Tuesday, February 9, 2010

It's the 4DK Animalympics! Round 20



Rambo from Appu Raja

Skill Set: Stealth (for an elephant, I mean), gets high marks for both distance and accuracy in terms of villain-tossing

Rambo doesn't make his entrance until very late in Appu Raja, but, when he does, he ends up playing a very key role. 1980s masala movies take the dispatching of their villains very seriously. A mere bullet in the gut is never enough to settle scores with these cads -- not when so many dastardly deeds have been done, so many families torn apart, and so many virtuous Mother Indias kidnapped and abused. So how about having a giant pachyderm sneak up behind our malefactor, pick him up with his trunk, and toss him into a pen full of hungry lions? Yeah, that ought to do the trick. And note that this movie was made in 1989, so the pop culture reference embodied in our hero's name was no doubt intentional.

3 comments:

Beth Loves Bollywood said...

Elephants have always been my favorite animal and I am delighted to learn of Rambo! Too bad he didn't get to do MORE with his stealthy-bad self.

memsaab said...

OT, I saw a great masala death trap the other day. There was Helen involved, and sweaty clenched Dharmendra muscles and teeth. Sadly no anipals though.

Todd said...

Beth: Yeah, Rambo could have used a spin-off. I wanted to see him toss more of Appu-Raja's cast members, but unfortunately he stopped at just the one.

Memsaab: I know, I just read your review! Sound mighty fab.