This summer in Hollywood clearly
belongs to a character called Nemo.
The Disney Pixar animated blockbuster
Finding Nemo budgeted at $94 million has grossed lofty $303.8
million making it the biggest hit of 2003. It is now positioned
to make a significant run at The Lion King's $328.4 million,
currently the highest grossing animated film ever.
An animation film from the stables
of Academy Award -winning creators of Toy Story, A Bug's
Life, and Monsters, inc. Finding Nemo dives into a whole
new world with a underwater adventure. The film follows
the comedic and eventful journeys of two fish - Nemo and
his father Marlin - who become separated in the Great Barrier
Reef when Nemo is unexpectedly taken far from home and thrust
into a fish tank in a dentist's office overlooking Sydney
harbour. The overly cautious father embarks on a dangerous
trek and finds himself the unlikely hero of an epic journey
to rescue his son. Finding Nemo is a spectacular creation
with colourful and crisp animation.
The character Nemo makes yet another
appearance this year in Hollywood in League of Extraordinary
Gentleman (LXG). India's Naseeruddin Shah essays the role
of Jules Verne's character Captain Nemo in the film based
on the Alan Moore-Kevin O'Neill comic book series of the
same name. Fox released LXG in North America on 11th July
and the $78 million film is likely to be released in Europe
in August and in India in September.
The special visual fx laden LXG was
shot largely in Prague. It is the story of fictional British
explorer-adventurer Allan Quartermain, who is persuaded
to recruit a cadre of fictional characters and legends to
end a terrorist organization bent on starting a world war.
The team consists of Jules Verne's submariner Captain Nemo
(Naseeruddin Shah), "Dracula" vampiress Mina Harker
(Peta Wilson), H.G. Wells' Invisible Man (Tony Curran),
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Jason Fleming) and Oscar Wilde's
portrait-dependent immortal Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend).
The film also has an American character drawn into it for
attracting the US Audiences - Secret Service agent named
Tom Sawyer (Shane West).
Shah's Nemo is a Scientist who owns
the florid underwater luxury fortress - a tribute to Indian
Intellect on display in modern day NASA and Silicon Valley.
The entire cast travel around the world in Captain Nemo's
submarine Nautilus. Onboard the Nautilus, there's a life-size
statue of Kali Ma and many other Hindu gods; sumptuou{ly
appointed rooms decorated straight out of Taj Mahal hotel;
a Buddhist Wheel of Life motif in the ship's helm and a
Shiva lingam on top of the Sub. The film's production designers
have added a few lines of dialogue in Hindi, devanagari
signage and many Indian touches.
To cash on the current Nemo craze
North American Jules Verne Society are to publish the first
English translation of Verne's Nemo play Journey Through
the Impossible, which was originally in French. Disney,
the studio that released Finding Nemo, has also released
on DVD a wide screen, two-disc special edition of its 1954
adaptation of Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, featuring
James Mason as Captain Nemo.
Nemo's character, which has attracted the American cinemagoers
this year, can be traced to Homer's Odyssey. When the Cyclops
asks Odysseus his name, he replies "Nemo," which
is Latin for "nobody." Odysseus then blinds Cyclops.
When asked who is to blame for the attack, Cyclops replies,
"Nobody."
But Nemo was not a "Nobody".
Jules Verne revealed Nemo to be an expatriate from India
at the end of the novel The Mysterious Island. Nemo is in
fact a former Indian nobleman, Prince Dakkar, who chose
to go in exile after the British had slaughtered his family
during the 1857 mutiny. Nemo is a complex character and
most of the more than 30 movies and television shows featuring
him have turned him into a straight villain or a less anarchistic
hero. Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Herbert Lom, Robert
Ryan, Omar Sharif, Jose Ferrer, Ben Cross and Michael Caine
have played Nemo in Hollywood but no Indian Actor has ever
played this very Indian role.
For the first time in Hollywood the
producers of LXG have chosen an Indian to play Nemo. The
talented Naseeruddin Shah is also the first Indian Star
to get the second billing in a Hollywood studio backed film
(immediately after lead actor and Producer Sean Connery).
Amrish Puri's Mola Ram in Spielberg's
Temple of Boom, Victor Banerjee's Dr. Aziz in David Lean's
Passage to India, Persis Khambatta's Lieutenant Ilia in
the first instalment of the Star Trek movies and now Naseer
Shah's as Nemo. Indian stars in Hollywood have come a long
way.
Shah's debut in a major Hollywood
movie is much better than the peripheral or clichéd
parts that were tossed at well-known Indian actors in the
past. Om Puri, Kabir Bedi, Saeed Jaffery, Shashi Kapoor,
Roshan Seth, Shabana Azmi, Vijay Amritraj, Ayesha Dharkar,
I. S. Johar and Gulshan Grover are also some of the Indians
that have acted in International productions.
Shah excels in the part of Captain
Nemo and is likely to be noticed by the studios for future
roles and may well become the first Indian crossover star.
Shah's Captain Nemo is only the beginning of Indian talent
being noticed in Hollywood. There is no doubt that Nemo
and India are getting renewed attention in Hollywood and
the day is not far when the Academy Award for Best Actor
or Actress will be held by an Indian.
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