Thursday, September 7, 2017

The Return of Mr. Superman


Return of Mr. Superman is one of two 1960 Indian movies based on the superhero, the other simply titled Superman. Despite the same actor playing Superman in each film, they were both completely separate tellings of the Superman saga.
Return of Mr. Superman begins with a farmer who witnesses the crash of a strange aircraft. Out crawls a little boy who the farmer and his wife adopt as their own. The boy grows up to become a newspaper reporter in the city and, unbeknownst to his co-workers, doubles as the flying hero when a group of smugglers arrive.
Jairaj plays Superman and he does well enough, particularly when playing his mortal Kent Clark-like character. He was a leading man in the 1930s and 40s but looked young enough still to be playing the lead well into the 1960s. His superhero costume is made up of slacks, a heavy sweatshirt, a skull cap and goggles, looking more like someone getting ready for a mustard gas attack.
The Lois Lane character, here named Usha, is portrayed by Sheila Ramani. Ramani had a promising start in Hindi films in the mid 50s playing the leading lady in Taxi Driver and NAUKARI (both 1954), before her slide down into B movies with films like Mumtaz Mahal and Jungle King. The beret-wearing villain is played by Jagdish Kanwal. He’s the leader of the smuggling gang, and mastermind of all the evil things going on. Which means he spends the entire film getting foiled again and again before he’s finally defeated. 
Return of Mr. Superman is more a curiosity than a real entertainer. The plot is non-existent and the fight scenes are so poorly done as to be almost childish. Even the musical numbers are unmemorable. Special effects are rather crude.

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