Faulty Lines

CAST: Ajay Devgn,Kajol,animated characters

rating: **

A reel-life superhero turns into a real-life superhero. That’s the thrust of the animated feature Toonpur Ka Superherro,which plonks Aditya (Devgn) in a cartoon city,and has him duel with bad toons to save good toons.

The charm of a film that has real-life characters interacting with cartoon characters lies in just how real it all feels (remember the sublime Who Killed Roger Rabbit?). And this is where Toonpur manages to confuse: some of it is fairly slick,the rest is amateurish,almost as if the portions were shot by different people. The good toons are uniformly dull and clichéd. A rolling pin-wielding Gujju ben with a hideous accent,a nerd with a Southie touch,a curvaceous Anglo-Indian who’s all over our hero,a too-chirpy Sardar boy,who’s also a big fan. A mix of genres makes it even more confusing: there’s a Gandalf-like character (from The Lord of the Rings),while Aditya merrily switches from playing a cowboy to a gamer to,of course,a superhero.

The bad guys are a little better,especially a sharply dressed,motorcycle-riding Yamdoot,or is it Ramdoot,who does a great energetic dance. This is where the film shines,and you wonder why this same skill isn’t evident in the rest. In the real-life part,Devgn and Kajol play husband and wife,and parents to a couple of kids,who like most Bollywood kids,could have been better cast,and better trained.

Good for little kids who haven’t been exposed to the delights of cartoon network. If there are any left.