There is a pair of lost Japanese Tarzan film named The Primitive King Tarzan and The Vengeful King Tarzan, which were both released in 1938.
Mon Jare Chay is the surviving Bengali dub of a horrible Pakistani film called the original Love in Jungle, which was the first modern Tarzan movie in both the Bengali language and in Bangladesh, as it was released in 1975, just four years after the latter’s independence from Pakistan. However, it’s about an internationally unknown actor playing a Tarzan imitation as an ecological protector. There’s also a Jane imitation, a Harry Holt imitation and an Ayesha imitation as well. Like Tarzan the Mighty Man, it is a fellow spiritual adaptation of The Weissmuller Tarzan Mythos into another language. Also known, rather erroneously, as Tarzan of Bengal by ERBZine.
Boner Raja Tarzan was perhaps released in 1986. Featuring character actor Danny (aka Dany) Sidak as the titular Tarzan in name only, Nuton as his girlfriend and an internationally unknown actress playing an Ayesha expy, the cult classic has lots of Tarzan yells stolen from the various old films of Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. The film also featured a human in a cruddy gorilla costume playing a notoriously thuggish gorilla who himself stands in for bloody Kerchak.
Jungle Diper Tarzan, released in 2010, is the rather distant continuity reboot of Boner Raja Tarzan and possibly one of the foreign films where Tarzan (or one of his in name only imitations) has spoken the least. In the film, a Tarzan in name only lost his parents to a greedy crowd of warriors as a baby and is played by someone nicknamed Rony. Instead of a spotted leopardskin loincloth or even a tattered brown own, he wears a black and white zebra loincloth, a rarity among the loincloths worn unlike any other.
The Barry Prima era
Apart from a few legends like Dara and Love in Jungle, Jangli Mera Naam, itself a loose remake of both South Indian films called Kadina Raja, is the only other serious Pakistani film based directly on the Tarzan concept (or those of his expies) so far.
The WADA Bari Tarzan trilogy started out with a rarely seen prototype television film in 2000, the eponymous first cinematic film and its first sequel in 2007 and 2009, which are both continuations of each other and parodying the Bollywood Tarzan films at the same time. Their popularity led to another sequel called Nathi Bari Tarzan, released in 2019. Tennyson Cooray as a tropical island Tarzan imitation was definitely one of the funniest portrayals of the characterised concept so far, but he sadly passed away in 2020. Also starring Chamathka Peiris as his girlfriend, a cute parody of Jane Parker and Ruby Shetty.
Jungle Love, released in 2012, is a Nepali language continuity reboot of the first Jungle Love which has a memoriam of Nepalese singer+LGBTQ activist and actress Jessica Khadka, who played her last role as Nishtam's girlfriend and who committed suicide on that year. A drastic shift from the Hindi language original, it begins with a depressed middle aged woman leaving her baby son Nishtam, for adoption by a newfound father and his older son, who are both from a Raute inspired tribe speaking pseudo Nepali gibberish.
The competitors are Shikari and its sequel Shikari 2, which were both released in the late 2000s or early 2010s, hence the web camera feel. They are about a boy who was accidentally abandoned in the jungle, becoming a lovely if traumatised wild man as a result. Another competitor, Jangali Manchhe, is an unofficially loose Nepali language remake of Adavi Donga ‘85, albeit released in September 2006, which is just 21 years after its predecessor.
Boner Raja Tarzan was perhaps released in 1986. Featuring character actor Danny (aka Dany) Sidak as the titular Tarzan in name only, Nuton as his girlfriend and an internationally unknown actress playing an Ayesha expy, the cult classic has lots of Tarzan yells stolen from the various old films of Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. The film also featured a human in a cruddy gorilla costume playing a notoriously thuggish gorilla who himself stands in for bloody Kerchak.
Jungle Diper Tarzan, released in 2010, is the rather distant continuity reboot of Boner Raja Tarzan and possibly one of the foreign films where Tarzan (or one of his in name only imitations) has spoken the least. In the film, a Tarzan in name only lost his parents to a greedy crowd of warriors as a baby and is played by someone nicknamed Rony. Instead of a spotted leopardskin loincloth or even a tattered brown own, he wears a black and white zebra loincloth, a rarity among the loincloths worn unlike any other.
His girlfriend, a chubby Jane imitation, is played by a lady nicknamed Poly and an Ayesha expy is played by another internationally unknown actress. Possibly also the last known Tarzan film made of analogue footage, but not the first to steal footage from animal documentaries or anything thereof.
The Barry Prima era
Starting with Tarzan The Jungle King and its feminine counterpart Laura Si Tarzan in 1989, it abruptly hanged on a cliffhanger with Tarzan The Treasure Watcher in 1990. All three share a lot of things in common; being surprisingly gory and violent for their time (preceding The Legend of Tarzan by over two decades), a wicked sense of kitsch driven dark humour (a human in a crud sun bear costume and a siamang sidekick of Tarzan whose sounds are dubbed badly with chimpanzee sound effects), and a distantly connected origin story of the heroic characters Sambo (who grew up with orangutans in Sumatra's hilly jungle terrain after his perhaps traitorously betrayed father and mother died of depressing beast wounds when he was six), his mentor (who told him that he was the child of a Japanese dissident and a tribeswoman), and his adoptive sis Dita. In the two films, Sambo has a girlfriend in the form of schoolteacher Gina, whose friend is the drop dead gorgeous Laura (and whose rival is Karina), and is the son of a dissident soldier husband and a tribeswoman wife whose wicked adoptive brother is Burhan the notorious.
