Hello Friends... Review on Shaktimaan

....I heard Shaktimaan say that at the end of an episode - you know, the stuff he is supposed to say at the end of every episode in order to inspire children. This was right after he spent some time running around with the kids in a park. Whoever came up with the idea for Shaktimaan come forward, and I will fall at your feet and wash them with my tears of joy.

Mukesh Khanna has been such a hilarious ham actor ever since he was in Mahabharat. He has awesome talent in that area. My friend Subroto always quotes the line :''Yeh vriksh kya tumhara SHATRU hai putrrrr?''

But don't forget his contributions to other mahaan serials from the 80s - remember Chunni? WHO CAN FORGET VISHWAMITRA??? When he looks up at the sky with his head somehow parallel to the ground, and says, ''Devendrrr???''

I only heard about the children jumping off of buildings and all that in 1996/7, I had to wait till I was in Bangalore in 1998 to actually see a few episodes of this great serial. I love how MK tries his best to hide his Punju accent and fails. One particular scene:

Kids: Shaktimaan uncle, Shaktimaan uncle, humse kahiye na ki aap hamein choddkar nahin jaayenge! Promise kijiye na!

Shaktimaan: (smiles) Achcha bachchon, PAROMIS.

AND YES, I HAVE WITNESSED THE MIRACLE THAT IS GUDDU. Baap aur beta donon competing for the ham acting Oscar. That scene where MK has to rush to the courtroom is just the best, with the Krishna-temple bells sounding in the background over and over.

Has anyone seen him as Major Krishna Rao, the Kannada-born Urdu poet in Tehelka? That was one mountain of laughs.

My dad had this notebook that had Shaktimaan on the cover, I took a few pictures and now whenever I need a positive attitude in life I go stare at those pictures of MK smirking in his rubber/plastic chaddi, haha..

When Aryaman was launched, it had its own website. But I can't seem to find it now? :(

I heard from my friend about the pilot episode - a mixture of Old and New Star Wars movie plots, with Kiran Kumar as Obi-Wan, and there was even a character dressed as Darth Maul, and right in the pilot episode they told you that the Darth Vader-like character was MK's father! Oye DD, save some suspense for The Umpire Strikes Back!

Thankfully, Shaktimaan was not India's first foray into ripped-off Science Fiction teleserials. Does anyone remember the awesomely bad Space City Sigma? With Captain Tara, Android Shakti and Villain Zakhaku (who basically looked like the Golgothan rising from the toilet in the movie Dogma) and my favourite character Earth Command, played by Lalit Parimu. The Star Trek episodes from the 60s were almost as bad as this serial, but not as funny.

I desperately need to watch more Shaktimaan!!!!

In conclusion, this serial has everything that a serial needs to be funny - bad acting, no original plot, sub-standard special effects and of course, it had a lot of ''AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION'' because of the poor kids that jumped off buildings... That will put the rest of my ratings into context.