It was a ritual dad and I followed every alternate weekend. We would drive down to the dusty bus stand of my town in Punjab. Here we had the only bookstall that sold Hindi comics and magazines. My pocket money allocation used to be 100 bucks. Back then, this much money was enough to buy 7-8 books. Apart from the Champak and Nandan magazines, the rest used to be Diamond comics - Chacha Choudhary, Billu, Pinki and Raman. On the back of the comic, there was a B&W picture of a man who was the father of all these cartoons. Pran. So while my parents probably grew up afraid of the name Pran, thanks to the Bollywood villain, to us he was a magician who was weaving beautiful stories. In my list of 100 top villains, it wasnt Darth Vader or Joker at the pole. It was Raka - the bearded mammoth who terrorized the heavens and the earths alike. Billu shamelessly chasing Josie was better than Archie drooling after Veronica. And Sabu made Jupiters volcanoes a household name. These characters made my childhood, and I knew Pran before I knew Stan Lee or Bill Watterson. If the Big Bang Theory were an Indian show, Pran would be the Stan Lee. The diamond shines a lot less brighter today. Millions of 80s and 90s kids lost a part of their childhood today. RIP Pran. And a big thank you.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 05:03:18 +0000
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