Zimbo Finds a Son (India, 1966)

Even though it came out a full eight years later, Zimbo Finds a Son is far more of a direct sequel to the original Zimbo than its immediate predecessor, 1960's Zimbo Comes to Town. I'm still trying to figure out what that whole business of Zimbo starting out Zimbo Comes to Town as a hairy faced beast-man was all about. For that reason among others, a trusted keeper of the Zimbo legacy such as myself has no choice but to consider Zimbo Comes to Town, despite its undeniable entertainment value, a non-canonical work.

This is not to say that some changes haven't been made in Zimbo Finds a Son. True to the gender-imbalanced laws of Bollywood shelf-life, the conspicuously flabby Azad is allowed to return in the title role, while Chitra has been replaced by the younger Tabassum in the role of Zimbo's lady friend Leela. Also on hand is the actress Indira as Princess Zulina, a role suspiciously similar to that of Zimbo's Princess Maya, who was played by a different actress whose name, I'm sorry to say, escapes me.

Of course, this wouldn't be a Zimbo movie without the presence of the original Funky Monkey, Pedro the Ape Bomb. Unfortunately, our old pal isn't afforded the screen time he was in the comparatively Pedro-intense Zimbo Comes to Town. Still, he has his moments, such as a scene in which he cackles and hoots maniacally while braining a bunch of bad guys with rocks. There's also a nice bit where he plays a flute while marching around in a sort of drunken goose step.

The film begins in a nightclub, where we meet two big city scoundrels by the names of Rashid and Ratan. Through a chance encounter with one of Zimbo's acquaintances from the civilized world, they learn that Rashid bears a striking resemblance to Zimbo. This is not surprising, of course, since Rashid is played by Azad, here stretching his acting skills in a dual role for the approval of the academy. While Rashid and Ratan scheme how to make best advantage of this coincidence, we are taken to the jungle, where Zimbo discovers a young boy, Mala (Master Sachin), in the wreckage of a small plane. Mala is either very adaptable or has the most cloyingly adorable case of traumatic shock ever seen, because he seems to take to the idea of living in the jungle as Zimbo and Leela's son immediately and quite cheerfully. It's important to note, however, that despite the film's title, Mala won't be central to the plot of Zimbo Finds a Son at all. As things play out, a more fitting title for the movie would be Guy Who Looks Like Zimbo. Or something. I'm not in the industry.

Anyway, no sooner does Zimbo have Mala in arm than the two of them are captured by Princess Zulina's men and taken back to her palace, where Zimbo is thrown at the Princess' feet. In a very obvious concession to the popularity of Dara Singh's movies, he is then forced to participate in an extended wrestling match with a burly, mustached fellow by the name of Tonga.

Zimbo handily wins the match, and in sparing Tonga's life wins the love and undying loyalty of his muscular and well-oiled opponent. Tonga is not the only one impressed by this act of gallantry, however, as Zimbo's irresistible sexual magnetism, despite the markedly increased doughyness of the body hosting it, is still in full effect. As such, the Princess is an easy mark for his charms, much to the obvious chagrin of her suitor, the conniving Torak.

Eventually Rashid and Ratan, disguised as beardy scientists, mount an expedition to the jungle -- which of course includes Rashid's nightclub dancer girlfriend and a useless comic relief guy. It is not long before they are set upon by Zulina's men and Zimbo and Pedro have to rescue them. Zimbo then welcomes the group back to his camp, affording Rashid ample opportunity to study Zimbo in preparation for the dastardly masquerade he has planned. Once feeling confident enough to go full Zimbo, Rashid worms his way into Zulina's palace and tricks the princess into giving him access to her vast treasure chamber (not a euphemism, by the way).

Once the inevitable theft of the palace treasure is discovered, Torak, who only needed the slightest excuse to go all vengeful on Zimbo and his clan, dispatches a group of his foot soldiers -- who are inexplicably garbed in these sort of leopard print bat suits, complete with flappy wings -- to capture Leela, Mala, and Zimbo's man friend Tonga. It is then, of course, down to Zimbo to breach the palace walls and save his little family, in the process coming face to face with his double.

If the plot of Zimbo Finds a Son sounds like it's about five hundred times more complicated than it needs to be, that's because it is. Still, that does not prevent director John Cawas (Zimbo director Homi Wadia limits himself to the producer role this time around) from, in stalwart B movie fashion, including all kinds of useless business to pad out the running time. This includes a bit where Azad, Master Sachin and the comic relief guy all camp it up to an instrumental version of "Limbo Rock" that's playing on the radio.

There's also a bit where Master Sachin does a drag act, which is more than a little disturbing.

Come to think of it, while I'd never previously considered the relative gayness of the individual Zimbo films, I'd have to say that Zimbo Finds a Son is, hands down, the gayest of them all.

