Comic Turn

Arriving over an hour late,Babbar starts off the interaction with the audience with the flamboyance of a quiz master. “Who’s heard of the Pushpak Viman?” he asks. When a young lady answers: “It was the mythological airplane in which Ravana kidnapped Sita.” Babbar,retorts,tongue firmly in cheek,“So,why do we say that the Wright Brothers invented the airplane?”

His own story takes off after the war at Kurukshetra in Mahabharata,when Ashwathaama,the son of Dronacharya,is cursed by Krishna to roam the earth forever without any possibility of moksha or salvation. There’s only one way in which Ashwathaama can fight back — by finding the Pushpak Viman. “Cut to modern day when five young heroes— from India,Bangladesh,Nepal,Pakistan and Sri Lanka — set off on an archaeological expedition. Unknown to them,Ashwathaama is still searching and they alone stand between him and the divine aircraft,” says Babbar.

What happens next will be revealed in about 12 volumes of the graphic novel. An abridged version of the book is available at bookstores already.

Babbar says he put in a lot of research for the series. He read up on Indian and Greek mythology,watched BBC documentaries on the subject and,during a recent shoot for Anees Bazmee’s Ready in Colombo,visited archaeological sites which are said to have been “mythological airports” for the Pushpak Viman. “I e-mailed the text to (director) Shekhar Kapoor who said he liked how mythology merges into contemporary times in the story,” he says. “My father (Raj Babbar) also gave positive feedback,” he adds.

When he visits Delhi again,it will possibly be for the promotion of Tees Mar Khan. “My role is comic,something like Anil Kapoor’s in Ram Lakhan. I am a policeman,I wear a moustache and I am always wondering how to be a hero. Akshay Kumar’s character makes a hero out of mine,” he says.