What happened to DOGA

Doga's emotional satyachar

Published by Raj comics, Doga is a hugely popular Hindi hero whose hunting ground is Mumbai. An orphan who works for a dacoit, he comes to Mumbai, where he is adopted by brothers with names like the Spice Girls (Adrak, Dhaniya, Haldi and Kalimirch). Doga and other Raj heroes like Nagraj and Dhruva sell five million copies annually. But while they have the fanatic affection of small-town and semi-rural India, they don't seem to have set the metros on fire.

Dhanraj Chaudhary, a Delhi-based software engineer and comic book buff offers an explanation. "Many so called urbane heroes are more likely to be appreciated by metropolitan comic book aficionados,'' he says. "But characters like Doga, Nagraj and Dhruva are more acceptable to the silent majority. While a Spider-Man may swing across rooftops, he does so in New York. If a Batman does fight crime, he does so in a fictional Gotham city. But Doga operates in Mumbai, Nagraj operates in Mahanagar. These cities, the kind of crimes, the cultural context they use, work to great effect because they take place closer to home for the average Indian reader.''

Chaudhary adds that Indianising Spider-Man by making him wear a dhoti is not really intelligent. "Stuff like Spider-Man: India is really pathetic,'' he says. "There is more to India then sadhus, villages and dhotis. I liked the way he was made into a dabbawalla, but apart from that the whole set up was a mockery. What we need are Indian heroes who break stereotypes.'' And better comics.

Artist David D'Mello says the quality of Indian comic books is very poor in terms of art and story. "They are a lot like printed versions of masala films,'' he says. And Jerry Pinto feels that comic books such as Doga don't really merit multiple readings. "But they do deserve the first read for they are quite nostalgic of some long lost age, when things were so much clearer,'' says Pinto. "And while they use outmoded forms of morality and have characters designed to look like poster boys for steroids, they lack intelligence.''

Rakeysh Arora, a Guwahati-based doctor and comic book addict, adds that most Indian superheroes are shoddy replicas of western variety. "Doga comes off as an Indianised Punisher, Nagraj is a cross between Clark Kent and Spider-Man, and Tiranga is a blatant Captain America pastiche,'' says Arora.

"None of these characters are original, and they have unrealistically proportioned physiques.'' But aren't American comic heroes equally pumped up? "Yes,'' says Arora. "But for every plotless comic there is also a mature, multilayered comic. Why after having comic book heroes for over thirty years, can we not produce better variety?''

Graphic novel author Sarnath Banerjee (The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers) says that the Indian superhero follows a strict code of morality, but what this morality is based upon is never made clear. He compares superheroes like Doga to conservative bullies who seek to force a peace by simply killing the criminal. "Superheroes began in the US in a World War II environment, and reflected the anxiety felt by a large number of Americans at the time,'' he says.

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