I'm just saying.

This, of course, does not preclude -- and, in fact, necessitates -- all kinds of displays of manly valor. And so we get a couple of instances of Zimbo fearlessly fending off life-sized dolls of the jungle's most vicious feline predators.

Mind it!

Zimbo Finds a Son, like its predecessors, is a rousing piece of entertainment, but I could nonetheless not help being disappointed by its relative lack of Pedro action. We don't even get to see our Most Valuable Primate wildly waving a gun around the way he did in chapters 1 and 2 of the saga. Of course, Pedro was a pretty big star by this time, and it just might be that he felt such antics were beneath him. Who knows? Perhaps I have yet to discover those films that marked the next stage in Pedro's career. Could they be romantic dramas in which Pedro plays the hero to the likes of Sadhana and Asha Parekh? I wouldn't count out the possibility.

Zimbo Comes to Town (India, 1960)

Okay, let's start off by getting this out of the way...

This moment of moral instruction brought to you by SHEMAROO!

Back in the days before movie sequels had catchy titles like Zimbo II: Moose on the Loose or whatever, they were instead just given titles that described what happened in them, like, for instance, Zimbo Comes to Town. There is indeed a town, and Zimbo does, in fact, come to it. But, ah, the convolutions that must first take place before said visitation can occur -- that, my friends, is where Zimbo Comes to Town's fascination truly lies. For this is less a simple follow-up to the earlier Zimbo than it is a retelling of that story with elements of King Kong unaccountably mashed into it for extra seasoning.

Somehow since we last saw him, Zimbo, the fair-of-face but thick-of-wit lord of the jungle, has been transformed into a fugly and savage beast-man. When he's encountered by a trapping expedition lead by lady lion tamer Sarang, the unscrupulous Sarang decides to capture him and make him an attraction in her circus. This is easier said than done, however, because Zimbo is a wild and untamed thing, and can only be soothed into submission by the song of the circus's star trapeze artist, Manasi (Chitra, returning from Zimbo, though as a different character, albeit one who is strikingly similar to her character in Zimbo).

Happily, the circus doctor has a medicine that can cure beast face. Once the treatment is completed successfully, Zimbo's old irresistible sexual magnetism kicks in, and the ladies are all like, "Thank you, doctor saab!" To tell the truth, though, Azad looks to have put on a good bit of flab since last playing Zimbo a couple years earlier, which makes me a little scared to watch the next Zimbo movie, which was shot a full six years after this one. In any case, handsome or not, if he's planning to rule the big top, Zimbo's gonna have his work cut out for him, because the circus's star attraction is none other than...

...Pedro! Pedro-watchers will be happy to know that Pedro, who is this time billed as "Pedro, the Ape Bomb", plays an even greater part in the action this time around than he did in Zimbo. In fact, this whole show pretty much belongs to Pedro, as he seems to get more screen time than Zimbo himself. This means that, over the course of Zimbo Comes to Town, we will see repeated demonstrations of how Pedro loves to do all of those things that we humans love to do...

Like wave guns around...

Sullenly down highballs...

Drive jeeps (preferably after downing those highballs)...

Subject others to second hand smoke....

Compose moving photo essays about the lives of inner-city schoolchildren...

Rock the maracas...

And lick microphones...

In addition to other, more traditional activities that I think we can safely call "monkeyshines".

Anyway, because Manasi is the only one who can control Zimbo, he is put in her care, and soon, thanks to her civilizing influence, has stopped eating her make-up and throwing his poop at people. (Okay, he never really did that last thing.) In no time, he has turned into a proper gentleman and has become Manasi's partner in her trapeze act. Love blossoms, much to the chagrin of Sarang, who, as any woman with a pulse obviously would, wants all of Zimbo's sweet Zimbo love for herself. Zimbo feels differently, of course, which prompts Sarang to go all homicidal and make with the kidnappings and the bull whipping and the crony-assisted beatings. Fortunately, there's a monkey on hand who's not only an accomplished stunt driver but also none-too-shy about putting a cap in people, so we know things are ultimately going to turn out in Zimbo and Manasi's favor.

God, the Zimbo movies are awesome. Even if Azad ends up looking like Nash Bridges-era Don Johnson in the next one, I'm going to check it out, because there's always enough else going on to make the experience well worthwhile. By which I mean...

Aw, yeah.

Hey, it's Zimbo!

Zimbo (India, 1958)

Homi Wadia's Zimbo is proof that you can never have too much of a good thing. That is, if your idea of "a good thing" is Tarzan, because Zimbo is essentially just Tarzan under another name. That struck me as odd, because -- despite what the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs might have had to say about the matter -- Indian filmmakers have never seemed shy about making films about Tarzan under his own name. Lots of them, in fact.

