I am thinking about superheroes. Superman flies, the Flash moves at incredible speeds, Spiderman can sense danger, Wulverine heals faster than he is injured. But I cannot think of a single popular male superhero whose primary authority is derived from his ability to disappear. I can, however, think of three female superheroes whose power is that of invisibility — the Invisible Girl from the Fantastic Four crew, Violet from the Incredibles, and even Wonder Woman, who has super-speed and super-strength, and can communicate with animals, rides an invisible plane.
Apparently, when asked to choose between the power of invisibility and the power of flight, more women opt for invisibility and more men for flight. Flight is thought to be chosen by people with nothing to hide and invisibility by those with secrets. Flight by the strong, invisibility by the weak. Flight is displayed, invisibility covered. There is something heroic about flight while invisibility brings about stealth — who knows what the invisible are capable of?
But of course we are discussing western superheroes here. When I try to recall Indian silver-screen superheroes not many come to mind. Gods and goddesses take up so much space not much is left for the desi superhero. Desi superheroes are far spread and one might feel hard pressed to find even a single female desi superhero. However, the more I think of it, the more amazed I am at the number of female bollywood superheroes that exist and go unrecognised despite their tremendous power and popularity.
The eighties was bollywood’s nadir. The worst movies, the worst music, and terrible dance sequences, but the eighties gave the audience two superhero movies that have with time acquired the status of classics. In 1986 the movie Nagina starring Sri Devi was released, and 1987 saw the movie Mr India starring Anil Kapoor, and though Wikipedia describes Mr India as a “Hindi science fiction superhero film” and Nagina as a “Hindi film” without any superhero qualifier, I am inclined to see both Nagina and Mr India as superhero movies. However, it is only now that I classify Sri Devi’s character in Nagina as a superhero. Earlier I had thought of her as a very pretty, patibrata shape-shifting snake, an interesting character but nothing more. On the other hand, I recognised the hero in Anil Kapoor the very first time.
It would be useful for the purposes of this article to list each character’s powers. Sri Devi’s character in Nagina is a venomous shape-shifting cobra. She can tele-transport, look into the future, read other people’s minds, live for centuries, and disappear. She has two equally venomous cobras deployed as henchmen for her protection, and most importantly, has in her custody the mani, a jewel that can pretty much be used for world domination. Anil Kapoor, on the other hand, has no innate powers and requires a gadget to disappear (he is the only male superhero with disappearing powers that comes to mind). Without that gadget he is an ordinary man. Despite the discrepancies, it is Anil Kapoor’s character that ends up saving India from the evil Mugambo. Anil Kapoor uses his power not for himself but for the nation and the nation’s citizens and that is what makes him heroic. He does not strive for personal betterment, instead, he steps out on to the streets to punish cheating shopkeepers, wicked landowners, desh-drohi politicians, and merciless dictators. He is involved with society, with civics and politics.
He does not let his personal life dominate his public duties.
On the other hand, Sri Devi’s character has no understanding of a social, civic, or political reality. Her reality begins and ends with her husband. Having no family of her own, she is completely unaware of the world beyond her husband’s. She could probably eradicate much of India’s problems but she does not belong to that world.
The immediate dichotomy is that of the perfect man vs. the perfect woman. The perfect man is involved with society, the perfect woman involved with her husband. The perfect man is selfless, the perfect woman selfish for her husband’s sake. The perfect man has nothing to hide — Anil Kapoor’s character is invisible, yes, but he loves to show off that invisibility by being loud and leaving behind footsteps, the perfect woman never flaunts her powers.
But of course, the hierarchy is higher than just man and woman. There is also the equal and the unequal, the safe and the unsafe, the One and the Other, the first world and the third world. Like Mr India, Captain America has no innate powers. His powers, like Mr. India’s are acquired but unlike Mr India, invisibility is not one of them. Captain America’s world does not need stealth to secure justice for the common man. Being strong, fast, smart, and rich is always enough. But Mr India, with his third world status is forced to be stealthy, to hide, to scheme. The villains he fights are sometimes too complex for an open attack. Mr India is also not out on a quest to save the universe or the planet. His domain remains local, remains India and in that sense, he is not a superhero the Fantastic Four are, who win inter-planetary wars.
When Sri Devi’s character becomes socially safer she might step out of her house and eradicate India’s poverty. When India becomes a fair and straight nation Mr India might solve the ozone layer problems. When men and women, ruling and ruled, first and third (whatever that really means) come to equal footing, everyone might opt for transparency over stealth. But for now the dichotomies stand. And just yesterday when asked what I would choose, I chose the power of invisibility. I rank the ability to move within a crowd without fear the highest of all powers.
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