Storytelling takes a backseat and computer wizardry comes into force. All of this kills the fun quotient of the film as 'Mahabharata' style war begins that makes the narrative mundane. The innocence and cleverish treatment of the film's mood is lost and Return of Hanuman looses it's entire purpose and entertainment quotient.
Wish the film could have stuck to the way it had begun!
PACKAGING
The DVD comes in an attractive box with good combination of paper and plastic. The layout is highly attractive with it's target audience, kids, expected to catch it on the stands on the first look itself. With a rich color combination adding to the appeal, the DVD box has number of goodies like 'Notebook labels', 'Hanuman mask' and a free 'Hanuman Chalisa' audio CD.
DURATION
The film comes with a film's DVD (lasting 101 minutes) and an audio CD (~50 minutes) of 'Hanuman Chalisa'.
SPECIAL FEATURES
DVD of Return of Hanuman has an added 22 minutes of 'Making of the Film'. The feature has an (unintentional) amusing beginning since practically the entire staff of Percept Pictures starts making an appearance one after another to talk about the film. However, director Anurag Kashyap does take a viewer through his experience of making the film (thinking on the lines of animation, being there more as a decision maker rather than executor, painstaking process of making every single frame perfect etc.), one chuckles looking at one face after another coming in and doing the talk. Was it required?
People from Toons Animation India, who are responsible for the animation of the film, do give an insight into how a design on paper was translated into moving frames. Also notable is to see how numerous designs for each and every character, whether big or small, in the film was created before a decision was taken on the eventual character that one sees on the screen.
The most interesting part of this segment is the choreography of the main song in the film - 'Aasmaan Ko Chuke'. Longines Fernandes, the choreographer of the song, is shown as getting his entire team of dancers in a workshop and getting them perfecting the steps before the animation team copied them on paper/computer. So what you see as the animated versions of cheerleaders, animals, super heroes, Gods and the rest of the ilk dancing is actually something which was conceived with the real dancers. Impressive!
TECHNICAL DETAILS
- 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen format
- Subtitles In English
- Dolby Digital 5.1 and Stereo
PRICE
Rs. 399/-
CONCLUSION
Well, to cut it short, Hanuman Returns is an amalgamation of Anurag Kashyap's other two releases of 2007. If the first half consolidates on the brilliance of Black Friday, the second half tops the absurdity of No Smoking. Got the picture?
Rating: **
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