Anyway, Zimbo: Professor Chakravarty, after years of toil in his beaker-filled jungle laboratory, has finally perfected his revolutionary youth serum, and secrets the formula away in a locket that he places around his young son's neck. No sooner has he done this, than a pack of angry lions invades the Chakravarty family home. The Professor only has enough time to place his son within the basket of a handy hot air balloon before being fatally mauled by one of the beasts. Chakravarty's wife is unable to join her son before the line mooring the balloon slips loose, and the child goes sailing off into the sunset without her.

With her husband dead and her son now a rapidly receding dot in the sky, Mrs. Chakravarty instantly descends into face-clawing madness and disappears into the jungle, only to emerge periodically throughout the rest of the film to go "boogity boogity" and freak people out. Later, Chakravarty Jr.'s balloon touches down in a remote part of the jungle, where he is taken in by Dada, a chimp played, according to the credits, by "Pedro, the human chimpanzee" (though, to be clear, Pedro is actually a real chimpanzee who acts human, and not the other way around). Thus is young Chakravarty's journey to becoming Zimbo, the lord of the jungle, set in motion.

Seventeen years later, the Professor's brother and his adopted daughter, Leela (Chitra), arrive in the jungle to look for the missing family, and it is not too long before they are confronted with the adult Zimbo (Azad) in all his glory. And hey, color me edified: It turns out that extremely well-built, mostly naked men who are in touch with their primitive sides, but at the same time display a strong, if nascent, sense of chivalry are quite popular with the ladies. Really, who'd have thought? Because judging from the look Leela gives Zimbo upon first laying eyes on him, she really like-a what she sees:

As does Maya, the evil queen of a secret kingdom hidden deep within the jungle:

It should come as no surprise that Leela will eventually become the Jane to Zimbo's Tarzan, and, despite the fact that the leopard skin togs she'll wear are a sight more matronly than those worn by her American counterparts, the obvious warmth that she feels for Zimbo's form adds an estrogen-fueled heat to Zimbo that I don't recall in any of Hollywood's entries in the Tarzan saga. Judging from that look she gives him, you'd expect that, rather than the other way around, it would be she who slings Zimbo over her shoulder and carries him off into the brush.

And why not? Zimbo, as he's presented, fully lives up to his almost-name: a perfect male bimbo, half innocent and half idiot, but with all of his manly parts in prime working order. In short, an ideal fixer-upper for the woman willing to invest herself in the task And Leela, by all appearances, is highly motivated.

While Zimbo provides a rote, eyepatch-wearing male villain with his eye on the Professor's formula, it is clearly a film that belongs to the ladies. And the real MacGuffin is not what's hidden in Zimbo's locket, but what's locked in his trunks. As such, our hero is little more than a delightfully oblivious boy toy, caught in a tug-of-war between two powerful females who both have a very firm grasp on exactly what it is that they want. Of course, we should expect such take-charge women from a director like Wadia. This is, after all, the man who made his directing debut by introducing the whip-wielding Fearless Nadia to Indian cinema audiences, and who would soon after that make Nadia the -- whip wielding? -- star of his own life by marrying her.

Eventually Maya's desires drive her to have her men capture Zimbo and bring him to her palace -- a wonderfully phantasmagorical set complete with cartoonish-looking giant idols that ends up giving Zimbo a bit of a Flash Gordon flavor. Here she tries to win his affections with sexy item numbers, but to no avail. Zimbo ultimately escapes, leaving Maya no choice but to take Leela, her father, and Dada prisoner in order to draw him back. This leads to a spectacular climax in which Zimbo leads a charging herd of elephants in an attack on the palace. It's a sequence that demonstrates that Zimbo, while having a B movie sensibility, is actually a fairly handsomely mounted production, with a large number of extras, some eye-catching sets, and a number of well-staged action set pieces.

While it's definitely the women's show, I don't want Pedro the human chimp's substantial contributions to Zimbo to go unmentioned. Not only does he perform all of the expected movie chimp duties by riding a tricycle and wearing a tutu (though, sadly, no fez), but he also -- while obviously doubled by a dwarf or a small child in a couple of shots -- takes part in a song and dance number with the movie's comic relief and, in the climax, displays a thirst for vengeance and handiness with a weapon that would not be displayed by a chimp again until Dario Argento's Phenomena in the eighties. I've never really sat down to compare the merits of various chimp actors before, but I think that, if I did, Pedro would most likely come out on top.

Zimbo is the rare entertainment that actually earns being described by the over-used adjective "rollicking", aided by what is, by all appearances, a very ahead-of-its-time, self-conscious sense of camp. In short, it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys, human or otherwise.