Somehow, a sparklingly cute kid friendly tv show aired briefly in 2009, ending the Barry Prima film trilogy to a halt! Called Tarzan Junior, this parody cum distant tv show spinoff has featured the adventures and misadventures of Sambo and perhaps Laura’s plucky little son Junior in both the jungle and the city.
Competitors include the Tarzan Betawi trilogy of Jin Dan Jun Spinoffs (airing from 2001 to 2003) featuring infamous comedian Mandra as a Tarzan in name only (raised by a doting adoptive orangutan mum to boot!), Tarzan Cantik which aired in 2014, but featuring Ariyani Fitriana as a girl called Fathiyah of all things, who is not to be confused with her previous characters, both nicknamed Fathiyah of Dia Anakku and the latter’s own eponymous show, and Tarzan Dan Zaenab which aired in 2015, which features Ucup Nirin as someone whose name is Tony like with his predecessor in Tarzan and the Sorcerer (or Magician).
Apart from a few legends like Dara and Love in Jungle, Jangli Mera Naam, itself a loose remake of both South Indian films called Kadina Raja, is the only other serious Pakistani film based directly on the Tarzan concept (or those of his expies) so far.
According to Swami Ji of Desi Hotspot Movies Reviews, It is possibly the most campy of all the Asian Tarzan films for many vital reasons. Released in 1994, it featured a one hit wonder named Jehanzaib in his stylish portrayal of the Tarzan influenced, jungle warrior character Faisal Annu, plus Kavita and Shahada Mini as a duo of good and bad girls. It’s so goofy, that its campiness surprisingly led to Indians making an equally crappy yet funny Hindi language counterpart of it, which was in the form of Jungle Love Story. Released in 1998, the latter film featured Ravi Kumar as a stylish and musical Tarzan boy in the vein of Jehanzaib as Faisal Annu. Preet played his female companion (herself another chubby Jane imitation, but mixed with the ballsy nature of Etsuko Shihomi as Sister Street Fighter) and an internationally unknown actress played an Ayesha expy as well.
The WADA Bari Tarzan trilogy started out with a rarely seen prototype television film in 2000, the eponymous first cinematic film and its first sequel in 2007 and 2009, which are both continuations of each other and parodying the Bollywood Tarzan films at the same time. Their popularity led to another sequel called Nathi Bari Tarzan, released in 2019. Tennyson Cooray as a tropical island Tarzan imitation was definitely one of the funniest portrayals of the characterised concept so far, but he sadly passed away in 2020. Also starring Chamathka Peiris as his girlfriend, a cute parody of Jane Parker and Ruby Shetty.
Jungle Love, released in 2012, is a Nepali language continuity reboot of the first Jungle Love which has a memoriam of Nepalese singer+LGBTQ activist and actress Jessica Khadka, who played her last role as Nishtam's girlfriend and who committed suicide on that year. A drastic shift from the Hindi language original, it begins with a depressed middle aged woman leaving her baby son Nishtam, for adoption by a newfound father and his older son, who are both from a Raute inspired tribe speaking pseudo Nepali gibberish.
6 years later, the dad teaches him how to respect nature as the young boy is also learning how to use martial arts, climb on trees and fighting off beasts, becoming somebody like Tarzan in the process. The second part of that film has had some of its footage copied, stolen and photoshopped from animal documentaries, while the rest remained originals. The vengeful portrayal of Nishtam as a man is surprisingly accurate to the majority of Tarzan books. What most filmgoers outside of Nepal forget to mention, is that one of the locations where it’s filmed in is a mountainous Sal Forest.
Tarzan, released two years earlier, is the tight budget Nepali language reboot of Bollywood’s own Adventures of Tarzan. What makes it stand out from the original is that Tarzan’s birth mother abandoned him as a baby, thereafter being raised by a lonely old tigress led to growing up with both a rhesus macaque and a jungle crow as best friends, as well as starting to howl like a wolf cub. What is far more amazing about the film, is that the fairly crazy portrayal of Tarzan in the first Tarzan novel, which is made even more awesome by both the character’s rudimentary language (carried over from Greystoke) and the addition of a voiceover interpreting one of his very few words. The film is also one of the very few unofficial ones where actual lianas are climbed.
The competitors are Shikari and its sequel Shikari 2, which were both released in the late 2000s or early 2010s, hence the web camera feel. They are about a boy who was accidentally abandoned in the jungle, becoming a lovely if traumatised wild man as a result. Another competitor, Jangali Manchhe, is an unofficially loose Nepali language remake of Adavi Donga ‘85, albeit released in September 2006, which is just 21 years after its predecessor.
No comments:
Post a Comment