A first of its kind of attempt in Indian Cinema,TOONPUR KA SUPERRHERO reminded me of a more than two decades old English Classic with the title WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT which came in 1988 and won 3 Oscars for its excellent achievements in visual effects and editing. TKS is also made on the similar lines where a human character is deliberately pulled into the World of CARTOONS and then is forced to help them in their problems. The film revolves around a fictional setup where in various cartoon characters living in their Toon-world are interacting with a human figure and the images on the screen are a mixture of both cartoons and real actors talking to each other.
No doubt the producers of this path breaking Indian venture deserve all the praises for putting their money in this risky and out of the box project. But unfortunately the end result is not worthy enough of fetching them any good returns for their heavy investments made. And the conclusion arises because the experience of watching TOONPUR KA SUPERRHERO is like hanging on to a pendulum which keeps swinging between two extremes constantly.
At one end the film is simply superb in its technical department with visual graphics matching up to the Hollywood standards which can easily be considered as a great achievement by everyone involved in its visual effects team. But on the other end, TKS is complete disaster as far as entertainment factor is concerned. The film falls flat in its script department as the writers are not able to hold the viewers attention throughout its short duration, which is not what you expect from an animation film.
In straight words, I would like to ask a question here that basically for what target audience an animation film is made for? The answer obviously comes as 'for all the kids and the kids hidden in the hearts of all age groups'. But while making TKS, the makers probably forgot this basic rule of the genre and just kept focusing on the technicality involved in the graphics section of the project. As a result the film turned out to be a bad experience both for the kids as well as for the adults young at heart. In fact I myself saw the few kids in the theater teasing their parents restlessly instead of watching the animated characters moving on the screen. And that was more like witnessing an instant review of the movie sitting right there in the theater. Hence as an animation film made for the children, TKS fails to hit the bulls eye but as a technical project, its indeed a brilliant and brave attempt from its creative team of animators.
If only Kireet Khurana, the director, had taken more care of the content than the execution, the project could have been the talk of the town this Christmas. The second half of the movie is much better than its first as it has many interesting developments and games taking place in the narration. But then again the hurried up climax, leaves a bitter taste in the end and you feel like leaving the theater as soon as possible. Actually an animation movie mainly works when anyone of its cartoon images successfully makes an immediate connection with the kids watching it. But in TKS, the writers are not able to establish any emotional connect with the viewers and therefore no one falls in love with any of the cartoon characters shown on the screen.
Performance wise it's Ajay Devgan's film all the way, surrounded by many watchable animated characters seeking his help. Ajay does a real good job in the movie since its not an easy task to emote to just blank curtains with position marks made on them for your eye contact. And Ajay passes the difficult challenge with distinction. Kajol, as the mother has got nothing much to do in the film, so she cannot be blamed for anything. But other than the lead pair, the real stars of TKS are its animated characters such as Bolly, Guppy and their creators behind the screen who must have spent thousands of hours in order to present them so perfectly. Musically the film gets only an average score from Anu Malik, wherein I didn't find any special catchy song especially composed for the kids. However the art direction flawlessly serves the demand of the subject as required.
In the end, I would like only like to add that TOONPUR KA SUPERRHERO is just like a half baked cake, whose base has been baked to perfection but the top remains completely flavourless. So you can make your own choice if you really want to taste it
