The original Lion King was a game-changer for
Disney. The latest one is a pale replicaBY ANJULY MATHAIAUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 69he Lion King, originally made in 1994, was meant to play
second fiddle to Pocahontas (1995). Disney had banked all
its hopes on the latter. So, instead of the heavyweights roped
in for Pocahontas, The Lion King was moulded by the inex-
perienced hands of first-time directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff.
As it turned out, Pocahontas got a lukewarm response while The Lion
King went on to smash all records. Within a few months, The Lion King
would become Disney’s highest-grossing film. It is the best-selling
home video of all time, with more than 55 million copies sold to date.
So how did it achieve the cult status that it did? One could perhaps
attribute it to the visual effects—the majesty of the Serengeti captured
through beautiful sunrises and breath-taking vistas. Or to the lilting
melodies of Hans Zimmers. Who can resist Elton John’s love ballad,
‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’, with Simba and Nala frolicking under
the star-spangled dome of a sapphire sky? But, ultimately, the core
appeal of the film lies in the universality of its story.
Different versions of the same story exist in most cultures—whether
it is the Egyptian myth of King Osiris, the beloved African story of King
Sundiata or the Shakespearean one of Hamlet. In India, we have the
Sanskrit epic of Lord Ram banished into the forest and his eventual
return to Ayodhya to assume the throne. Even at the centre of Christi-
anity is the story of a Son coming to reclaim his kingdom. It is difficult
to demystify the magnetic pull of this story of betrayal, love, redemp-
tion.... Perhaps the different myths are multi-coloured garments cut
from the same truth.
Jon Faverau, who directed the live-action remake of the film which
released in India last week, had a tough act to follow. He knew it, too.
“It feels like we are restoring a classic historic architectural landmark,
how do you update it without changing its personality?” he had said in
an earlier interview. Yes, technology has added a dimension of reality
to the story. Yes, the animals in the animated version are stick figures
compared to their live-action counterparts. But the truth is that, the
best mythologies lose their appeal when you try to imbue them with
realism. You do not need to know what Ram looked like for him to
come alive. Neither does a lion need actual fur to tell his story.simple one inspired by the Enid Bly-
ton and The Hardy Boys books of his
childhood, the works of Stephen King
and Alfred Hitchcock, old Hindi films,
and more recently, the Netflix thriller
series Stranger Things. “All my work
has been a result of what I have read
and watched,” he says.
Typewriter is about a book of spells,
The Ghost of Sultanpore, written by
the late Madhav Mathews. The book
is devoured by schoolchildren, three
of whom try to unravel the mystery
behind the Bardez Villa, where they
believe the ghost still lives. But then,
Mathews’s granddaughter Jenny re-
turns to live in the house with her
husband and two children. While
Jenny tries to come to terms with her
mother’s suicide, her doppelganger
continues to haunt the house.
Horror films have not really tak-
en off in India and is not considered
appropriate for children. This has led
to many commercial restrictions and
a fund crunch for the genre. “Also, in
horror films, it is the horror that is the
star,” says Ghosh. “It will be difficult to
get a star to do a project like this. The
backing is poor.”
He also rues how India can boast of
so few types of ghosts. “Bhoot chorkar
aur kuch hai hi nahi (other than bhoot,
we have nothing else), unlike the west-
ern culture which has vampires and
Pepper’s ghosts,” he says. But when
he took up Typewriter, he always be-
lieved that there was a lot that could
be explored within the genre. “It can
be funny as well,” he says. “You can
have a Ghostbusters versus E .T. , or The
Goonies versus Stranger Things. I have
tried to keep it very light—something
that can entertain kids and adults
alike.”
He also believes that with so much
content production, the digital world
is getting very cluttered. “You have
to create things that break out of the
clutter,” he says. “Netflix alone has so
much content and it is updated on a
daily basis. That pressure is even more
daunting than achieving a certain
box-office number.”
A diminished roar
T